Hello Friends! It has been way too long since you have heard from me. I have been learning about Ancient Greeks and I would like to share a paper I wrote with all of you.

Ajax


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Suicide Comparison and Analysis 

February 7, 2018 a 40-year-old man trespassed on UTA property and was hit and killed by Utah’s Frontrunner train. A professor at BYU was on the train at the time of the accident. He was in the last train car when he heard the horn of the Front Runner as the train was desperately trying to top. The man did not move from the tracks despite the horn and was fatally hit. All evidence so far points this man committing suicide. So, why did he commit suicide? We learn through studying the anatomy of the human body that each and every individual is different. For example, one person can get cancer for no apparent reason while another can have a genetic predisposition to that same cancer and never get it. At the same time, people’s brain chemistry is different making it hard to discover the answer to why people commit suicide. Some people could have similar reasons to commit suicide, but due to each individual having a unique body and circumstances, we will ever be able to pinpoint why an individual commits suicide. However, scientist could and have found triggers, personality traits, diseases that could lead to suicidal tendencies. In the future, they may be able to find more information or maybe a gene that has a predisposition for suicidal tendencies. To illustrate why people may commit suicide and help us to understand, I will analyze suicides in ancient Greece and the United States.   

In order to learn more about suicide, I will discuss two examples of suicides in ancient Greece: Ajax and Jocasta. Ajax was strong, courageous, and a good fighter. Ajax held back the Trojan armies on his own. Ajax and Odysseus both feel that they deserve Achilles’ armor. When Odysseus gets chosen by the council to inherit Achilles’ armor, Ajax feels as though he lost his honor and fell on his sword. “Only the ghost of Telamonian Ajax Stood apart, still furious with me Because I had defeated him in the contest at Troy To decide who would get Achilles’ armor. His goddess mother had put it up as a prize, And the judges were the sons of the Trojans And Pallas Athena. I wish I had never won. That contest buried Ajax, that brave heart (The Odyssey).” Ajax’s reasoning for committing suicide seems relatively straight forward, he felt he lost his honor and he couldn’t come back from that. Committing suicide for Ajax was a way out of the shame that he felt. 

Ajax committed suicide out of shame for not earning the armor but, Jocasta’s reasoning for committing suicide are shame from marrying her son unknowingly. “queen, Jocasta, is dead. CHORUS: O poor woman! By whatever cause? SERVANT: By herself! But, of what has been done the worst pain you will avoid (Oedipus Rex).” Jocasta got pregnant with a son that was going to kill his father, got rid of her son and thought that was the end of it. Years later Oedipus not knowingly killed his father, married his mother, and had children with his mother, discovered that she was his wife was actually his real mother. “his wife who was no wife, but a doubly-ploughed field, mother of him and his children (Oedipus Rex).” Jocasta after realizing the truth committed suicide. She was thought to be embarrassed, ashamed, and disgusted. 

We have now seen two examples of suicides in Ancient Greeks, in contrast, in the United States we also see suicides occur. According to the American Association for Suicidology, in 2016 1.1 million people attempted suicide. That adds up to a suicide attempt every 28 seconds. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 15-24. 

While it is true that suicide is the reason for an overwhelmingly large amount of deaths, gathering data for the statistics is helpful in understand why people commit suicide. For example, in people ages 15-24, girls are about twice as likely to commit suicide, but in older people men are more likely by three times as much (Suicide Statistics That We'd Like to See Change in 2019). This could tell us that maybe societies stress on women especially when young girls are trying to find themselves puts a pressure on them that they can’t always endure. Maybe men at an older age feel a need to provide and if they can’t do that as well as another person they feel they are a failure.  

Another trend that is seen is minorities often commit suicide at a higher rate. Gay, Lesbian, and bisexual teens are five times more likely to commit suicide than their peers. Most of the research that I have collected on suicide points emotional triggers, depression, anxiety disorders, bullying, sickness, and other mental health diseases as the reasoning for most known suicides (Reasons why people commit suicide 2018). 

I found that there is several similar reasoning for why people commit suicide among ancient Greek literature and in the United States. I have found that a lot of correlation between feeling not good enough and suicide is fairly high (Reasons that people commit suicide 2018). I know that a lot of people struggle with self-worth and it can be really debilitating. Dishonor or being ashamed was a common reason for suicide in Greek literature I saw (Oedipus Rex and The Odyssey). 

I noticed that there were some interesting differences in why people in the United States commit suicide and in the Greek literature. In Greek literature, they portrayed the Ajax and Jocasta who committed suicide to be out of dishonor, guilt or regret, in a state of frenzy (into her chamber, frenzied, she threw herself onto her bridal couch” (Oedipus Rex). Although there are several people in the United States who commit suicide for those very same reason, as a society we are seeing a lot of people commit suicide because of mental health reasons. People with depression, anxiety, sickness that puts them in a hard-emotional state, and kids that have been bullied are more likely to commit suicide (Reasons people commit suicide 2018). I don’t think that we can really understand what was going on in each individuals mind. 

Suicide being caused from high states of emotion can be a hard topic to talk about. Each individual is different and that concept is both beautiful and difficult. Beautiful in the sense that it is what makes us unique and difficult because we don’t have a good answer for why people commit suicide. I think that as a society we have put an emphasis on mental health lately. We are doing are best to try and understand those people struggling and help them. I just hope that it is enough to get the suicide rate to come down. Maybe in the future researchers will find something that links people with suicidal tendencies together and we can figure out a way to change it. However, for now I think it is important to be as nonjudgmental as possible and to be kind to everyone. 

Works Cited 

<a href="https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Jocasta/jocasta.html">Jocasta: GreekMythology.com</a> - Feb 07, 2019

Dotson, Kierra. “Man Who Was Hit by Train Was Walking on Tracks, Officials Say.” GOOD4UTAH, GOOD4UTAH, 8 Feb. 2019, www.abc4.com/news/local-news/man-who-was-hit-by-train-was-walking-on-tracks-officials-say/1763054390.

Homer, et al. The Essential Homer: Selections from the Iliad and Odyssey. Hackett Pub., 2000.

Pasolini, Pier Paolo. Oedipus Rex. Lorrimer, 1971.

Pridmore, Saxby et al. “Suicide Triggers Described by Herodotus” Iranian journal of psychiatry vol. 11,2 (2016): 128-32.

“Reasons Why People Commit Suicide: Expository Essay Samples.” AcademicHelp.net, 9 Jan. 2018, academichelp.net/samples/academics/essays/expository/why-people-commit-suicide.html.

 “Suicide Statistics That We'd Like to See Change in 2019.” Crisis Text Line, www.crisistextline.org/blog/change-the-stats.