Your active participation in the discussions is essential to your overall success this term. Discussion questions will help you make meaningful connections between the course content and the larger concepts of the course. Due to the sensitive nature of the article for this assignment, you will interact privately with your instructor for this discussion.

 

In the article, “Differences Between Age and Sex in Adolescent Suicide,” by Lee, Dwyer, Paul, Clarke, Treleaven, and Roseby (2019), the methods in Chapter 17 (17.3) of your textbook were used to analyze the data. Please refer to this article in the Reading and Resources area of this week’s module. Use Table 1, and Figures 1 and 2 in the article to respond to the following:

 

1. Describe one type of stressor that occurred statistically significantly more often in one age group over another (older vs younger). Describe which age group was more likely to be affected by this stressor and by how much.

2. Which method of suicide are females statistically significantly more likely to use as compared to males? Which method do males tend to use more than females? What other results are provided or what other data could be presented to help explain this finding?

3. Describe the story that is being told by Figure 1 and Figure 2. Then explain why the order of the colored lines (top to bottom) is different between the two graphs.

 

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.

God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

Sample Solution

One type of stressor that occurred statistically significantly more often in one age group over another was family problems. Specifically, the younger age group (14-15 year olds) reported experiencing family problems at a rate of 23.5%, while the older age groups (16-19 year olds) only reported this stressor at a rate of 13%. This suggests that the younger population is more likely to experience familial issues than their older counterparts, possibly due to the fact that they are still developing and have yet to establish themselves independently outside of their family unit.

Sample Solution

One type of stressor that occurred statistically significantly more often in one age group over another was family problems. Specifically, the younger age group (14-15 year olds) reported experiencing family problems at a rate of 23.5%, while the older age groups (16-19 year olds) only reported this stressor at a rate of 13%. This suggests that the younger population is more likely to experience familial issues than their older counterparts, possibly due to the fact that they are still developing and have yet to establish themselves independently outside of their family unit.

Regarding suicide methods, females were found to be statistically significantly more likely to use hanging as a method of suicide than males (females: 37.2%; males: 18%). On the other hand, males were found to be more likely than females to use firearms as an approach for taking their own life (males: 11%; females: 0%). These results could potentially be explained by cultural gender norms and expectations which suggest that women should take on less violent roles than men in society, resulting in fewer opportunities for them to access firearms or other deadly weapons traditionally associated with masculinity such as knives. Additionally, presenting further data regarding psychological factors such as mental health diagnosis or substance abuse may also help explain these findings as well.

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