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Pleas reply with books about suicide

S

smarin3

New Member
I'm writing a paper about the court case in which the parents of John McCollum tried to sue CBS for Ozzy Osbourne's lyrics about suicide. The parents claimed the their son was incited by the lyrics...

Anyway, I want to make the argument that suicide has always been a theme in the arts, specifically literature. I've got a few examples (Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Sylvia Plath's Belljar) but I need some more.

So if you can think of some other books that deal with suicide, please reply!!

(Side Question: In Kate Chopin's Awakening, Edna committs suicide at the end, right?) Thanks!
 
Hamlet (talks about it, but doesn't do it)
Romeo and Juliet
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The Virgin Suicides
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

You might look at Hunter S. Thompson too.


I would caution, however, that I'm not sure there's much of an argument to be made in favor of such art (in the 'art for art's sake' school of argument) when the author/artist him/herself commits suicide afterwards, as Plath and Woolf and Thompson did. Kind of makes the argument for the other side.
 
Hi smarin3! I don't know how wide your scope is, but if it's the BIG PICTURE, consider suicide in other eras and cultures, as in medieval Japan, where it's seen quite differently. In our culture, it's seen mainly as being quite gruesome and inconsiderate to the surviving family members, while in THAT time and locale, was considered as quite an honorable thing! Read "Shogun", by James Clavell, if you've the patience :rolleyes: , for a quite well researched novel.
 
If you need a recent example, the plot of The Pact by Jodi Picoult is enjoyable reading, and its about (duh) a suicide pact.
 
In "Crime and Punishment" Svidrigailov is a child molestor who shoots himself for his horrible actions. It seems to be the only redeemable thing he does. Some say that Marmeladov, of the same book, also committed suicide when he stepped in front of a horse carriage while he was drunk, leaving behind his sick wife and 5 kids, one of which was a prostitute who provided for the family. Another book is "The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea", a Japanese book which portrayed death as honorable (the author Yukio Mishima committed suicide after he failed to take over Japan), and the character of Ryuji indirectly commits suicide by allowing himself to be led to his death by a group of nihilistic boys. The death of Gregor in Kafka's "the Metamorphosis" can be interpreted as a suicide because he refuses to eat and dies as a bug after he gives up on life and working for his family.
 
Goethe's 'The Sorrows of Young Werther'
Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary'
Hardy's 'Return of the Native' (Eustacia Vye drowns herself at the end)
and 'Morvern Callar' by Alan Warner begins with the central character's boyfriend's suicide.

Hope this is of some use!
 
Albert Camus wrote a philosophical account of suicide in The Myth Of Sisyphus. I haven't read it, because I find him such a convincing writer.

People trying to sue Ozzy Osbourne over "suicide" lyrics is certainly bizarre. First, the song "Suicide Solution" that I think the case is about, is about alcoholism, not suicide per se; second, the fact that you hear something or read about it does not necessarily indicate that you will do it. People watch lots of news broadcasts and horror films that contain actions they'd never contemplate doing.

Peace
 
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