Dramatic Suspense In Dave Cullen's 'Columbine'

In the book “Columbine” by Dave Cullen, several unknown truths are unfolded about the school shooting that shocked and confused many. Upon the beginning

After her parents looked at what she had written, they got a glimpse into her relationship with God. April 20, 1999 began as a regular day. By the end of the day however, a tragedy that shocked the nation occurred. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, shot and killed 12 students and one teacher and then took their own lives.

Dave Cullen’s journalistic portrayal of the infamous school shooting in Columbine reveals the raw truth of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris’ murder spree while uncovering misconception surrounding it. Cullen dives deep into the heart of motive and recovery, offering a newfound understanding of both the victims and the killers. The tragedy at Columbine was planned as a series of explosions that would have killed nearly 2,000 students. The bombs failed, however, so the shooters abandoned their plan and went on a spree through the school instead, using semiautomatic weapons they acquired at a gun show, where background checks can be bypassed.

One of America’s Top Tragedies: Columbine On April 20, 1999, a tragedy struck America that would gradually change school laws and security over time. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 18, started shooting and throwing homemade pipe bombs inside Columbine Highschool. There were 13 deaths and over 20 injured, making it infamous as one of America's worst school shootings. Many were inspired to create items and writings that hover around the thought of the Columbine incident, many works include Columbine by Dave Cullen and Rachel Scott journals by Beth Nimmo and Debra Klingsporn.

Columbine High School can forever be associated with the massacre that took place April 20, 1999. Dave Cullen, author of Columbine, captures the heart wrenching and cruel events that unfolded that April through his analysis of the normalities within the day and specific dialogue. Using many rhetorical devices, Cullen develops an agonizing emotion behind the terrible truth; it can happen anywhere. While spreading the terrible truth, he manages to also spread light on the events of April 20 in order to debunk bullying motives and help all people understand the idea of psychopaths.

9218 Lamar State College-Orange HIST 1302 E. Jeter 23 April, 2015 Review of Columbine by Dave Cullen (New York, Hachette Book Group, 2009, x + 417 pp.) Dave Cullen’s historical non-fiction book “Columbine,” is an examination of the events that lead up to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s act of terrorism on Columbine High School on April 20th, 1999, the attack itself, and the aftermath that followed such a horrific event. Cullen’s desire to publicize the killers’ stories, the survivors’ healing processes, and the nations’ need for answers, were the two questions he kept asking himself: “Why did they kill?” and “What became of the survivors?”. Cullen took it upon himself to provide the community that surrounded Columbine, along with the entire

  On April 20, 1999, two teens named Eric Harris (18), and Dylan Klebold (17), went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. They ended up killing 13 people and wounding over 20 others before turning their guns on themselves and committing

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.

He killed two students and wounded a third before shooting his algebra teacher in the back. Three years later, April of 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold launched their infamous attack on Columbine High, Colorado, the slaughtering had continued. Threw the thirty-two killed and seventeen wounded by Seung- Hui Cho in Virginia Tech in 2007. What Gladwell has believed that “school shootings mostly involve young white men”, they were scattered instances of gunmen or bombers that has attacked schools in the years before Barry Loukaitis but had been lower profile.

On April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado, the Columbine shooting became the worst high school shooting in U.S. history, at the time. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, shot and killed twelve students and a teacher, and injured over twenty others. Cassie Bernall was one of the thirteen victims of the shooting. Cassie was a 17-year-old student who was shot in the library by Eric Harris, one of the two gunmen. Her story gained national attention after it was reported that she was asked if she believed in God.

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.

Federigo’s Falcon’s Irony Authors use irony to make their audience stop and think about what has just been said, excite the reader, build suspense, or to even emphasize the idea. There are three types of irony: Verbal, Situational, and Dramatic. In Federigo’s Falcon by Giovanni Boccaccio, all three types of irony are used in different ways throughout the story. For instance, a clear example of Situational Irony is at the end of short story.

Shepard,C. "Weapons at Columbine" A Columbine Site (April 21, 1999) (Internet) (http://www.acolumbinesite.com/weapon.php) Smith, Matt "Sandy Hook killer took motive to his grave" CNN.com (Updated November 26, 2013) (Internet)

On April 20, 1999, two disturbed teenage boys Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris began a killing rampage at Columbine High School in the suburban town of Littleton, Colorado. This was considered one of the worst school shootings to occur at that time. In the morning of April 20, before noon, the two juveniles had killed 13 people to include 12 students and 1 teacher; they also wounded another 23 people before turning the guns on themselves. This event would change the theories as to why school shootings would occur. (History)

Since the Columbine High School shooting, school shootings have become a common occurrence. People have become so accustomed to seeing them on the news, so we hardly bat an eye at them anymore. For every instance of a school shooting we see, there are hundreds of lawmakers making public that their thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Frankly, those thoughts and prayers are simply not enough anymore. The Parkland shooting is one of many school shootings, that have brought light to the subject of gun violence in schools, and it is clear, if it hasn’t been one already, that gun regulation needs to change.