English as Backdrop for Virginia Tech Massacre
by Leisl Wulff
Remorse extinguished every hope. I had been the author of unalterable evils; and I lived in daily fear, lest the monster whom I created should perpetrate some new wickedness.
-Victor Frankenstein from Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
While the sad reaction to what has become known as the Virginia Tech Massacre stretches across this country and raises questions about the safety of our educational institutions, another realization is also surfacing: that the relationship between English teachers or professors and students is much more profound than one where simply the study of reading and writing is exchanged.
Sadly, this insight has been prompted by the fact that the shooter who killed thirty-two people at Virginia Tech, before killing himself, was an English major. Moreover, because he was a senior, presumably within weeks of graduation, he was a well established member of the Virginia Tech English program and, as such, had taken courses in the upper reaches of the discipline that would have required a significant amount of rhetorical output. So rather than address here the crime or the perpetrator’s aberrations, let us consider his link to the study of English and the professors who saw his dark side long before the police did and, subsequently, the rest of the country.
By this juncture most of the nation is aware that the shooter, Cho, Seung-hui had been reported by one of his English professors as having written some extremely disturbing and violent pieces for a creative writing class. The renowned poet Nikki Giovanni, who had Cho as a student, said on CNN that she found his writing so “intimidating” and his behavior so “menacing” that she asked that he be removed from her course during the fall 2005 semester. As a result, the chair of the Virginia Tech English department, Lucinda Roy, began teaching Cho one-on-one. Yet she too, as quoted by CNN, was so disturbed by his “palpable anger” that she sought help from the police and university administration. Moreover, students who shared classes with Cho and read several plays that he had written, said on CNN that they found them to be so “’twisted’” that wondered whether one day he would be a “school shooter.”
Given such testimony, the fact that Cho was an English major is key to his story. It reveals that those who teach as well as take courses within the English discipline have direct contact with the inner workings of each other’s thoughts. The relationship between students and professors is often intimate in this context. The teacher of English prompts the student of English to a degree of self-discovery and self-awareness, most often using written texts as the vehicle to arrive at such understanding. After all, literature has long been the medium through which we discover what others outside of our selves think about, aspire toward, and are troubled by.
The reality is that the ultimate value of discovering a wide range of written and published works and engaging in critical analysis of them provides the student in the discipline of English studies with a tool, a tool that helps him understand himself and others. The discipline of English provides a lifelong implement with which one can understand what it is to be human, and what the processes of being human have been from the beginnings of civilization. That is not the only value however, and what is often overlooked about English as a part of a university curriculum is that these studies provide the student with a link that will aid them as they enter a profession. The link is the ability to relate to and interact with others and the community at large with a foundation that is grounded in critical thinking and a common understanding of the human condition.
The shooter in the Virginia Tech massacre fell short of this ability, but that is not to say that he did not learn certain skills that an English major acquires. Not only that, but he used applications of storytelling, in conventional and non-conventional ways, with a high level of skill.
Often what we study in literature reflects the concept that there are outsiders, those who do not belong. We sometimes perceive that there is a primary and more valuable group of people who meet a criterion we have named “normal.” Outside of that group are those who may be insane, criminal, disabled, or who function as loners. Us and them, the normal and the not normal. Literature over and over again presents perspectives on how humans seek identity, often at a cost to others. Through the lens of literature we see the failings of human action and hopefully learn from our enlightened perspective.
The shooter in the Virginia Tech killings was identified as a loner, and most likely suffered from mental illness. He himself acknowledged that he felt isolated from the other students and that was a source of his deadly frustration. In this he failed to utilize or even perhaps acquire that link that the study of literature in English courses should instigate; the ability for empathy. Nonetheless, we can learn from him several critical lessons, and in this way, Cho Seung-hui himself will become an artifact of literature studies to come.
In conclusion, three valuable considerations come to light from this sad and horrible event. These considerations particularly relate to English programs in our public and private educational institutions. The first is that the role of teachers in this discipline cannot be taken lightly, that this crucial field of study involves the need for a strong ability for objectivity and sensitivity on the part of the instructor. Now, more than ever before, recognition of the intimate interaction between student and teacher can be recognized as a key element in the learning process. We will never know if the shooter was in some way reaching out through the writings that he submitted in his creative writing course. The second consideration that needs to be recognized from this is that English as a major and as a course of study is not frivolous. It is a discipline that foments abilities for analysis, self-reflection and skilled human interaction. It provides a bridge that students can use to improve in their other courses of study, whatever they may be. English language and literature study enables students to cultivate all of their skills and to learn how to scaffold upon them through critical thinking and objective analysis. The final consideration is that however horrible his actions were, no matter how sad and angry he has made us, Cho Seung-hui proved that he learned as an English major how to tell a story, and tell it well.
Liesl Wulff is a senior majoring in English. She is also a member of Sigma Tau Delta.
