Final Assignment

Suicide

Suicide has been a big social problem in our world for hundreds of years. In 2007, there were 34,598 suicide deaths in the U.S., which was the tenth leading cause of death. According to the statistical data of National Institute of Mental Health, women are at a higher risk of committing suicide than men. Men and women also use different methods for suicide. In 2007, 56% of men and 30% of women used firearms, 24% men and 21% women used suffocation, and 13% men and 40% women used poisoning to commit suicide.

But what are the causes of these suicides?

Bullying, physical and sexual abuse could be a cause of suicide. In Korea, many middle school and high school students committed suicide because of these factors. There’s a group called Il-jin. It is a group of middle students with violence. They usually take away money from other students and spend it on drinking, don’t study, and don’t go home. When they pick on one student, they bully and physically abuse them until they are satisfied. Victims like this are at very high risk of committing suicide. They don’t endure the abuse and finally commit suicide.

Another leading cause of suicide is hopeless life. Hopeless people without goals and dreams commit suicide because they have no point in life. I think expectations in the future are more important than depression. If you don’t have a goal in life and if you don’t have expectations from people around you, then you have no reason to live. These people are confused about their lives, so they choose to not live anymore.

The most common cause of suicide could be psychological pain. Pains could differ from people to people, but they could include pain from love, school, family. Many people in our society suffer from psychological pain, which they do not want to show to other people. Many melancholiacs are hidden in society preparing to commit suicide. They often don’t express how they feel to people around them, so people around the melancholiacs don’t realize that they are melancholiacs. Feelings from depression, shame, guilt, and anger can also cause psychological problems. More than 90% cause of the suicides is depression and psychological pain.

How is suicide represented in media?

Suicide is represented as a perfect solution in media. Suicide is chosen to seek solutions to problems.

In the movie Brothers, there’s a scene where the main character chose to commit suicide.

Main character Sam went to Afghanistan to fight in war, but was imprisoned by the hostage-takers. While being a hostage, Sam had to see his fellow soldier get tortured. Also, he had to kill him in order to get back home. Sam just beat his fellow soldier and killed him. Finally, he was rescued by the Americans and successfully returned home to see his family. However, because of all the horrors in Afghanistan, Sam develops some kind of psychological problems. He is not friendly to his daughters anymore, is very quiet, and obstinate. Also, he is obstinate about the fact that his wife slept with his brother Tommy, who took care of Sam’s family while Sam was gone. One day, Sam just burst with rage and tried to kill himself with a gun. When Sam put his gun on his head, Tommy calms him by saying “We’re brothers.”

Like this, the solution to Sam’s mental illness was suicide. He chose to do it himself. He could not endure himself anymore, so he chose it. However, I do not think that suicide is a solution to problems.

Just like Sam, many celebrities in Korea chose suicide to solve their problems.

Famous movie star Lee Eun Joo committed suicide in 2005, and the reason was depression.

Famous singer Uni committed suicide in 2007, and the reason was cyber bullying. She was born as a daughter of a single mother. There also was a rumor that she did her breast plastic surgery. Because of these reasons, people started to make malicious comments in Uni’s blog. Uni was so hurt by these comments, and finally committed suicide.

Actress Choi Jin Sil committed suicide in October, 2008. Cause was depression caused by divorce, private loan, and malicious rumors.

In March 2010, Choi Jin Sil’s brother Choi Jin Young committed suicide. Cause was personal depression and longing for his sister.

There are many suicides other than these in Korean media.

Suicide is not a solution. It is NEVER a solution. By looking at these celebrities who committed suicide, people could think that it IS a solution, but it’s not.

Listening, talking, and understanding can overcome these problems.

Suicide is not just killing yourself, but killing the hearts of the people around you.

Come Fly With Me versus Big, Bigger, Biggest

Come Fly With Me versus Big, Bigger, Biggest

<Genre>

Come Fly With Me is a mockumentary film and Big, Bigger, Biggest is documentary. Mockumentary’s intention is to “analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself. They may be either comedic or dramatic in form, although comedic mockumentaries are more common.” (Wikipedia) Documentary is “intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record.” (Wikipedia)

<Representation>

In my opinion, both of these films represent the busy people all around the world. In the airports, people always busy checking in or packing their luggage. These people are busy thinking about their business trips, or the cruise they’re going to have. They always rush to not miss their plane. By looking at these two films, we can see that people in the airports are busy and rushing, as well as the people in the whole world.

<Semiotics>

Both of these films have the topic of the airport. Airport can be a sign of the connection of the world. It has runways for airplanes to take off and land and many facilities for passengers. By providing these, airports connect people around the world. Without these airports, we cannot travel between countries. Business people cannot make business trips, students cannot go abroad and study, or presidents or governmental officials cannot make summit talks. Airports are an important tool to people’s lives.

<Narrative>

Many events in these two films are possible in the real world.

In Big, Bigger, Biggest, there were some concerns about terrorism. It says in the documentary that workers’ number one concern in the airports is security. There are dangerous illegal actions and terrorism happening all over the world in the airports. These terrorists not only kill the innocent people, but they also have an intention to hurt the entire economy. From watching this documentary film, I learned that terrorists think ahead and plan carefully to ruin the lives of the people and the economy.

In Come Fly With Me, there are racism and illegal actions in the airport. When one African woman from Liberia tried to enter into the airport, the officers stops her and says that she has a forged passport. He keeps on saying that there is no such country as Liberia. The woman looks frustrated and upset because of that ignorant officer. Another thing that’s possible in the real world is the flight delay. Passengers got frustrated because of the delay. The officer tells each of the passengers lies about the delay. He makes up lies and tells a woman that the pilot is busy eating his dinner. I know some of his actions are very satirical, but flight delays, racism, and illegal actions are very common in the airports.