Heaven and Nature by Edward Hoagland

Visual Source: mentalhealthy.co.uk
"Suicide isn't cowardly. I'll tell you what's cowardly; treating people so badly that they want to end their lives." -Ashley Purdy

In today's society, suicide has often been perceived as a cowardly act that is never a necessary action in any situation. An aspect in this essay that sets it apart from other works about suicides is that it has a mix of both research and personal experiences of the author, Edward Hoagland. Hoagland is an established author and taught at various universities for over forty years. He has been highly praised by many authors and is known for his nonfiction work. At first, it seems as though a lot of what he is saying is from observing his friends but then, the reader realizes that Hoagland experienced a long period of suicidal thoughts as well.

Suicide has, unfortunately, become a rising issue in society throughout the last few decades. Hoagland explained in this essay that suicide is not just about trying to harm yourself. A lot of the time it is to protect yourself or to protect others and that by dying, you are making someone else's life easier. Suicide is not always because one might be mad with their life at the present time but because one may look back at their life after many decades and feel as though they have failed.

The audience of the essay is not necessarily just to people who may have suicidal thoughts but to people who may have friends going through hard times. This is helpful to start the process of understanding suicide and one's reasons for thinking a certain way.  An important part of this essay is the little anecdotes that Hoagland includes. Reading statistics off a page is often not as eye-opening as personal stories that pertain to a specific topic. The reader is more likely to relate to certain experiences than read research that does not even have anything to do with them. Hoagland really wanted to help people through this essay and change people's minds which he definitely did. He talked about a serious topic without making it stereotypical and rather boring. This is an issue that is very apparent and is still relevant to today's society.