Cho Seung-Hui's plays

Shooter in the Virginia Tech shootings had purportedly written two plays that involve scenes of violence that would have served as a warning sign to the incident. The professor of the writing class allegedly was so concerned she actually referred the plays to school authorities. The plays were posted on AOL and I finally got a chance to read it. I am not a professional but I am not convinced that this is a display of violent inclination and personal issues.

It is not violent: The most "violent" scenes in the plays involve a boy throwing darts at his step father's picture wishing him dead, and three students cursing their teacher. But let us be real, consider the author was a college senior and given the gruesome scenes shown in the media these days, this is relatively mild - it doesn't compare to screen plays like Saw (2004).

It is not venting: The incoherent excessive name calling was interpreted as the manifestation of the shooter's state of mind, but that kind of behavior was also inline with the adolescent nature of the characters. The lack of such conduct in the adult characters (the casino guard, the parents, etc) seemed to show that the cursing was just part of the story. I doubt the idea was to express hatred through his writings, because he certainly could not have gotten any satisfaction out of it - John did not actually kill his stepfather, the three kids did not really watch their teachers bleed to death, like they wished so. In fact the three kids were con'ed out of millions by Mr. Brownhill.

It could not have been a sign: I think the plays have been played out of proportion. These writings alone could not have indicated anything. I think it is hind sight talking.

The incident is a true tragedy though. The families, the teaching staff and the students, including the shooter, they are all victims. Innocent people have lost their lives or love ones; the shooter must have some unbearable problems that drove him to such doing. I feel bad for all of them.