Reading Log #1

Kyle Krahenbuhl
Doc Z
SLCC period 4
May 17, 2011

The Things They Carried

    My big question for Senior Lit this year is what is the human experience?  I more specifically focus on the relationships we all have in our life and the pursuit of happiness.  The Things They Carried is a book about the Vietnam war and  a platoon that exists in it.  The book starts out talking about all the things that the soldiers carry and how much each individual thing weighs.  Through that process the author Tim O’Brian describes the individual characters well.  One the characters are introduced you start feeling the relationships with the soldiers in the platoon.  Then the element of death gets thrown into the mix and you get to see how the different people react when their very own peers die.  Another key element in the book is the relationships the soldiers have with people back home.  Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is one of the more obvious examples, when he keeps thinking about his love Martha, who he has really on dated once.  The book is a great war novel and the relationships make it great.  
    This book works with my big question well.  The relationships in the book show how important other people are too all of us and how they keep us going at all times.  Relationships make being a human excellent and even some loners will think about relationships and past relationships all the time.  Whether not it’s family, friends, or acquaintances, the bonds you form with others can not be replaced and filled in with anything else.  People should savor there relationships more and never just expect someone to treat you well. 

The Man of The Hills

Kyle Krahenbuhl
Doc Z
SLCC period 4
March 8, 2011

The Man of the Hills

A man trots down a trail from the tall mountains that hung over a town flourishing with houses, he was the only one up there that morning.  He walks down and rolls up on the house closest to the hills. This was his house, it looked over the whole town.  It wasn't a mansion, but was one of the bigger houses in the small town.  It has steep steps leading up to a big doorway that opened itself to a modern nice home that could hold up to eight, but now it was only for one.  He takes a glance around and headed straight to his bedroom.  He dresses out of his exercise clothes and starts getting ready for the job he preforms everyday.  Ready to go, he walks down a busted road that hasn't been kept up in years to the grocery store a couple blocks away.  He observes the still houses and gets ready for the long day in front of him.  Nobody really goes to the store anymore in this quite town.  He moves into the warehouse like store and picks up the packet near the door.  He skips through the packet to see what was on his plate for the day and everything seemed average. he finds his big shopping cart and starts loading food into it, he’ll have to make many trips.  Cheetos, Mountain Dew, Chips, wings are the most common of the food he grabs.  Some get fruit and vegetables, but that number has gone down as well.      He loads up the truck one cart at a a time until the truck seems as though it wont run if anymore weight is put on.  He gets lucky and starts the car on the first try and starts moving on his way.  The man is the most popular person in town and almost everyone seems to know his name.  He rolls a couple blocks down from the huge grocery store and stops at a small and old house.  He goes in the back of the trunk and grabs his first load of food and steps out into the morning sun.  The house had no steps and where the man used to remember newspapers on lawns, there were none.  Who would read it anymore anyway?  Knock!Knock!Knock! four times and a buzzer sounding signaling him to come it.  He used to look at the camera in his face watching him, but that has become old.  He closes the door behind him and his eyes must first adjust to the darkness before he can go anywhere.  He navigates his way through the dusty house and walks into the biggest room in the house.  In this room is a bed, a fridge and freezer, a new 72 inch TV and a big man on the bed.  His eyes didn't even budge to look at the man, but the man continued on and started piling food in the over sized fridge and the pantry.  It took him four trips of this before he was done.  The man on the bed never looked up, as his face was glued to the screen.  The first house of the day was complete.  

He continued to house after house with the same routine.  The people inside the rest of the dark houses rarely say much, the most they usually say is a simple “hi” and sometimes they talk to the man about what they've seen on their best friend lately.  These monsters of people are greasy and disgusting, pimples overwhelm there faces as they stare into the box.  You can almost see the mush spilling out of there brains as if their brains have become one with the machine.  They don't think for themselves or have any creativeness what so ever.  As he places the food where they demand him to these monsters  will repeat the funniest line they have heard from the television since they saw him last.  He used to record what lines people would say and pick a winner at the end of each week, but this act also became boring.  These lazy people would almost drain the energy out of him as the day went on and the man  constantly reminded himself of his loneliness. Most days he was the only person in the town that would  actually see the light.  He hated staying in the town and  found that his only escape was in the hills.  He embraced the beautiful creeks, trees, and scenes that were up there and he was the only one.  He could not relate to anyone about maybe a new wildlife he found, or how a waterfall looked at full blast.  He kept all of this to himself, the man was indeed his own best friend as the rest of the town disgusted him.  There was a reason he could not leave either.  He kept the city together, making sure it didn't break apart so how could he leave?  They had created such a reliance on him that leaving them was not an option. These were the streets he grew up on and he could not leave it all behind to destroy itself.  Some people driving by would sometimes stop and tell him stories of other cities and places nearby, but that has become lost as well as the town had become an avoidable spot for travelers.

