The Theme Of Death In The Death Of The Funeral Business?

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Death is a concept that people struggle to think about. Although it happens to everyone, the topic of death still causes a sense of not only heartache but avoidance. Even though death could happen at any moment, most people don’t think it would ever happen to them. These people never consider or talk about what they would like to happen if they did die for any reason. Within the short story, The Death of the Funeral Business, there are multiple instances where Sandy Hingston, the author, examines different types of ‘memorial services’. While talking about these different types of services, she investigates the different forms of body disposal. These types of disposal include a burial with funeral, burial without funeral, and cremation. Hinston …show more content…

In todays society it is common for families to have services for the dead, without the full funeral aspect. These are very new rituals that are becoming larger as time goes on. Hingston mentions ways that people set up different types of memorials or rituals by saying “And they do so in a setting whose grandeur-marble, mirrors, crystal, plush rugs- offer tribute to our loss in a solemn, satisfying way” (Hingston 41). Hingston depicts aspects of memorial services to be for the living. She continues to say “It’s an errand too overwhelming for us to face alone” (Hingston 41). People want to feel some type of control after they feel that they have lost it from losing a loved one. By deciding what the room will look like to a memorial service, people feel a sense of authority. With that, the service is decorated with kind reminders of who the deceased was. While not having the body present at the time of services, mourning becomes easier for family and loved ones by looking at pictures and discussing stories. As society is changing, technology is becoming more prevalent. Hingston shares a personal event of when her grandmother passed and only left one picture behind. She then continues to describe the funeral home she visited by saying “the home’s chapels have been fitted with discreet flat-screen TVs, for showing collages and tributes; prayer cards bear photos of the deceased instead of images of Christ. Victor just had a family that wanted to livestream a funeral service overseas” (Hingston 40). This particular quote helps Hingstons audience come to realization that funeral services are not how they were a century ago. Technology has evolved and society is labeling memorial services as not seeing the dead, but remembering them for who they were. Because the body is no longer a necessity for some at services, money and mourning have become less of an issue. Death can be looked at as

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