Please Read and Critique this Essay

The following is an essay I have written for my university composition class. I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback regarding the overall flow, structure and vocabulary. I am not yet concerned about the citations, which can be ignored. The assignment was simply to write a essay between 750 and 1000 words using the academic style; we were to choose our own topic. Thank you for taking the time to read and critique this essay. I truly appreciate the help.

Suicide: The Dire Symptom of Modern Culture

As society has progressed from archaic to modern, from agricultural to industrialized, technological innovations have created an era of instant communication, educational opportunities, and medical marvels. These same virtues and innovations, however, have been accompanied by altogether less palatable consequences. In the past forty-five years, suicide rates have risen by more than sixty percent (WHO), and suicide is now classified as the leading preventable cause of death around the globe (Still WHO). The burden of these statistics is equally dire. In addition to the traumatic emotional toll that suicide elicits, suicide and suicide attempts also carry an economic burden in excess of billions of dollars per year(). In the critical task of addressing this issue, the first step must lie in coming to identify and understand the complex array of factors driving so many to end their lives.
In the struggle to understand the troubling suicide rates prevalent in modern society, many people make the error of considering suicide to be isolated incidents. In looking for an answer to why someone committed suicide, however, one needs to view the relation between the suicide itself and the society at large. By doing so, it becomes evident that the decision to commit suicide is often the result of larger social trends (Mills RP): unemployment due to a poor economy; prejudice or oppression; and deteriorating interpersonal relationships (Mills; Kendal; 1). Modern society, unfortunately, has largely been defined by such negative trends such as war, poverty, and starvation, and possesses core values that function to deteriorate the quality of interpersonal relationships, such as the greed that arises from capitalism (Karl Marx RP).
Even after recognizing the connection between changes in society and changes in suicide rates, the causes for this epidemic are anything but clear. Sociologists from different perspectives have widely varying theories regarding the social influences of suicide rates (Kendal). Some sociologists adhere to the functionalist perspective, which asserts that societies depend on an innate stability derived from shared values and beliefs to function (page). As new ideas and values threaten this stability, consequences develop (page, or RP). The conflict perspective, in contrast, claims that societies constantly experience conflict (Kendal), but that modern values such as consumerism and social class exasperate this struggle, resulting in societal ills (RP). Each explanation, while differing in the specific mechanism of action, however, agrees that the catalyst for increasing suicide rates rests in the rapid evolution of modern society (Kendal).
The functionalist perspective holds several explanations as to why suicide rates might have increased in the modern and postmodern era. Largely, however, these explanations are based on the idea that suicide rates are proportionate to the level of stability and sense of community within a society(); if either variable decreases, suicide rates increase (Kendal). In modern cultures, where technological innovations result in rapid change and urban centres grant complete anonymity, the suicide epidemic observed around the world is a lamentable, but hardly surprising, result. Furthermore, as technology develops and encourages even further changes and innovations, suicide rates will only continue their tragic ascension, as has been illustrated in historical statistics (WHO). An early Functionalist, Emile Durkheim, further elaborated that suicide could be classified into four specific categories, depending on whether the precipitating factor was lack of social stability, or changes to the sense of community (RP).
According to Durkheim, degradation to the community within a culture could produce an egoistic suicide or an altruistic suicide. An egoistic suicide was caused by a lack of social interaction encouraged by emerging values, such as the importance of individualism seen in Western Cultures (). This classification has been used to explain the higher levels of suicide among singles when compared to couples. Altruistic suicide was the opposite; it occurred when an individual was so strongly integrated into a community, that as the society evolved and the community was lost, the individual lost their sense of identity, and thus saw no reason to live.
Losses to social stability, Durkheim claimed, could result in either anomic or fatalistic suicide, depending on the individual's interpretation of the situation. If an individual was convinced that society was in a downward spiral, and that stability would never be regained, they would fall victim to fatalistic suicide (). If, however, instability bred a sense of uncertainty regarding societal expectations, and an individual began questioning their core beliefs , the resulting suicide would be anomic. Although Durkheim typically applied these labels in an exclusive manner, ascribing each suicide only one categorization (), some later sociologists have acknowledged that there can be several sociological causes for suicide; one could kill themselves both because they lost their identity and believed that society was destined to continually degrade.
Unlike the functionalist perspective, which views society as inherently stable, and attributes issues such as suicide to changes in this stability, the conflict perspective maintains that society is constantly in a struggle. The powerful and elite classes fight to maintain their power, and might choose death if they lose it. The oppressed fight to change their fortunes, or fall to despair and possibly suicide. This explanation holds that suicide is influenced largely by one's social class and racial oppression: an assumption that is supported by the horrific rates of suicide present in many Canadian First Nations communities, which are on some reserves more than four times the national average (). First Nations individuals, who are both overrepresented among the lowest socioeconomic classes, and are routine victims of racism and oppression, are heart-rending examples that support the tenements of the conflict perspective's theories on the sociological causes of suicide.
In their ability to explain the suicide epidemic observed in modern societies, each of these perspectives has its own strengths and weaknesses, and in many ways they even share commonalities. Both perspectives acknowledge that suicides are directly and heavily influenced by societal factors (Singh 295; '7' 15). In particular, changes to the interactions between individuals are conceded to be of major concern, with increased conflict, isolation, or lack of cohesion being important antecedents to the decision to commit suicide (Kendal). With such insight, the next steps in the process of rectifying this problem become clear. The current tendency to judge and shun those who have attempted suicide (2), to punish them with the very social factors that may have precipitated their cry for help, needs to be reversed.