“People are so unaware...well, Ignorance is bliss I guess… that would explain my depression.” (Klebold, Dylan). With that sentence, I divulged myself into the most horrendous, sad journal I have ever read, hoping to gain some insight into a disturbed young man’s mind. On April 20th, 1999, Dylan Klebold accompanied his friend, Eric Harris, in one of the most publicized and shocking school shootings of the modern day--The Columbine Massacre. With their sawed-off shotguns and godlike dispositions, the boys exacted their revenge not only on their peers, but on themselves. As the nightmare collapsed, and thirteen people lay dead, the questions began. How could two boys so young commit this crime? What forced them to be this way? For the Klebold family, one question remained: How had Dylan become involved in one of the crimes of the century? Dylan Klebold was undeniably sick, as his journal and other writings can prove. A very intelligent yet shy boy, Dylan felt isolated and unloved by both family and friends. Dylan’s best friend, Eric Harris, was equally sick--if not more so--than Dylan and incredibly persuasive. Above all, Dylan wanted to die. Although Dylan wanted to love and be loved, his mind was plagued with thoughts of death and suicide. Dylan Klebold’s actions were a direct result of his relationships with family and classmates, his friendship with Eric Harris, and the mental demons that howled in his mind. Many teenagers feel isolated at some point during high school. This isolation is often accompanied by feeling shunned, ostracized and left-out. As Dylan grew up, he was very, very shy, especially entering middle school. In high school, he felt, along with Eric Harris, that he was judged for being outside of societa... ... middle of paper ... ...ke. "Affidavit." Cbsnews.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. Harris, Eric. "Eric Harris's Journal." Schoolshooters.info. Dr. Peter Langman, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. Klebold, Dylan. "Dylan Klebold's Journal and Other Writings." Schoolshooters.info. Dr. Peter Langman, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2004. Klebold, Susan. "Susan Klebold's O Magazine Essay - I Will Never Know Why." Oprah.com. N.p., 2009. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. Kohn, David. "Columbine: Were There Warning Signs?" CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 17 Apr. 2001. Web. 22 Mar. 2014. "Narcissistic Personality Disorder." Mayoclinic.org. Mayo Clinic Staff, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2014. Reznor, Trent. Mr. Self Destruct. Nine Inch Nails. Leaving Hope/tvt Music, Inc., 1994. CD. "Sertraline (Oral Route)." Mayoclinic.org. Mayo Clinic Staff, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2014. "Who Are the Trenchcoat Mafia?" BBC News. BBC, 21 Apr. 1999. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Columbine is a non-fiction story written and spoken by author Dave Cullen based on the true events of the horrifying Columbine shooting that occurred on April 20th, 1999. Two boys by the names of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris walked into Columbine High School around 11:19 A.M. with 99 home-made explosives, a 9mm carbine, a pump shotgun, and a double barrel shotgun. As well as being accompanied by four knives. Both managed to murder thirteen innocent people in total, twelve students and one teacher.
The minds of these killers prove to be nothing short of fascinating to thousands of people. While many might read this book and see two cold-blooded teenagers that killed their peers for fun, there is definitely some gray area concerning whether or not the youngest killer, named Dylan Klebold, should
High School as teenagers as the century was about to turn, they could have easily morphed into Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, taking innocent lives in a society that breeds contempt – if looking for it.
"Columbine High School Shootings." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. Eighteen year old Eric Harris and seventeen year old Dylan Klebold were two boys with a fascination of violent video games and music. These young men were known to be “goth” and were bullied all throughout their high school careers because of their different interest. In 1999, on April 20th these boys went into their high school with mixed emotions and a devious plan to get revenge. The two teens went into the high school with handguns and killed both students and faculty members, before they turned the guns around on themselves. This is a reliable source because it informed us of both previous emotion, and the aftermath of the tragedy with detail about the boys, the school and the lives affected. This source was relevant for me because of how thoroughly it described the shooting, and gave me background information as to why and how it happened.
In Richard E. Miller’s essay, The Dark Night of the Soul, he first focuses on two teenage boys, boys who murderously rampaged through Columbine High School in Santee, California. Then he further discusses who was to blame, but most importantly would this event not had transpired if education had a more adamant impact if these young men had read more. Simply, would Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold killed if there was a more proactive approach to the educational system or government to “reduce or eliminate altogether the threat of the unpredictable or unforeseen [the amalgamation of elements that would result in a mass shooting] (Miller 421).”Additionally, if McCandless, a young man who eulogized the idealisms of authors that he used to make sense
Hysteria. Terror. Paranoia. All words used to describe feelings after a school disturbance. Reports of such emergencies from mainstream media outlets cause some to conclude extraordinary security breaches happen on an almost daily basis. However, schools are actually safeguarded; in recent years, protocols have been installed in schools across the United States to ensure safety. The catalyst: nationwide panic and suffering after an act of terror at a high school in Littleton, Colorado. Journalist and author Dave Cullen, in his book, Columbine, narrates the horror surrounding this shooting. Cullen’s purpose is to inform readers by captivating their attention utilizing emotional language. He establishes contrasting characters and alludes to significant
middle of paper ... ... to American History. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. Goodman, Dean. “Dylan fans get tangled up in academic views,” Reuters (1998): February, p. PG.
