The Silicon Valley Suicide Summary

Education is very important for American youth as it prepares them for the bright future they are imagined to have, but has society put too much pressure on the students to perform well? In her article The Silicon Valley Suicides, Hanna Rosin investigates the series of suicides in Palo Alto. Every student that tragically took their own life had a very bright future in front of them as they were very intelligent and determined students. Rosin wants to raise awareness to the fact that society puts too much stress on the academics of students, rather than focusing on their personal character. She does acknowledge that education is very valuable, but she argues that it has become a life and death type of situation. Through the use of short stories and statistics, Rosin convinces her audience of this.

She walks you through the day as if you are a student attending the school, and puts you in the place of different students that were close to the victim. This use of stories and detailed descriptions appeals to the audience’s emotions and connects them to the students in Palo Alto. An important thing to note is that Rosin uses the full names of the victims. She doesn’t want them to become a statistic because their lives do matter, and should be a reason for making a change in the world. By doing this, Rosin gets the reader to think about the importance of grades and if they are really worth the lives of hard working teenagers. The short stories and stomach churning descriptions Rosin uses makes the reader feel emotionally attached to the students which simultaneously makes the reader want change in the way society treats