Scrapbook by Neil Smith, Essay Sample on the Massacre

The story is about a tragic event that happened at Scott University where many students lost their lives. During the Massacre, there are some people who survived including Thomas, Myuko, and Cynthia. After the event, Thomas struggles with guilt and is significantly affected by what happened. His girlfriend Amy tries very much to help him through that time. His is burdened with the guilt of surviving while most people in his class died. Amy goes for sleeping pills and lies that they belong to her to help Thomas get some sleep. Thomas refuses to go out for many days and asks his girlfriend about what is in the newspaper since he is avoiding reading the news about the massacre. Thomas is broken and takes more pills than he usually takes so he can be able to sleep. Thomas managed to get out of the university before the shooting started and worked out without a backward glance while one student pulled an alarm and the other called 911. Thomas going without doing anything to help is what has brought the survival guilt that he feels. There was an organized march where people took a long walk to the university in commemoration of the lives of the student they lost. Thomas was able to go to the march, but he had to use drugs to gain enough courage to go out on the march. Amy also felt both guilt and relief during the walk. She was relieved that Thomas did not die during the shooting and no one was waving a sign with his face on it during that walk. Thomas saw one of the girls that also survived the shooting and went to talk with her as Amy join them as they comfort each other.

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The characters in the story did various things to remember and commemorate their dead friend. There was an organized march where people walked in the memory of their lost students. The boys had ribbons that were looped twice in the form of the figure eight and was pinned into their sweatshirts. The ribbons were of colour purple that is the uniform colour of the university. The ribbon made in the figure of eight was to symbolize infinity and that the people will remember their dead friends for infinity. The march was only attended by the student who walked from the park and followed other routes that lead them through to the campus as they were escorted by the police. The people of the town lined themselves along the sidewalks as well as the journalists all over the country. There were also signs carried by people during the march with placards with the blown up faces of one of the women killed. The planned walk, wearing the ribbons and carrying of the signs were all done as an act of honouring those fellow students that lost their lives in the shooting. When the walk ended, the student all gathered in the football field and filled the available benches as they waited for the coming speeches. The characters all handle the tragic event differently. Thomas hides from the world by staying indoors and not reading the newspaper, Cynthia chooses to go back to her home in Magdalen Island where she grew up while Myuko sees the good in people and that town and decides that she will not go back to Tokyo which is where she comes from.

There are different objects that have been used throughout the story that has various meanings to the characters. The use of a gun that has been referred as a silencer has been labelled as a misnomer and further explained that a gunshot cannot be silent but can only be suppressed. There is the use of ribbons in the story made in shape of figure eight. The eight-figure symbol is made to symbolize infinity meaning the students will remember their fellows who died in the shouting for eternity. There is the use of signs which had the faces for each of the female students that died in the massacre. The signs with the faces of the dead students are actions meant to show that they remember their dead colleagues. The walk was organized and attended by students who are ways for them to honour those who died in town and beyond the country through the help of the journalists that came from beyond the state. The is diary which is kept by Myuko that she believes to be of help to her while for Amy it is a scrapbook that works for her. The story begins with the explanation of stick figures which has been used to represent the human figure. The group of men is of represented by the deep purple colour and that of women is pale pink. The shooter who is known as Buddy is represented by a red colour stick present in the women`s washroom. The objects used in the story have given more about the characters and how they handle the aftermath of the massacre.