Columbine High School Rhetorical Analysis

“Overall, I would just call him socially awkward, I don’t know, shy and quiet. Didn’t really look you in the eye,” said one of the Lanza’s family neighbors (Vogel). In the United States through 2013 and 2015, on average, there were two school shootings a month. Sandy Hook Elementary school was one of the deadliest school shootings in United States history, (Ray).

In his article, Gladwell repeatedly elaborates his claim on the aspects of previous school shootings, by providing quoted interviews. Thus supporting his credibility and creating trust between the author and audience. Gladwell appears to have acquired the knowledge of such events therefore, exemplifying to the reader his credibility, adding onto and advancing his argument.

Throughout the week, talk shows such as Maury and Jerry Springer are displayed on our TV screens. Whether or not a person is a vigorous viewer, the storyline of the show comes up in a conversation at least once a week. Talk shows regularly take a look into the life choices of a certain person or group of people. In the text “In Defense of Talk Shows”, Barbara Ehrenreich raises the question of the moral conflicts presented in talk shows and presents the idea that they are an exploitation of lower class people. Ehrenreich’s claim throughout the text is strong, and is supported by a segment in the documentary Bowling for Columbine. If the ideas presented by both Ehrenreich and Michael Moore are correct, I’d like to propose,

The Columbine High School Massacre took place on April 20, 1999. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were behind the horrible act. While what they did was one of the worst shootings to ever take place in America, it was a well thought-out plan. The two had planted a small bomb about 3 miles from the school as a diversion so they could go through with their heinous crime a little smoother. The bomb went off at 11:14 AM and started a small fire which was quickly extinguished by the fire department. At 11:19 AM, Harris entered the school equipped with a 12-gauge Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun, which he fired 25 times, and a High-Point 995 Carbine 9mm carbine with 13 10-round magazines, which was fired a total of 96 times. Klebold was armed

The aftermath of a school shooting is tragic, depressing, and causes hatred for the lives lost and the person who took them. Everyone, especially the media, tries to interpret why the shooter killed their victims, or why they felt the need to end others’ lives and their own. How We All Miss the Point on School Shootings, by Mark Manson, explains what and why these mass shootings happen. He starts by using examples of shootings and the murderer’s past. This article has great viewpoints, use of argumentative reasoning, and shows what truly happens in the hallways of a school shooting.

Through reading “Columbine: Whose Fault is It?” by Marilyn Manson we can identify that the media had a great influence in the aftermath of the shooting, and who was the scapegoat for it, in other words who is to blame for what happened to those poor 13 innocent teenage kids. The Columbine High School massacre was an infamous event that went down as one of the worst shootings to happen to a high school in America. In 1999, a pair of two students named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold decided to assault a school in Colorado named Columbine High School. Their intent was unknown, and because of that, many people started speculating as to why the duo decided to shoot up the school. Possible causes people came up with included them being bullied,

In the book “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote, Capote blantly describes the murderous acts of two men who killed an entire family they knew nothing about. The Clutters were good people who had no intention on hurting anyone. Dick and Perry, the murderers, had no reason to do this, meaning they had no motive for these actions and they can not be excused for their actions.

Journalist and author, Dave Cullen, in his book, Columbine, redefines how his readers understand the Columbine tragedy. His purpose is to illustrate the misconceptions Americans have of the shooting by explaining how these misconceptions came about and became rooted in Americans’ minds, although they were so unbelievably wrong. Cullen creates a blunt tone in order to get straight to the facts to show who Eric really was. Through his use of rhetorical devices in this passage, Cullen unravels that Eric was not a bullied outcast like so many believe, but a psychopath.