The columbine massacre the day where no one is safe in school or out of school. The columbine massacre is about two students named Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris both seniors 17 years old both two weeks before graduating they killed 12 students, one teacher, and 21 injured to their shooting on April 20, 1999. Both Dylan and Eric were some believe they were bullied by the sport teams in their school so they planned to kill the people who bullied them and other mostly anyone who gets in their way but that wasn’t really why the FBI he said that there target was everyone no one in pacify we will not get in to more details now. Dylan and Eric were both intelligent boys with solid parents and a good home and both had brothers younger than them. They played soccer, baseball, and both enjoyed to work on computers. Both boys were thinking on commit suicide on 1997 but instead started to plan a massacre in 1998 a year before it happened. Then the two boys had got into some trouble for breaking into a van on January 30, 1998 trying to steal some fuses and wires for bombs for them to make, but they got caught in trouble. So the court put them in a program called the juvenile diversion program, but even if they were there they were still planning the massacre and the court also put Eric in some angry management classes and people believe it worked but it didn’t he just did it to look like it work and both boys made it look like they were really sorry but they weren’t. Dylan and Eric both really hated everyone in their school and the court as well after they got caught breaking in to that van that’s when they really started to plan the massacre more and that’s when Harris started he’s journals no one really knows way but they didn’t hate a hand...
When 2 young men, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went on a shooting spree in Littleton, Colorado, killing 15 people, including themselves, there was a public outcry for censorship of every type of entertainment and changes in gun laws despite Eric Harris’s journal entry titled, “Last Wishes” asking that no one be blamed, other than himself and Klebold, for the massacre (“As You Were”, par. 2). After the 1999 school shooting now simply known as Columbine, a “Newsweek” pole showed that, “about half of all Americans want to see the movie industry, the TV industry, computer game makers, Internet services and gun manufacturers and the NRA make major policy changes to help reduce teen violence” (Alter, par. 1). According to Dave Cullen in his article “Let the Litigation Begin” several lawsuits were filed against the parents of the two boys responsible for the shooting spree claiming that Harris’s and Klebold’s families, “breached their duty of care” by allowing their sons to amass a cache of illegal weapons (Cullen, par. 5). Although the boys’ parents denied such allegations, they settled out of court for $1.6 million (Cullen, par. 5)...
Crime manifests itself in various ways in society and oftentimes difficult to pinpoint what drives people to commit certain actions. The Columbine shooting was a particular incident that ended in tears and suffering which resulted in numerous research as to what was going through the minds of these young individuals at the time of the shooting. Therefore, this paper will analyze specifically the role of differential association- reinforcement as altered by Akers in propelling Dylan Klebold to commit such heinous act, while also giving credit to Edwin Sutherland for first formulating the framework of differential association.
On April 19, 1999 two teenagers, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris decide to attack Columbine High School. These teenagers planned to place bombs in the cafeteria and attained huge guns. They killed thirteen people, and injured many others. One of whom they injured was Patrick Ireland; he was shot in the head, and foot. “Half his body refused. He couldn't stand; he couldn’t even crawl right. He reached with his left hand, gripped something, and dragged himself forward. His useless side trailed behind. He made little progress, and his brain gave out.’’( 77-78) Patrick had lost consciousness and control of his own body. He could speak, but not really. It is like words were coming out, but they were intelligible. I could never completely understand
1999) stated that 25 people were killed at the High School by two heavily armed
In Columbine High School there were two students who wanted to commit suicide "Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had plotted the massacre for a year as retaliation for what they saw as bullying and harassment from classmates " ( Moore Bowling for Columbine Movie ). Erric Harris and Dyln Kleblod had been depreesed due to their classmates bad treatement so they decided to commit suicide, they killed their classmates and a teacher then after that they shot themselves ." They used two sawed-off shotguns, a rifle and a semiautomatic pistol in a rampage that extended over more than four hours before the shooting stopped — allowing police to enter the school and find the bodies of Harris and Klebold and their victims"(Jost Gun Violence Article). This means not only people with mental illness who commit suicide, "but also" means that people who have been bullied by other people 's aggressive behavior which leads them to commit this kind of
Craig Scott was just 16 years old when he crowded underneath a desk with his two friends while classmates, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, acted out a real-life version of a Hollywood scene of ruthless murder, shouting lines from their favorite movie while gunning down kids and teachers in the corridors of Columbine High. Craig remembers the shouting and laughter of the shooters as they burst into the library armed with sawed-off shotguns, a handgun and a 9mm semi-automatic carbine. Craig recalls how his friends were both shot, one slumped dead on either side of him, their blood soaking into his clothes. Inexplicably, Craig was uninjured, physically at least. “I was experiencing so much fear I thought my heart was going to stop beating,” he recalls (Day, 2009). Later, Craig would learn how his sister was gunned down while eating lunch on the lawn. Rachel, 17, died instantly, the first of 13 victims of mass violence who lost their lives that day in the, now infamous, massacre known simply as “Columbine.” Speaking at an event marking the tenth anniversary of that terrorizing violence, Craig says he is still reliving the horror, “…going through it…over and over again” (Day, 2009). Craig echoes the reality faced by all victims of violent trauma, and particularly those of mass violence; “My life changed that day” (Day, 2009). Victims of violent trauma face many challenges, both immediately following the initial event and long-term. Though the extent of recovery varies for individuals and may include physical, emotional, and financial trauma, victims of violence often struggle with management of the psychological impact of their experience. Like Craig, many victims of mass violence find coping with the impact of trauma chall...
Today, the most difficult day in my family’s life, we gather to say farewell to our son, brother, fiancé and friend. To those of you here and elsewhere who know Dylan you already are aware of the type of person he was and these words you will hear are already in your memory. To those who were not as fortunate, these words will give you a sense of the type of man he was and as an ideal for which we should strive. My son has been often described as a gentle soul. He was pure of heart and had great sensitivity for the world around him. He had a way with people that made them feel comfortable around him and infected others to gravitate toward him. Dylan exuded kindness and pulled generosity and altruism out from everyone he touched. He was everyone's best friend.