Certain Tall Building Essay

Marissa Woo

Ms. Barwise

ENG 111

14 October 2016

Dismal Heights Mental health. It is not a physical thing we can see, rather it is much more complex. The only individuals that can realize this are ourselves. No one else can look into our minds, know what we are thinking, or how we’re feeling. However, since only we can realize whether we are mentally healthy we may stray away from accepting possible mental instability, and by the time we do, it may be too late. In “Certain Tall Buildings”, author Franz Wright discusses the painstaking path of a suicidal and depressed individual. He employs tone and enjambment to highlight the reality of depression and suicide. At the beginning of the poem, Wright utilizes a melancholic tone when he communicates

For the individual pondering suicide, life and death start to become one and the same. Part of the individual wants to die, while another part of the individual wants to be saved desperately. Nevertheless, the line breaks prevent the completion of a thought, almost like indecisiveness, which appears to be presented by Wright in the last two paragraphs for the disparity between living and dying. The last line ultimately leaves us feeling cold, and almost lost in thought as though we are the individual contemplating life and death. There it is. The extremes of mental unhealthiness, that we may not recognize until we are standing on the edge between life and death. While death dominates the thoughts of those contemplating suicide, life holds them back. It is that small slit of light that leaves the individual in a state of misery- while keeping them alive at the same time. The severity of mental illnesses Wright stresses in “Certain Tall Buildings” only comes to center stage when someone comes out from the dark. It is our minds that often dictate how we approach issues as intricate as our mental health. Sometimes, our memories and thoughts speak louder than our words. Think back. “Remember your mother hanging the cat in front of you when you were