Both the containment theory and the social bonding theory relate to the Columbine case, and can help us to understand why it may have happened. Both boys had their own significant issues whether they be internal or external. Looking at the containment theory first we can see that Harris had multiple problems in his external containment, he moved around a lot as a child meaning he never settles in one place. His relationships with friends were destroyed many times due to needing to pack up a move on, he one said “I have moved to different houses or locations about six times…I left behind some of the greatest friends I ever had…Loosing a friend is almost the worst thing to happen to a person” (Hong, 2011). Harris’ moved caused him to have a disconnect with stable relationships both with his family, and with peers. It pushed him towards deviant behaviour because he did not have the social experiences other teenagers would have, he was not able to make important relationships. Parent blame was another external containment factor, most victims families filed lawsuits against both boys parents. They had claimed that the parents neglected to prevent the tragedy, however neither boys

A teacher’s son, clad in black and carrying two 9mm pistols rampaged through a Connecticut elementary school, killing 20 small children and six adults, a tragedy President Obama said had “broken the hearts of America” (Williams).” Many people believe that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was planned because of the odd demeanor of the parents or victim, Emilie Parker, the medical personnel who were turned away from the scene, why care flight helicopters were never requested, and questions concerning the validity of the medical examiner. This tragic event was not at all planned because all of these questions can be reasonably answered.

Dave Cullen, author of the novel Columbine spent years analyzing the reasons why Eric and Dylan did what they did. He proved media wrong on false reports on multiple occasions. He studied both Eric and Dylan’s life at home and came to the conclusion that Eric was the main guy to fault everything to. He believed Eric was the leader and Dylan was just a follower. This theory later intertwines Malcom Gladwell’s theory of a threshold. A slowly evolving riot that has led to the frightening school shootings we know of now. He believes shooters have a threshold of a certain quantity. Meaning Eric had a threshold of zero because he initiated the wave and had no inspiration to feed off of. In other words he was mentally insane as he needed no influence to commit mass murder. Dylan on the other hand had a threshold of one meaning that if he was an outcast he probably would not go through with the shooting, but since he had one person to go along with he was all for it. The threshold theory keeps going up to an unlimited amount. Another aspect of Gladwell’s theory involves the Columbine shooting. He insists that the shooting laid a foundation for future school shootings as declared by sociologist Ralph Larkin. He backs up his

Columbine, by Dave Cullen is a non-fiction book documenting the horrific massacre which took place in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999. Not only does the writer give great detail about the shooting itself, he also gives and in depth look into the lives of the killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and their victims. The focus of this book is for the author to attempt to bring to light what really happened and hopefully gain better understanding as to why it all took place. Cullen, a journalist, begins an extensive nine year research in order to achieve awareness of the happenings before, during and after this tragic event. Entries from the perpetrators personal journals, stories from the ones who witnessed the shootings first hand, countless interviews from the victim’s families, as well as multiple other pieces of information give the reader an extremely up close and personal surrounding Columbine. Dave Cullen spent many years perfecting his book to make sure all the readers would know the correct story of Columbine.

As the video moves on, they use Columbine as an example of childhood violence. Being from Colorado, I remember what an impact this had on my school security. I didn’t notice it much in elementary school, but more so in middle school and especially high school. Getting into my high school was a task, there were many check points and security guards. My school was in a very privileged area so any time they thought there was any sort of threat the cops were there in a second, but rarely anyone was

The shooting at Columbine High School on April 20th, 1999 shook America and was known as the worst high school shooting during that time. Two high school students that attended Columbine, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, walked in and killed 13 people in total, 12 of them being students and one a teacher, as well as wounded more than 20 others. At the end of it all, they decided to kill themselves along with the 13 they had already killed. Since then there has been a numerous amount of school shootings across America and some have proven to be much more destructive than Columbine

The Columbine shooting was one of the first mass school shootings in the US, and it was one of the first school shootings on the national radar in which the shooters killed twelve students and one teacher. People sometimes admire these people and reason people try to replicate this shooting is because they sometimes idolize former school shooters. These followers will try and replicate the former assailants, in which inducing another shooting/mass shooting. It is purely disgusting that people would idolize the monsters that committed these terrible attacks on innocent