Life By Their Own Hands example essay topic

The Virgin Suicides and Authoritarian Destruction I will start off with words of a much wiser man than myself: "The best often die by their own hand just to get away, and those left behind can never quite understand why anybody would ever want to get away from them" - Charles Bukowski For my final paper I am going to show how the novel / film, The Virgin Suicides, so accurately illustrates many of the tragic subject matters that relate to the Psychology of Trauma. As you can probably infer from its title this work of fiction deals with many traumatic life experiences that society naturally prefers not to reflect upon: suicide, bereavement, the many challenges of adolescents and the lasting negatives affects of authoritarian parenting styles. Although emotionally distressing at times, this is a beautiful story that doesn't waste your time with a sugar-coated portrayal of life; The Virgin Suicides takes life and it's most cruel and disheartening situations and puts them straight before your eyes. After experiencing this novel / film one is left much less na " ive to the saddening realities of life, and instead she / he experiences the opportunity to become enlightened upon the cold hearted aesthetics that enrich our everyday.

You might wonder how I could use the word "aesthetics" while discussing such depressing matters; I use it with the intentions of describing the short-lived lives of the beautifully-compassionate children in the story who decided to depart this life by their own hands. Unfortunately many people erroneously assume that individuals who have ended their own lives were troubled and completely out of touch with reality; personally I feel that this assumption is ignorant, shallow, na " ive and completely inappropriate. It is easy to label a suicide victim as selfish or weak, but it takes a pure soul to instead try to understand why the person couldn't stand to face another heartless day; as Americans we are conditioned to resist weaknesses, vulnerabilities and disbelief's, we are habituated to be strong-minded mortals that are to live idealized utopian lives. I'm not jumping on the anti-American bandwagon, we are a beautiful country that I sincerely value, but I am saying that through this unconscious-conditioning many have found it easier to despise the weak and to over-glorify the strong (i.e. blaming the victim / praising the successful). It's hard for me to look shamefully at the people who have found comfort from this conditioned way of life, for they are just maintaining the only psyche / ethical balance that they know and I feel that is nothing to be affronted or frowned upon; yet for myself I find it unfeasible to conform to this conditioned psychosocial premise that has seemingly engulfed our society. Undeniably there are many drawbacks as a result of not complying with this conditioned-psychosocial standard that I have labeled as the, "na " ive emotional-invincibility" facade: the most apparent drawback being that you place yourself completely vulnerable to the suffering of vicarious trauma (which can lead to PTSD or many other forms of distress).

By relating and compassionating with the so called "weak" (i.e. dejected or emotionally unstable individuals) and by accepting that life has its impurities I feel the individual steps closer towards consciously developing a compassion for us all: while at the same time striving to remain completely altruistic and humane without jeopardizing their life's necessary securities (job, family, personal-identity etc.) the individual will most likely encounter a state of emotional perplexity ("why am I voluntarily subjecting myself to depressing situations?" ); this is usually the point where a serious life-defining epiphany is either embraced or is dismissed (due to the fear of change / uncertainties ). The individual will come to the point where they find comfort and understanding in the cold and uncanny feelings that have resulted from the vicarious exposure to antique-like tears and apathetic emptiness; she / he will no longer despise individuals who seem lost at sea and the chagrined' painted eyes of the alone become aesthetically comforting as apposed to defiantly repellent.