The Story Of The Columbine, By Dave Cullen

Alan Watts once said “A myth is an image in terms of which we try to make sense of the world.” On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold “murdered one teacher and twelve of their peers” (Senior) inside Columbine High School. The massacre would become the “most lethal” (Senior) in the nation. Almost immediately after the killings took place, the media arrived at Columbine High School. With media comes many myths. After being consumed in the media coverage of the Columbine shooting, Dave Cullen conducted years of research to learn the truth about what happened inside Columbine High School on that gloom April Day. Almost ten years later on April 6, 2009, Dave Cullen published his book entitled Columbine hoping to give his readers and answer to “why” the Columbine massacre took place. Through his years of examining evidence and conducting research, Dave Cullen could relinquish the myths surrounding before, during, and after Harris and Klebold attacked their very own high school. To understand why Dave Cullen wrote Columbine, one must first understand who Dave Cullen is. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Cullen began writing as a young boy. He soon …show more content…
As soon as media coverage of the tragedy started, people started spreading the news to their friends and family. Whatever was reported is what these people believed. Very few people took the time to comb through the evidence and really understand the truth of the shooting. “What most people know about the massacre is what they learned in the first few days after it occurred” (Cullen, “The Depressive”). People tried to make sense of such a large scale tragedy. They latched onto anything that seemed believable. Not knowing the whole truth themselves, “the media were more than a little complicit, broadcasting unfounded rumors” (Krist). The job of the media is to communicate information quickly. The media does not take the time to examine