Theodore Finch: An Avoidable Suicide?
When Theodore Finch was a young boy, a cardinal would always fly into the sliding glass door to their house. It would do this over and over again until it knocked itself out and each time, Finch thought he was dead. He would beg his parents to stop the bird from running into the glass and let the bird inside the house to live with them. Eventually, they found the cardinal on the back deck, dead. Finch always blamed his parents for the cardinal’s death because he believed that they could have done more to save him. “There was nothing to make him last a long time” Finch said (Niven 294). The question now is, could the people in Theodore Finch’s life have done more to prevent his suicide, or was there truly nothing to make him last? If Finch’s parents payed more attention, the kids at school weren’t so awful, and the school got more involved, Finch might still be alive. …show more content…
His name was Mr. Embry or “Embryo” to Finch. Once the story came out that Violet Markey saved damaged, suicidal Theodore Finch from jumping off of the bell tower, Mr. Embry didn’t hesitate to remind Finch that he is on probation and if he ever were to jump off, Embry would be facing a major lawsuit. “If principal Wertz hears about this you’re gone before you can say ‘suspended,’ or worse. Not to mention if I don’t pay attention and you decide to go back up there and jump off, I’m looking at a lawsuit, and on the salary they pay me, believe me I do not have the money to be sued,” (Niven 13). What a way to talk someone off the ledge by telling them that if they were to jump then it would not be convenient for them. What Finch needed was for someone who he felt he could explain what was going on in his head without being judged or punished. The school counsellor was supposed to be this person, but instead he was only some guy Theodore dreaded having to sit and be lectured by every
When Theodore Finch was a young boy, a cardinal would always fly into the sliding glass door to their house. It would do this over and over again until it knocked itself out and each time, Finch thought he was dead. He would beg his parents to stop the bird from running into the glass and let the bird inside the house to live with them. Eventually, they found the cardinal on the back deck, dead. Finch always blamed his parents for the cardinal’s death because he believed that they could have done more to save him. “There was nothing to make him last a long time” Finch said (Niven 294). The question now is, could the people in Theodore Finch’s life have done more to prevent his suicide, or was there truly nothing to make him last? If Finch’s parents payed more attention, the kids at school weren’t so awful, and the school got more involved, Finch might still be alive. …show more content…
His name was Mr. Embry or “Embryo” to Finch. Once the story came out that Violet Markey saved damaged, suicidal Theodore Finch from jumping off of the bell tower, Mr. Embry didn’t hesitate to remind Finch that he is on probation and if he ever were to jump off, Embry would be facing a major lawsuit. “If principal Wertz hears about this you’re gone before you can say ‘suspended,’ or worse. Not to mention if I don’t pay attention and you decide to go back up there and jump off, I’m looking at a lawsuit, and on the salary they pay me, believe me I do not have the money to be sued,” (Niven 13). What a way to talk someone off the ledge by telling them that if they were to jump then it would not be convenient for them. What Finch needed was for someone who he felt he could explain what was going on in his head without being judged or punished. The school counsellor was supposed to be this person, but instead he was only some guy Theodore dreaded having to sit and be lectured by every