Honors English Deibler 5

His actions are not justifiable no matter what his situation is. Even though he has had problems in his life, and has seen so many bad things happen in their lives, Mark should have never thought that killing himself was the a viable way out of the situation that he was in at this point in his life. He may have thought that the only way out was to kill himself, he has been exposed to such a harsh environment, witnessing murders and dead people, all of these factors have made Mark feel like he had nothing to live for. He had the right to feel the way he did, witnessing a murder is something that can have grizzly affects on a person. Mark questioned his life because he felt unloved, unwanted, abandoned, and betrayed and wanted to get rid of the things that lead to him feeling that way. He had experienced a bad day when he had decided to kill himself, and it was a good thing that his mother found him and stopped him from killing himself.

His mother comforted her son and talked him out of killing himself. She persuaded him by talking to him about his brother and sisters and how they would feel had Mark taken his own life. They too probably would have started thinking about committing suicide because of the profound impact that Mark had on them. She comforted him while she was telling him the problems that would ensue if he did kill himself, and gently persuaded him not to kill himself. Now, when Mark looks back on the suicide attempt, he sees that having someone loving and understanding to share your feelings with is necessary for people in order to see the true meaning behind life, also seeing that what he wanted to do was not the answer to fixing his problems.

The wounded man uttered hideous guttural sounds through his slashed throat. Gradually the sounds grew fewer and fainter. Suddenly his body lurched forward with outstretched arms, and his limbs twitched violently; he pitched forward, uttering one last, ghastly, gurgling sound, as if some beast were lodged within him and were struggling furiously to be set free. He slumped to the bone-dry ground, like a bundle of old newspapers. Before the corpse even hit the ground, the tsotsis were already upon it, stripping ans searching it, like a bunch of ravenous hyenas wrenching pieces of flesh from a carcass. The tsotsis turned the dead supine, and removed its shoes, its not-worth-anything coat and frisked the back pockets. In a matter of minutes the six shadowy figures had accomplished their dastardly act and were heading for the shadows of the eerie moonlit night, the spoils of their foray ensconced between their murdering paw, their bloodshot eyes gleaming and their teeth grinning like those of the cannibals after a kill.(Page 164)

I chose this passage because it had the most impact on the story to me. He witnessed a cold blooded murder where the people treated the corpse as if it had not been living at all. This event also lead to Mark trying to kill himself, an important event also.

Why did no one in the neighborhood help the man? Why are the tsotsis so ruthless on getting what they want, that they have to kill?