Suicide
In Bone, by Fae Myenne Ng, the character Ona Leong grows up in a Chinese-American family in San Francisco. Ona shared her home with two sisters that are extreme opposites, a mother who works in sweatshops and a father who works out at sea for long periods. Ona grew up loving every member of her family and each one of them believed that she was on the road to success. But on a day like any other, Ona commits suicide by jumping off of the thirteenth floor of the Nam building. Without any warning of her unhappiness, the family finds themselves only being able to guess as to why she would do such a thing. How did Ona express her unhappiness? And how does Ona's choice of suicide affect loved ones?
Suicide often follows depression, proving false the stereotype of depression being only general sadness. Depression can be anything from temporary to extreme, and from insignificant to greatly significant. What significant might be characterized as could be the outcome of a loss of ones life. In a case where a woman's husband committed suicide, the woman later said, "'He was like anybody else with depression. But it was much more extreme than he ever let us know'" (Robinson, R. 33). However, Ona Leong appeared no different up to the day that she jumped; never even appearing depressed. Throughout the novel, the impact of suicide is seen from within the home, leading back to early childhood.
When thinking back, every detail of a person's life can be thought of as being a clue to the mystery of suicide. After Ona's death, both mother and sister alike, ask themselves, "What could have saved Ona?... If I'd been living
[at home with Ona]
on the Alley, could I have had that talk with Ona" (46)? As a loved one ponders upon the loss of a relative or a friend, they will wonder if they could have said something to change what has happened. Tragically, the decision to put ones own life to an end happened 31,142 times in 1994 alone, causing suicide to be the ninth leading cause of death in the United States (JAMA, 24, 974).
Much of what is told to love ones, prior to a suicide, depends on what the source of the unhappiness is. It was once stated in an essay by Mary Rose Barrington, "Many middle-aged people are heard to express the fervent wish that they will not want to live
[in pain]
" (Bender 116). They wish to be put out of their misery and therefore tell others so that their wishes can be honored. Ona commits suicide after her father, Leon, threatens to disown her for seeing a young man whose family Leon strongly dislikes. She grew up loving her father, and to be disowned by him would have been a major loss in her life; a loss considerably close to death.
When Ona was young, Leon enjoyed walking the streets of Chinatown with her. She had bells on her shoes so that even if she dared to take a step away from Leon, he would know by the absence of ringing bells. Many years later Leon and the Leong family went into business, and Ona fell in love with Osvaldo Leong, the son of Leon's business partner. After the business went under, Leon said Ona could not see Osvaldo again. Shortly there after, she went to see Osvaldo and Leon locked her out of the house. At that point, Ona began taking steps away from Leon, without a safety net of bells.
In suicide, a letter is commonly left, either attempt to explain the "why did he (or she) do it?" or accuse someone of being at fault. However, in some suicides, it is not announced, but rather expressed in actions. In a case where a thirty-five year old woman committed suicide, she had inflicted numerous razor blade cuts into her arms at age four, purposefully ran in front of a car at age 8 and attempted to overdose on aspirin at the age of 14 (Robinson, R. 46). Although she never wrote, or confessed, saying, "I want to die" signs were visible. Ona was stuck between two sisters whom left her without identity. Instead of showing signs that she was feeling out of place, Ona became dependent on Leon and his love. Her dependence became so strong that much of Ona's sense of self was her father, and his approval of her.
Unhappiness can be caused by the difference between two groups of people, no matter if the difference is economic or a difference in beliefs. These differences cause anyone in the middle to be pulled two ways to sadness. Leon drew a line between Ona's boyfriend and her family, essentially between her heart and her genes. This harsh separation caused Ona to leave the house, but in need of the type of love that she remembers from her childhood. These types of separations result in grief and if the individual can not cope and find a solution, the results can at times be catastrophic, as expressed in "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson. In the poem, the townspeople see Richard as being rich both at heart and economically, but Richard is actually rich on the outside and poor at heart. His financial success caused others to assume he was content in life and without need for friends. And so the poem goes:
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet in his head. (Robinson, E. 153)
Suicides are never fully understood, because the only person who can set the facts straight is departed. After Ona's death, her mother blamed herself, believing her own cheating on her husband caused Ona's death. Leon blamed himself too, superstitiously believing in forgetting to move his father's bones to China, the bones became bad luck on the family's shoulders. Ona's two sisters, Leila and Nina, chose not to talk about the death, repressing their feelings, trying to get on with their lives. Words, in the case of leaving a suicide note, can sometimes only explain so much, but actions do in fact speak louder. Taking your own life, in the case of Ona wanting to make a point, could quite possibly be the loudest action there is, an action impossible to ignore.
Works Cited:
Robinson, Rita. Survivors Of Suicide. Van Nuys: Newcastle, 1989.
Barrington, Mary Rose. "The Right to Suicide." Problems of Death. Ed. Bender, David L. Anoka: Greenhaven, 1974. 114-119.
JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, Regional variations in suicide rates - United States, 1990-1994. (From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Sep 24, 1997, v278 n12.
Robinson, Edward Arlington. "Richard Cory." The Pocket Book of Modern Verse. New York: Washington Square Press, 1954. 153.
Ng, Fae Myenne. Bone. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.
