The Construction of Pain after Columbine

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the different explanations and rationalizations offered in an attempt to understand the horrific events that took place at a high school in Columbine, Colorado. Much of the focus of the paper is devoted to literature concerned with the pain of being unable to articulate or assert the self and how this type of pain is what triggered the Columbine tragedy. The paper continues with a discussion of the gender differences in acting out emotional pain and turmoil and concludes with the admonition that undoing the causes of self-destructive behavior in teens will take a cultural excavation and a reconfiguring of male and female identities.

From the Paper:

"One does not need to look very far to find individuals who are similarly conflicted in their inability to articulate themselves and find ways to do that are often bizarre and unrewarding to themselves and society as a whole. The tragedy that occurred four years ago, in 1999, at Columbine high school is an example of such a tragedy. A Website erected on the Internet in honor of the event describes the event as such. "Two students in black trench coats killed twelve schoolmates and a teacher Tuesday at Columbine High School, most of them in the library. The gunmen, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, then apparently killed themselves. They were called the 'Trenchcoat Mafia'" before the incident occurred."

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