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Drumbeats of Shots Broken by Pauses to Reload A tragic incident happened on April 16, 2007 in Virginia Polytech Institute and State University. It is now considered as the deadliest shooting rampage in America. No one really bothered to check what was happening at first. The people inside the vicinity thought that the noise they were hearing was just from a construction site. The beats were slow and consistent so they did not think that those were gunshots, up until one of the professors looked outside the window and saw students crawling out of the building to escape the shooting.
Witnesses say that an Asian guy with two pistols went to the classrooms of Polytech building and started shooting at the professor and students. After the classrooms, he proceeded to the staircase and continues his rampage for no reason. Some students were given a warning not to go the building because there was a gunman. The total number of students killed was 32. The police were able to identify who the gunman was. He is Cho Seung-Hui, a 23 year old English major student in Virginia Polytech from South Korea.
There have been unexplainable and unexpected occurrences in the society. Any individual has the tendency to do just whatever that comes into their heads. But of course, the society will always have their comments and judgments without even trying to understand the possible factors that triggered that individual to do something tragic. The researcher would like to interpret explanations using the four sociological perspectives. First is the conflict perspective.
Given the scenario, a student shooting at fellow students says a lot. Educational systems show how inequality is being produced in the environment. As for Cho Seung-Hui, he was a loner. His dorm mate said that no one really knew him and he was always the creepy quiet type. This could have possibly triggered him to do what he did.
Maybe he felt that he was an outcast and alone and that no one wanted to be friends with him because they think he is weird, so he kept all his emotions inside and just decided to get even. If there is a rich and poor stratification in the society, in school, they have popular and loser which can really affect the individual. Second is functionalism perspective. Everyone in the society has a role.
For something to work solidly, one must know its functions or purpose to be able to contribute to the welfare of the society. In the case of the gunman, he did not know his role in the society. He had minimal friends. He was always alone, so how can someone like him possibly have a function when he is not even being noticed. Third is symbolic-interactions perspective.
It looks at the society as the product of interactions done by individuals daily. Being a loner does not necessarily mean that you have no purpose in this world. Example, one person may define a loner as a guy without friends and ignore him, but another person may see that loner as a troubled guy that needs help and offers him one. Giving meaning to something fully depends on the eye of the beholder.
It is up to that individual how to interpret another persons actions and whether they would accept him or her in the society. As for this society, it seems that an individual who frequently interact with others end up being wanted. And those who do not interact as much end up being unwanted and invisible. Lastly is feminism perspective. Feminists believe that they have to stand on their own and at the same time respect other peoples individuality. Looking at Cho Seung-Hui behavior, yes, he had sense of independence in him but his actions showed that he did not have respect for others since he killed them, and he did not have respect for himself as well because he committed suicide after his rampage.
He was not able to handle his inner disturbances which led him to creating violence as an outlet. These perspectives have similar thoughts on this event about the society being the core foundation of how an individual lives. How others perceive an individual affects them and may cause them to do undesirable deeds. The society hones the individuals personality. If the individual gets the sense that they are wanted, they will be confident and would contribute a lot to the society. If they sense some unwanted ness, they would exclude themselves and be dysfunctional due to their alienation.
Their difference is that even if each of them has involvement in the society, they still have different focuses towards their explanations. One perspective looks at the factors contributing to conflict, the other looks at the functions of individuals, another looks at the interactions made and lastly it looks at the policies feminists believe. They base their explanations on how theories of those perspectives were made. The researcher believes that the conflict perspective best explained the event.
It was able to look deeply into the situation and find the root cause of the students behavior. This perspective shows how people on top strive to protect the privileges they acquire, while the people at the bottom work hard to acquire some for them. It is able to understand the hardships of the disadvantaged individuals. The researcher looked at the characteristics of the student based on what was written on the article and analyzed what brought him to such behavior. Inequality existing in an environment can result to conflict that could possibly lead to social change. Evidently, this is what happened in Virginia Polytech Institute and State University.
The gunman feeling unimportant brought a drastic change in the society that will be remembered till the end of time. Bibliography: Dewan, S. (2007). Drumbeats of Shots Broken by Pauses to Reload. The New York Times. CDV, p. A 1.
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