His long day had come to an end as he finished up the last house on the long list.  He slowly drove the truck back to the store and walked slowly down the street to his house.  He used to watch the television in spare time but now he read books and filled his time with single person hobbies.  He goes to sleep when the sun goes down so he can wake up at sunrise to go on a daily hike up in the hills he calls his own.  He woke at the crack of dawn to go through the same routine he does on most days.  He hiked up to one of his favorite spots, Mirror Lake. He remembers the name from a guidebook for the area before it became uninhabited.  The lake is absolutely beautiful as it is surrounded by pine trees and is clear enough to reflect anything around it.  He sits at the lake for hours on most days, but today it only took a couple of hours before he heard something. He first heard laughing and talking until he saw a small group of people coming over the horizon.  The group consisted of two older men infront and three women in around there twenties behind.  They got closer and closer and he got more and more nervous that his social skills had gone with his friends he used to have.  They reached him and a thin bearded man in front said “We have been hiking through the woods for days and we need somewhere to settle down and live for a couple of months, do you know any towns near these mountains?”.  The man smiled and even laughed a little and replied “I know just the place”.

Explanation

My story “The Man of the Hills” is a simple story that reflects on a issue of the American Experience.  It mainly focuses on the issue that America has become fat and lazy and does not apperciate the outdoors as much as we should.  That we spend most of our time watching TV, stuffing our faces, and building more cities then spending some time out doors and not taking it for granted.  It is a short story without to much action or conflict, but it gets a theme and a story of a man across to the audience.  It gets that simple theme across mainly through the setting that the story takes place in, the characters that are in it, and the narrator that tells the story.  

The setting of my short story is not to out there or extreme.  It takes place in a quite town that rests under big mountains.  The mountains are a very important to the story because they give the man a sanctuary and they also prove how spoiled and lazy the rest of the town’s inhabitants are.  The grocery store represents the workplace for the man and also a Costco like place that never seems to run out of food for the monsters.  Another important area is the man’s house, because it represents that he does indeed make a lot of money for his job.  The steep steps almost serve as a moat for all of the fat people to stay away from his front door. The first person’s house that he rolls up upon is also pretty important to the setting of the story.  The fact that is has no steps and the man remembers that people used to actually get newspapers shows how much they stay indoors.  It also shows how un-athletic they are.  The dark inside makes it almost seem like these people live inside of caves where there is no sunlight or cleaning.  The lake at the end is the man’s total home and that is where he finds his visitors.
    The characters also contribute to the theme of the book.  First of all the main character, the man, is pretty much an everyday normal guy.  He is fit, he loves the outdoors, and he works a job full time.  He is the constant in the story, the person that people who read can relate too.  The rest of the town is what makes the story more fictional.  These monsters represent what is wrong with society today over exagerated.  They rarely talk and are described to be disgusting and fat.  They show what happens if someone watches to much TV and becomes absolutely obsessed with it.  They are almost like zombies that have no brains and can not think for themselves.  The people that come to the lake at the end of the story represent hope.  They could get the city started again and get more fit people so the town can become normal again.  

The narrator in the story is pretty generic and basic.  It tells the story through the eyes of a normal person or the man.  It makes life as the man seem very tough and lonely, like he is almost the only person on the planet.  He is alienated by the narrator until the new characters arrive at the end.  The narrator makes the other people in the town seem like horrible monsters and that could be unfair.  It makes you wonder what would a story be like from what of the others narrating?  The narrator makes them seem like robots of sorts.  The narrator tells the story and adds some of his opinions of the people in it as well to show the overall theme.  

My short story shows the an Amercian flaw through the eyes of a man.  It leaves a lot of questions unanswered including the question of what happens at the end?  Do they team up and bring the city to its old self? Or do they just stop by and leave again to leave the man lonelier then ever.  That is for the reader to decide.

Kari K wrote about the youth competition and the pressures adults put on kids in our society.  What if in the future all the kids in the world stop playing sports competitively, because the adults put to much pressure on them to be the best and succeed.  They wanted to stick it so the parents and quit all there sports, and as time went on the professional sports we know today ended and the parents realized that they were being way to insane and tough on their own children. Everyone will be happy in the end.

Amy C discussed how steroids should be allowed for professional athletes but not teens and young people.  What if steroids were totally legal for professional athletes and all of them did steroids all the time.  Every athlete would have huge necks and veins popping out everywhere.   People would love it, because the performance of the athletes would be even higher and more entertaining for the fans.  More home runs every game and harder hits in football would make sports the prime entertainment of our society.

Luke L wrote about how prescription drugs like depression medicine that make you happy should be phased out in today's society.  What if "happy pills" were almost expected out of people and everyone one in today's society were on these pills and are all crazy happy.  If there was no depression aloud in today's society and that was straight law.  People are thrown in jail for being sad and the word is almost turning into a bunch of robots without true emotion. 

