The main character in Amy Hempel's "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried" realizes she is a fearful person. She has a fear of death. The fear she has for death prevents her from becoming open about the topic because she is not able to speak about the topic. The narrator often uses different forms of denial to show this fear she has for death. She uses humor like when she reads the newspaper about the man who robbed the bank with a chicken as a distraction. Her fear of death hits her most when her friend asks her to spend the night. She seems to show the most discomfort by saying, "Then it hit me like an open coffin. She wants every minute, I thought. She wants my life." Though towards the end she tries to face her fear by signing up for
a "Fear of flying" class she admits that she is a fearful person but still refuses to confront death by saying, "I remember only the useless things I hear." When the narrator goes back to the story about a chimpanzee that uses a form of language that is an attempt at communication with the dead child. Through that story, the narrator uses it as a confrontation to the topic of being fearful for death. The encounter shows that the narrator has grown.
In the essay “On the Fear of Death” Elisabeth Kubler-Ross focuses on dying and the effects it has on children as well as those who are dying, while in Jessica Mitford’s “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” focuses more on the after fact when the deceased is being prepared of their last appearance. Both authors, point out that the current attitude toward death is to simply cover it up. A successful funeral is when the deceased looks “Lyf Lyk” in Mitford’s Essay, but in Kubler-Ross’ it is dying at a peace with oneself, no IVs attached. Both authors feel that the current views of death is dehumanizing. Mitford points this out with the allusion that the funeral parlors are a theatrical play, while Kubler-Ross comments “I think there are many reasons
Edgar Allen Poe's story, The Premature Burial, explores the narrator's concern of being buried alive. The theme is that you simply will overcome your fears as long as you do not target the dark and dreary things in life. Throughout the complete story, the talker is consumed by his fears. He has catalepsy, that could be a wellbeing within which the person cannot move or speak. This condition will last from hours to months. The talker doesn't need to be alone however he doesn't need to be around folks as a result of he's afraid that they're going to suppose that he's dead. "No event is so terribly well adapted to inspire complete distress, as is burial before death." The talker goes through different incidents of individuals being buried alive
For each of us, death is a subject that not only fascinates, but creates fear in our hearts as well. Death is something we avoid in our minds with the hope that it will not touch us. As a society we all fear death; especially in violent cases, which occur naturally and arise through the unusual forces in our society. When such an event takes place we want revenge. In Dead Man Walking, the parents of the murdered girl are left with so much anger that they verbally attack Sister Helen Prejean, when they find out she is still on Matthew Poncelet’s side.
African American reactions to death and loss can be traced to their African roots, their centuries of slavery, their commitment to Christianity, and their post-slavery treatment in American society. Among those to explore death and dying in twentieth-century African America is author Karla FC Holloway. In her book Passed On: African American Mourning Stories: a Memorial Collection, Holloway thoroughly investigated the myths, rituals, economics, and politics of African American mourning and burial practices, and found that ways of dying are just as much a part of black history as ways of living.
In Amy Hempel’s Short Story “Going,” we take part in a journey with the narrator through loss, coping, memory, experience, and the duality of life. Throughout the story we see the narrator’s struggle through coping with the loss of his mother, and how he moves from a mixture of depression, denial, and anger, to a form of acceptance and revelation. The narrator has lost his mother to a fire three states away, and goes on a reckless journey through the desert, when he crashes his car and ends up hospitalized. Only his thoughts and the occasional nurse to keep him company. He then reaches a point of discovery and realizations that lead to a higher understanding of mortality, and all of the experiences that come with being alive.
In the contract of life, there are numerous requirements. Every living being must be able to reproduce, practice homeostasis, consume energy, and adapt. However, there is one component of life that facilitators don’t include in their lesson plans: death. While all living organisms must have the ability to perform certain tasks in order to be considered living, all life must come to an end. Death is not a matter of if, but when. Many humans share a common fear of losing a loved one, yet authors utilize death to convey a profound meaning within their novel. In the first paragraph Bill Barich’s novel, Laughing in the Hills, he uses the inevitability of death to supply the reader with insight on the theme of his writing.
American authors thrived in the 19th century more than any other time in history. Two central figures of this American Renaissance were Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allen Poe. These two authors primarily wrote dark fiction about the subjects of death, love, and nature. Not only is the general subject matter between Dickinson and Poe similar, but there are also parallels between their speakers. Many of their works contain a first-person narrator who displays drastic psychological states and is aware of an overwhelming presence of death. This is most notable in Dickinson’s “I Felt a Funeral” when her speaker implies with the internal funeral that she is becoming mad and how in “Because I could not stop for Death” she shows mortality as imminent;
The cemetery my grandfather is buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, one of the largest cemeteries in the New York City area. It’s filled with people of all backgrounds and nationalities that came to the city and surrounding area. It has become home to many people as it was created in 1917 and it’s still active to this day, showing exactly one hundred years of progression. The location of the cemetery’s first plots is important to begin with, because New York City is an urban and central hub for lots of the world, the cemetery being outside the city in Westchester County is done on purpose. A cemetery can be a somewhat depressing sight, so it’s placed away from everyone and where they will only see it if they travel out to. It creates a separation between “us and them” (233). Because of the large number of residents from New York City are buried there, the cemetery’s origins start the progressive story of how it grew. The beginning of the cemetery tells a great deal about who was living there at the time. The original tombstones had all of the last names seemed to be
There is probably no one, among people, who has not considered death as a subject to think about or the events, people, and spirits that they would face after death. Also, since we were little kids we were asking our parents what death is and what is going to happen after we die. People have always linked death with fear, darkness, depression, and other negative feelings but not with Emily Dickinson, who was a reclusive poet from Massachusetts who was obsessed with death and dying in her tons of writings. She writes “Because I could not stop for Death” and in this particular poem she delivers a really different idea of death and the life after death. In the purpose of doing that, the speaker encounters death which was personalized to be in a form of gentleman suitor who comes to pick her up with his horse-drawn carriage for a unique death date that will last forever. In fact, she seems completely at ease with the gentleman. Additionally, their journey at the beginning seems pretty peaceful; as they pass through the town, she sees normal events such as children who are playing, fields of grain, and a sunset. After this, dusk takes place and the speakers gets chilly because she was not ready for this journey and she did not wear clothes that would make her feel warm. Consequently, readers get the idea that death is not a choice, so when it comes, that is it. Emily Dickinson, in her poem “Because I could not stop for Death,” uses personification, imagery, and style to deliver her positive and peaceful idea of death and life after death.
