When people kill themselves, they think they're ending the pain, but all they're doing is passing it on to those they leave behind.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that suicide may seem like an end to pain for the individual, but it causes suffering for those left behind.
Jeannette Walls highlights the tragic misconception that suicide is a solution to one's pain. It suggests that while individuals may believe they are relieving their own suffering by taking their lives, they are instead transferring that pain to friends and family, leaving them to grapple with the emotional aftermath and loss. This perspective invites a deeper understanding of the far-reaching effects of such choices, encouraging empathy for both those in pain and those they leave behind.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a mental health awareness event to highlight the importance of seeking help.
I was in control of what people thought of me, but I had no control over what they thought of my mother. When I asked my mother, 'How do I tell people about you?' her answer was, 'Tell the truth'. But of course, the truth is never simple.
I hadn’t been paying much attention to things like the sunrise, but that old sun had been coming up anyway. It didn’t really care how I felt, it was going to rise and set regardless of whether I noticed it, and if I was going to enjoy it, that was up to me.
In my opinion, trying to guess what readers want is the wrong approach. You have to tell your story as best you can and as true to yourself as possible. You have to be honest and fair and vulnerable and foolish and brave, and not care what anyone thinks of it.
Some people who've read my story think I had a terrible childhood and that I was neglected or even abused, while others feel that my parents, while certainly flawed, also had truly wonderful qualities. And that's the way it should be, because in real life two people can look at the same president and one will see a hero and the other a villain.
You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim
I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.
Our world is increasingly interdependent, but I wonder if we truly understand that our interdependent human community has to be compassionate; compassionate in our choice of goals, compassionate in our means of cooperation and our pursuit of these goals.
Anything that makes you feel the most alone also has the greatest power to connect you.
The baby explodes into an unknown world that is only knowable through some kind of a story – of course that is how we all live, it’s the narrative of our lives, but adoption drops you into the story after it has started. It’s like reading a book with the first few pages missing. It’s like arriving after curtain up. The feeling that something is missing never, ever leaves you – and it can’t, and it shouldn’t, because something is missing.
You can survive on your own; you can grow strong on your own; you can prevail on your own; but you cannot become human on your own.
He could not feel her near him in the darkness nor hear her voice touch his ear. He waited for some minutes listening. He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone.
Feminism is about friends and sisters and community.
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