The Real Causes of Teen Suicide

Kyle Krahenbuhl
Doc Z
SLCC period 4
December 2, 2010

The Real Causes of Teen Suicide

    In our modern day society, being a teenager isn't that easy.  There are overwhelming academic pressure, athletics, and the ever changing social ladder.  All of these factors swirl together  to create beehives of stressed teenagers in our schools.  When bullying and other problems in the schools are thrown into the mix, things get out of control.  All of these issues are causing the suicide rate in our country too go up dramatically.  In 2007 suicide was the eleventh leading cause of death in the United States above Homicide and Parkinson’s disease(McIntosh).  Suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people as well (McIntosh).  These statistics are scary and prove that this issue should not be ignored.  The question is, what is causing teen suicide today?  Bullying in our schools is usually the common answer to the question.  That outcasts are thrown aside and their only way out is to take their own life.  That constant torment and bullying from “the popular kids” is the reason so many teens are cutting their own life so short.  There might be many examples of this especially in the public eye, but I believe that bullying is not the main cause of suicide.  That other factors contribute to the huge suicide numbers in our country.  Even though bullying might be to blame for some suicide cases, depression and the pressures of high school and parents also lead to teen suicide.
    Suicide has been an issue in our country and our world for awhile and has been apart of history.  Suicidium comes from the Latin phase “self” and the verb “to kill”(Farberow).  It is said that the term suicide first appeared in Sir Thomas Browne’s “Religio Medici in 1642.  Suicide existed from the time of the Vikings and Egyptians all the way to present day and it has had a unique meaning in every different culture (Farberow). Suicide has come a long way and is especially effecting our young people in today’s society.  In 2007 every 2 hours and 1.6 minutes a young person killed themselves in the United States(McIntosh).  There was 3.6 deaths by suicide for males for every one death by suicide for females, but there are 3 female attempts for every one male attempt.  There was also 100-200 attempts for every death by suicide in 2007(McIntosh).  School shootings have also been linked to suicide in the high schools.  In Dave Cullen’s book Columbine he describes America’s attitudes on school shootings at the time of the Columbine disaster when he says “A terrifying affliction had infested America’s small towns and suburbs: the school shooter”(Cullen, 14).  School shootings only make up a little part of big teen suicide statistics.  These facts and statistics prove that teen suicide is an issue in the United States, but is bullying really contributing to the bulk of these stats?
    Bullying does cause suicide in our nation and there are plenty examples of it.  For example, a 17 year old student in Mentor, Ohio was tormented at his high school and was called names like “fag”, “queer”, and “homo” by his classmates(James, “Teen Commits Suicide Due to Bullying”).  The teachers did not step in on the problem even though they did know it was happening right infront of them(James, “Teen Commits Suicide Due to Bullying”).  This student committed suicide (James, “Teen Commits Suicide Due to Bullying”).  Gay bullying in particular has become an issue among students in our modern high schools, but it is not the only type of bullying that is leading to suicide.  In Massachusets, a 15 year old girl was bullied because she was too pretty(James,”Cyberbullying”).  She even had a relationship with the football quarterback as a freshman and other girls didn't like that so they put a target on her back(James,”Cyberbullying”).  They especially attacked her over social network sites like facebook and through text messages(James,”Cyberbullying” ).  She hanged herself (James,”Cyberbullying”).  Cyberbullying is another cause of suicide in the country.  These bullying stories are the most common suicide stories in the public.  The media likes to latch on these stories and for good reason, because bullying is a serious issue and really hits the publics’ heart hard.  This media blitz on bullying might convince the public that bullying is really the true cause of suicide among teens and other causes are insufficient.  I do agree that bullying is a issue in our current school system and needs to be studied closer.  I believe that bullying is indeed a cause of teen suicide but I also believe that other causes of teen suicide might need a little bit more attention, like depression.  

Depression and other mental illnesses are a cause of suicide and probably is the biggest issue when it comes to suicide.  “Over 90 percent of people who die by suicide have a mental illness at the time of their death.  And the most common mental illness is depression”(Carcuso).  the truth is, untreated depression is the leading cause for suicide in our country(Carcuso).  This depression is usually caused from a negative life experience like the death of a loved one or a break up in a relationship(Carcuso).  Other mental illnesses like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia can also lead to suicide(Carcuso). Depression is a treatable illness(Carcuso).  Mental health screenings are starting to become a new thing in current high schools, but they are not being used everywhere.  Richard Friedman states in his article “Uncovering an Epidemic — Screening for Mental Illness in Teens”, that these screening can trace depression in teens and give them treatment that they need(Friedman).  Without the tracking down depression, it can go untreated “leaving them vulnerable to emotional, social, and academic impairments during a critical phase of their lives”(Friedman).  Bullying might cause suicide, but mental illness is the top reason, but it can work together with bullying.  It is shocking to see that over 90 percent of suicide cases suffered from a mental illness, but it does make sense.  It shows that you can usually sense if someone is getting into that depression mode even though sometimes it is untraceable.  Another surprising part of depression is that it is treatable and untreatable depression is what is causing the most suicides.  I feel that depression deserves more attention especially if it is causing so much deaths in our country.  I mean it seems like a problem that wouldn't be to hard to be solved.  Making teens feel comfortable with admitting that they are experiencing depression symptoms is the first step.  Making them realize the consequences of suicide and talking to them can also help.  Bullying might get the publicity but depression and mental illness cold hard truth on the main cause for teen suicide in the united states.  Depression mixed with the pressures on a teenager can increase the chance of suicide.

