The suicide of yet another friend, Abbie Hoffman, prompts Styron to further explore the relationship between depression and suicide. Hoffman, a political activist made famous during the riots related to the Democratic Convention in 1968, seemed the picture of forward-thinking, singularly focused idealism. Hoffman's death came as a blow to all who knew him, particularly his family who could not accept suicide as an answer.
Another probable suicide case involved a poet, Randall Jarrell, who was killed when he was struck by a car in the middle of the night in North Carolina. Jarrell's widow and a coroner's jury agree that Jarrell's death was an accident but the poet had been hospitalized only a few weeks before for depression and had even slit his wrists while in the hospital.
The sense of shame surrounding these.....
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