Why'd He Do It?

Why do seemingly happy people take their own lives? What kind of hidden trouble in a person's life drives them to such an extreme end? Guy de Maupassant addresses these questions in his short story Suicides. Suicides, written during the 19th century, paints the picture of a man's life through his suicide letter. The short story attempts to portray the culmination of troubles a person can secretly carry, revealing the "mystery" of a suicide without cause.

The suicide letter in the story combines plain language with moment of vivid imagery to convey to the reader the emotional state of the author. The author first validates to future readers that this list of reasons for his suicide is for himself and not for whoever eventually reads it. He writes that he needs to validate the "fatal necessity" of his decision to kill himself. He goes on to list all of his numerous reasons for suicide. While some reasons are abstract and emotional (feelings of loneliness, life's monotony,) some of the reasons seem ridiculous. At one point the author blames poor digestion for his decision to kill himself and even goes as far to say that if his digestion had been good that day that he might not have made the same decision. Although this reason seems ridiculous to readers, I think Maupassant was genius in his decision to add minuscule troubles to the list of life troubles. By doing so Maupassant creates a real character in his story. Rather then using only flowery, ideological language, Maupassant uses concrete, everyday problems to humanize his character. I began to look at suicide as an unavoidable outcome rather than a radical act.

As the man continues to write, his letter takes the shape of a coherent list of events that are all leading up to his suicide. None of them are extremely sorrowful. He doesn't mention lost love, financial woes, or any other event that would be considered by society as "cause" for suicide. His final description involves going through old letters and remembering all the people he has ever known. He then stumbles upon the final letter he will read which is a letter he wrote to his mother when he was 7. He flashes back at childhood and then back to the present. All of his angst is magnified and he ends his letter with "My revolver is here, on the table. I am loading it . . . . Never reread your old letters!"

Maupassant creates a suicide note that ends with such a random piece of advice and this really confused me. But I think Maupassant is trying to convey the frivolity of finding reason or cause for suicide. The man thinks that reading an old letter pushed him to suicide, but I don't think this is what Maupassant wanted readers to believe. I think that he wanted to undo the belief that people kill themselves because they have one great sorrow, and show how individuals can be pushed to suicide by their own logic. This short story left me feeling a bit empty. I felt like the story was cut short. I wanted to know more about this man, what other people thought of him, and whether his letter was reality or just his version of it. But I guess when someone takes their life, these questions often go unanswered.