The Actual Definition of Suicide in Suicide Note by Janice Mirikitani

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Every day in our lives, we desire to be perfect to please others. No matter how hard we try, if we do not achieve the concept of being perfect, then we would feel like failures. For example, every year in the Olympics, a new crowned Olympic champion receiving a gold medal persuades young athletes to worry over winning a medal in every competition they compete. If they do not win a medal in a certain competition, then all their hopes are vanished for the next competition. This action shows how if we do not strive to emulate other people’s achievements, then we will not stand out from the rest of our population. In “Suicide Note” composed by Janice Mirikitani, Mirkitani describes the speaker as a college student who kills herself after not receiving a perfect grade point average. When people look at her body lying down on a cover of snow, they perceive that her suicide is due to her inability of becoming perfect. However, on a deeper meaning, the suicide symbolizes her inability of realizing the concepts of family love, hard work, and happiness. To begin with, when Mirkitani’s speaker experiences the stress from her parents as a daughter, she compares herself as if she were a son in the family. The speaker describes herself as “if only [she] were a son, … , she would see the light reflected in [her] mother’s eyes or the golden pride reflected in [her] father’s dreams (lines 10, 12-14).” Mirkitani’s use of the word “son” reflects the speaker’s failure of recognizing the family love from her parents as a daughter. To point out, she misinterprets that her parents adore her as an individual, and not whether she is a son or a daughter. Family love teaches the speaker that college represents her parents’ “light” and “golden pride” for t... ... middle of paper ... ...resents her failure of recognizing herself as an individual. Her actions of comparing herself as a son in her family, failing to recognize the importance of hard work, and discovering her own happiness symbolizes a person who fails to acknowledge that perfection is not as important than being satisfied with her accomplishments of attending to college, passing all her classes, and receiving family support. To emphasize, if the speaker had realized that getting a perfect grade point average is not what defines her as a person, then she would have comprehended that grades are just a progress to motivate her to not forfeit on herself. Therefore, if the speaker desires to find her personal satisfaction, she should look at all the hard work that she had achieved in her classes and comprehend that life is not all about getting a perfect grade point average and perfection.

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