The Horrific Massacre In Columbine, By Dave Cullen

Columbine, by Dave Cullen is a non-fiction book documenting the horrific massacre which took place in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999. Not only does the writer give great detail about the shooting itself, he also gives and in depth look into the lives of the killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and their victims. The focus of this book is for the author to attempt to bring to light what really happened and hopefully gain better understanding as to why it all took place. Cullen, a journalist, begins an extensive nine year research in order to achieve awareness of the happenings before, during and after this tragic event. Entries from the perpetrators personal journals, stories from the ones who witnessed the shootings first hand, countless interviews from the victim’s families, as well as multiple other pieces of information give the reader an extremely up close and personal surrounding Columbine. Dave Cullen spent many years perfecting his book to make sure all the readers would know the correct story of Columbine. Author and narrator, Dave Cullen takes his journalist approach into looking much closer at the details of as much as possible surrounding the shootings. He states that early on after the shootings took place, he found himself amongst the other reporters giving wrong information and knew he wanted to collect more

The author uses quite a bit of imagery to give the reader a truer feel of what it must have felt like to be there. For example, the picture he paints of Eric is so detailed that the reader easily feels as if they know him. In chapter two, ”Rebels”, he describes Eric’s character by saying “He smoked, he drank, he dated. He got invited to parties. He got high. He worked his look hard: military chic hair – short and spiked with plenty of product – plus black T-shirts and baggy cargo pants”(Cullen.