Among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development signed countries, South Korea leads with the highest rate of suicide. More than fourteen thousand South Koreans took their own lives in 2012 (Brown). During the years 2009 and 2010, a total of nearly thirty thousand people committed suicide. These thousands of suicides are often caused by issues within the social structure, almost unreachable standards of South Korea and other miseries. South Korea’s people consider suicide a growing and major problem of their society and culture and take many initiatives to aid in the possible saving of many lives. Laws and regulations have been passed to restrict and decrease suicide possibilities and results. The country has taken several actions to reduce the number of suicides the nation experiences. However, South Korea’s strict social attitude and structure is the root of the country’s nation-wide epidemic of suicide.
A societal competition in South Korea has enticed a widespread choosing of the most tragic last resort – suicide. Despite their rapidly growing economy, South Koreans are continuously pitting themselves against each other for social- and economic-related reasons. These factors are something citizens of the nation deliberately allow themselves to become obsessed with. Being ‘better than another’ and ‘achieving more success than another’ is especially important in the male gender who commit more suicide than females (Victoria). Not reaching a certain amount of success or falling into debt are characteristics one can inherit that can ultimately lead to a dangerous and lethal result. South Korea also has the highest number of female suicides in the world. One of the many reasons is suspected to be the alleged “imposs...
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In the past decade, suicide rates have been on the incline; especially among men. According to the New York Times (2013), “From 1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 rose by nearly 30 percent… The suicid...
By any measure, The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong, known as Hanjungnok (Records written in silence), is a remarkable piece of Korean literature and an invaluable historical document, in which a Korean woman narrated an event that can be described as the ultimate male power rivalry surrounding a father-son conflict that culminates in her husband’s death. However, the Memoirs were much more than a political and historical murder mystery; writing this memoir was her way of seeking forgiveness. As Haboush pointed out in her informative Introduction, Lady Hyegyong experienced a conflict herself between the demands imposed by the roles that came with her marriage, each of which included both public and private aspects. We see that Lady Hyegyong justified her decision to live as choosing the most public of her duties, and she decided that for her and other members of her family must to be judged fairly, which required an accurate understanding of the her husband’s death. It was also important to understand that Lady Hyegyong had to endure the
A mother finds her 17 year old teenage son hanging from the rafters of their basement. To hear of this occurrence is not rare in society today. Every 90 minutes a teenager in this country commits suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds. The National suicide rate has increased 78% between 1952 and 1992. The rate for 15-19 year olds rose from two per 100,000 to 12.9, more than 600 percent. (Special report, Killing the Pain, Rae Coulli)
There are two main threads of suicide. The social or institutional suicide and individual or
World health Organization (WHO) (2011). Facts and figures, Suicide. Retrieved November 2, 2011 from http://www.WHO.int
Seattle, WA has a high rate of suicide and depression. Also Korea, which is my home country, is ranked on 2nd place on suicidal rate in the world. According to Korean Governmental Statistical Office, the leading cause of death of teenage group to 30th is a suicide which tells it is a big problem. Unemployment, depression, and social isolation are common reasons of committing suicide. Also in some of the East Asian countries, the hard pressure from studying and getting good grade for the college is one of the biggest reason of the suicide in teenage group, and that’s the reason why a lot of students in Korea committing or thinking about a suicide after the high school senior’s final test. Most of people kill themselves because of environmental factors so most of them think that they are victim who are damaged by social problems but I believe that committing suicide should be a criminal offense.
Suicide displays wide variation in race, gender, religion, and socioeconomic lines. Males are three to four times more likely to commit suicide than females (Moore, Recker, & Heirigs, 2014). By studying suicide and their triggers we can isolate issues in society and address them accordingly. That is a reason we need to know which changes are making more impact on individuals the rapid or slow ones and how they are affecting individuals’ acceptance within their groups?, Is technology advancement part of the problem? How is society facing suicides and what has been done to slow down the suicides rates? Which could be the lowest level where we can teach about reasons to commit suicide? By answering these questions I believe that more data can be collected to understand reason individuals commit suicide and society is deal with the
Durkheim, E. (1951). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. (J. A. Spaulding, & G. Simpson, Trans.)
Hwang Sun-won went through many hard times during his life (Albert). When he was young Korea was ruled by Japan. During this time Hwang saw the Japanese imprison his father for being part of the Korean rebellion of 1919. (Albert 1402) Another reason is when he would write one of his many pieces of ...
Dokoupil, Tony. A. The "Suicide Epidemic" Newsweek Global 161.19 (2013): 1 Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Web.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Print. The. Suicide and Suicidal Behaviors. Suicide : Medline Plus.
Suicide has become a critical, national problem and the extent of this is mind-boggling. Suicides have been proven to be one of the leading causes of death among college students. According to Webters dictionary “suicide is the act killing oneself on purpose”. It derived from the Latin sui, meaning “self”, and caedere, which means “to kill”. But this is just a definition, because an actual suicide holds different meanings to people such as tragic, shocking, a relief, a cry for help, a shame, heroic, the right choice, punishment, revenge, protest, anger, a mistake, desperate, hurtful and many more. But why do people, like college students who have their entire future ahead of them, simply give up hope and turn their heads away from life and commit suicide. There are several causes of suicide, recent incidents of suicide on college campuses, warning signs from a suicidal. I blame the Constitution and the United States law for not taking any hard initiative on the subject of suicide. I also impose the choice of the media, which is reflecting and portraying suicide towards a wrong direction. However most important questions remain: can the growing epidemic of suicide be solved, what are communities doing about it and what can they do to help?