Rock Music and Suicide Discussion Discussion Topic
Answer in 350 words: Question: If there’s no way to determine what happened, why does Mann bring this case up?
Peggy Mann begins by saying, “There is, of course, no way to determine whether a suicide would have occurred in any case, but don’t tell that to the parents.” Question: If there’s no way to determine what happened, why does Mann bring this case up?
FYI, here’s the paragraph, published in Reader’s Digest, July 1988:
There is, of course, no way to determine whether a suicide would have occurred in any case, but don’t tell that to the parents of 19-year-old John McCollum from Indio, Calif. When he killed himself, the coroner’s report stated, “Decedent committed suicide with .22 caliber pistol while listening to devil music.” John, who had been getting an earful of Ozzy Osbourne albums for five hours, was wearing stereo headphones at the time of his death. He was hearing such messages as, “Suicide is the only way out” from “Suicide Solution” and “Can you help me? Oh, shoot out my brains, ohhh yeah. . . .I tell you to end your life” from “Paranoid.” (101)
