Short Writing Assignment #5

In Mike White’s “Making a Killing”, the TRACE Method can be used to analyze the argument of the text, whether or not the gory movies had an influence on the outcome of the Virginia Tech Massacre. In this crisis, the killer, Seung-Hui Cho, initiated the mass murder of 32 people on a school campus in Virginia.
This argument is a newspaper article written for The New York Times that presents evidence that horror movies involving gruesome material and violent scenes may provoke mentally unstable individuals to irrationally avenge personal situations. This essay has allusions to many dramatic works ranging from horror movies to Shakespearean plays. The article is directed towards the public, in general, since it was published in a major newspaper, and is about an event that was widely publicized in media nationally. The anticipated outcome is to get the reader thinking about the effects of violent movies on young viewers, convincing them some people may let fantasy coincide with reality. The author is Mike White, a screenwriter who, as a teenager, let movies influence his personality and image, and questions whether other aspects of film-such as gory bloodbaths-can inspire some individuals to emulate the scenes. Readers emotionally involved in the event may perceive these movies as Cho’s motive for the massacre, and therefore create common ground between the reader and the author. The event that caused this argument was the Virginia Tech Massacre, which may have been inspired by a violent scene in a movie. It is obviously perceived as a problem, because many lives were lost in the tragedy.
This argument was written to examine the effects that sadistic movies have on young viewers. The author presented evidence to the audience to persuade them that Americans need to consider the messages being sent through these entertaining yet brutal movies.