Analysis Of The Seven Minute Life Of Marc Lepine

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In 1989, a tragedy happened that would later be known as a national day of remembrance of the Montreal Massacre. Marc Lepine, the shooter, took the lives of many victims as well as his own, at the school of Polytechnique in Montreal. Because of his hatred of feminism, he felt compelled to kill fourteen of the female engineering students as well as any other female students or faculty who got in his way. Through the powerful film of “Polytechnique” and the credible facts of “The Seven Minute Life of Marc Lepine,” one could not help but to see a victim in Lepine, whose fate was tempted since the moment of his birth. Through the stimulating images of the movie and the emotional, yet credible, writing of Petrowski, Marc Lepine is seen as a victim of the massacre as well as the 14 other female victims of this horrific event in history. In the article “The Seven Minute Life of Marc Lepine”, we see Lepine as a victim. We cannot help but to sympathize with him because of the struggles he endured throughout his youth. He was in and out of the hospital for therapy with his mother and sister after being repeatedly beaten by their father for years. The movie “Polytechnique” depicts his life during the introduction. We gain an insight into his life. The audience sees that Lepine is lonely, quiet and holds a lot of suppressed anger, especially towards feminists. In his suicide letter, he expresses his reasons for hating feminists and writes how feminists ruined his life. This letter explains what turned his anger and hate into murder. In the past there were many biases against women and their lack of abilities compared to men. Although the male perspective has changed over the past few centuries, there are many feminists who still fight for ... ... middle of paper ... ...“a pathological case” (Petrowski 350) and a “one of a kind” (Petrowski 350), how are the other shootings and massacres of thousands of innocent people to be explained? Lepine was a victim of the negligence of the community which he grew up and of the negligence of the parents who raised him. May the lives of the fourteen career driven women forever be remembered, but also the life of Marc Lepine, who represents many other victims of disregarded abused children. With the thought provoking images of “Polytechnique” and the factual and realistic article of “The Seven Minute Life of Marc Lepine”, it is evident that Lepine is not only an aggressor, but a victim too, who died along with the other women of the engineering class. Lepine had suffered long before the day of December 6. Just as Petrowski described, Marc Lepine was a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode.

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