It is common for those experiencing grief to deny the death altogether. Many people do this by avoiding situations and places that remind them of the deceased (Leming & Dickinson, 2016). However, by simply avoiding the topic of death and pain, the mourner only achieves temporary relief while in turn creating more permanent lasting agony (Rich, 2005). In this stage, mourners will begin to feel the full weight of the circumstance. Whether the death of a loved one was sudden or long-term, survivors will feel a full range of emotions, such as sadness, guilt, anger, frustration, hopelessness, or grief. While many of these emotions can cause serious suffering, it is important for the survivor to feel whatever emotions come up and deal with those feelings, rather than trying to suppress any
In Don DeLillo’s White Noise, death is an issue that is touched upon greatly. Death is everywhere. Death surrounds every aspect of every characters’ life in any shape or form, which eventually leads to the repression or acceptance of death. However, characters such as Babette and Jack have a pathological fear of death that it hinders they from functioning properly in their everyday lives. Different characters in the novel have different viewpoints on death, and this is solely due to death being forever uncertain. In addition, Jack, the protagonist of the novel, represses death by scrounging up the materialistic possessions that he obtains such as the status he has earned. Through symbolism, motif, and characterization, DeLillo implies that
In our lives, we go through stages of mindset and maturity that naturally coincide with aging. One thing that remains the same, though, through all of these stages, is that eventually, we die; we are completely aware of that as humans. Whether because it’s due to the painful reality that is mortality, our ever-diminishing ability to be wistful and imaginative, or merely the impending coming of the Grim Reaper, our entire lives are, ironic as it is, surrounded by and flooded with death. However, as we grow older, our perception of death changes. It goes from taboo in our young ages to something that begins to surround and eventually consume us as we grow older. Between the poems “For the Anniversary of my Death” by
Emily Dickinson became legendary for her preoccupation with death. All her poems contain stanzas focusing on loss or loneliness, but the most striking ones talk particularly about death, specifically her own death and her own afterlife. Her fascination with the morose gives her poems a rare quality, and gives us insight into a mind we know very little about. What we do know is that Dickinson’s father left her a small amount of money when she was young. This allowed her to spend her time writing and lamenting, instead of seeking out a husband or a profession. Eventually, she limited her outside activities to going to church. In her early twenties, she began prayed and worshipped on her own. This final step to total seclusion clearly fueled her obsession with death, and with investigating the idea of an afterlife. In “Because I could not stop for Death”, Dickinson rides in a carriage with the personification of Death, showing the constant presence of death in her life. Because it has become so familiar, death is no longer a frightening presence, but a comforting companion. Despite this, Dickinson is still not above fear, showing that nothing is static and even the most resolute person is truly sure of anything. This point is further proven in “I heard a Fly buzz”, where a fly disrupts the last moment of Dickinson’s life. The fly is a symbol of death, and of uncertainty, because though it represents something certain—her impending death—it flies around unsure with a “stumbling buzz”. This again illustrates the changing nature of life, and even death. “This World is not Conclusion” is Dickinson’s swan song on the subject of afterlife. She confirms all her previous statements, but in a more r...
When he finds himself before the tombstone, something is different. A fresh spray of roses has been laid upon the grave. Kneeling down, he runs a finger along one rose, the blossom still curling with life. Pale petals drenched in dew, leaves like wax, thorns jagged and defiant. His eyes search the grave for a trace of this new intruder. He is curious but miffed; he had believed himself to be the only visitor here. He felt a sense of belonging with the grave, as though his own name should be scrawled beneath that of the deceased. He wishes that he had felt closer with the fleshless creature now sheltered within the grave. They had been friends and almost lovers, nearly united as one, all the fragments fitting together--but then the passing of time tore them in half. Where life has failed them, death is infinitely more skilled; it brings them unbearably close.
... The concept of death is commonly associated with negative feelings, sadness and grief. The fear of death consumes many victims. No one can control when or where death will come for them. However, if the fear of death takes precedence over the joy of life, then the experiences life has to offer will be missed. Life and death should not be viewed as opposing forces, but rather as an opportunity to enjoy playing the game of life, just as Nat did while playing a game of gin rummy when confronted by Death. The prominent focus of Woody Allen’s play Death Knocks is to combat the fear of death with humor and to relieve the anxiety associated with this inevitable life event.