    The pressures of high school and from parents can drive a teenager over the edge.  On ESPN’s show E:60 there is a story called “Survivor”.  It describes the story of Jordan Burnham and his suicide attempt.  Jordan was living the perfect high school life(Survivor).  He was the class president as well as a star on the baseball and golf team(Survivor).  He was living the perfect high school live according to TV shows and movies(Survivor).  The problem was the pressures kept piling up on this young man and he also started to suffer from depression(Survivor)..  His grades started to drop for the first time in his academic career and everything started to pile up(Survivor).  One day when Jordan came home from school his parents showed him a bag of alcohol that was his(Survivor)..  He was ashamed and barricaded himself in his room and jumped out of a 9 story window(Survivor).  He survived the fall but not without loosing most of his physical attributes(Survivor).  In the movie “Dead Poets Society” Directed by Peter Weir one of the main character's named Neil also seems like he has everything(Weir).  He is on the path to Harvard and is a very positive character(Weir).  His true love is acting though, but his father doesn't approve of his hobby(Weir).  Neil goes against orders and preforms in the play only for his father to tell him he is signed up for military for the next morning(Weir).  That night Neil shoots himself(Weir).  Pressures from parents and school life can cause suicide easily as much as bullying.  I think one of the big factors is that teenagers are not used to facing tough situations and adversity as much as older folks that have experience.  When one bad thing happens a teenager treats it like its the end of the world and doesn't think the situation through that can eventually lead to suicide. In the case of Neil from “Dead Poets Society” the parents were the reason he went on to kill himself.  The overwhelming pressure parents put on their children to succeed make teens feel like if they do one thing wrong their world is over.  Bullying is not as big of an issue as these pressures and I feel like these pressures can be treated easier then most things.  

Teen suicide is indeed a national issue for the United States, but people seem to not focus on what exactly is causing it.  “Bullying” might be the first thing that rushes into our heads because we get drilled with more and more stories everyday about how another teen committed suicide because he was picked on by others.  Even though it is the first thing we think of, it is not the case, teen suicide is mainly caused by depression and pressures from the surrounding have a bigger impact then one might think.  Teen suicide is a problem, but we wrongly perceive that most cases have to do with bullying when we should borrow some of that attention towards bullying and put it towards depression and the pressures on a teenage lifestyle.

Works Cited

Carcuso, Kevin. "Suicide Causes." Suicide.org. 2010. 02 Dec. 2010 <http://www.suicide.org/suicide-causes.html>.

Cullen, David. Columbine. New York: Twelve, 2009

Dead Poets Society. Dir. Peter Weir. Perf. Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke.   Touchstone, 1989.

Donaldson James, Susan. "Cyberbullying Likely Factor in Suicide of Massachusetts Teenage     Irish Immigrant." ABCNews.com. 26 Jan. 2010. 04 Nov. 2010                 <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/cyber-bullying-factor-suicide-massachusetts-teen-irish-immigrant/story?id=9660938>.

Donaldson James, Susan. "Teen Commits Suicide Due to Bullying: Parents Sue School for Son's Death." ABCNews.com. 2 Apr. 2009. 04 Nov. 2010 <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=7228335>

Farberow, Norman L. "Suicide Basics- History, Prevention, Warning signs." Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. 16 Nov. 2010. 02 Dec. 2010 <http://www.deathreference.com/Sh-Sy/Suicide-Basics.html>.

Friedman, Richard A. Uncovering an Epidemic — Screening for Mental Illness in Teens. The New England Journal of Medicine. 28 Dec. 2006. 30 Nov. 2010 <http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp068262>

McIntosh, J. L. (for the American Association of Suicidology).(2010). U.S.A suicide 2007: Official final data. Washington, DC: American Association of Suicidology, dated May 23, 2010, downloaded from http://www.suicidology.org.

Survivor - ESPN Video - ESPN. Perf. Jordan Burnham. ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Sports. 27 Oct. 2010. 18 Nov. 2010 <http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5732813&categoryid=3060647>.