The new South Africa was a vast and violent city were a lot of death happened, meaning there was a lot of funerals which is why Toloki is a professional mourner. He would dress up with dignity in threadbare suit, battered top hat, cape to just comfort the grieving family, since it was his profession.
“I tell you mothers and fathers, there is death out there. Soon we shall experience the death of birth itself if we go on at this rate” (Busisiwe Magocoba)
These words in the novel are said at a funeral that Toloki attends in his professional capacity. Toloki has been paid well for his services. It was the biggest amount he had received for one funeral. Toloki wanted to do his best work in so that the grieving family can see their money’s worth.
These words are said by the nurse at this funeral. The nurse had been the sister of the man that was to be buried. The brother of the nurse had passed away under unusual circumstances; he had left home saying that he was going to visit his sister. Since that day no one had seen him alive again.
The family of the brother, having looked everywhere for him, had given up all hope of finding him. The nurse/sister determined to find her brother, went searching for him at the government mortuary. She searched room after room of dead bodies but still could not find him. She had seen so many dead bodies that she could not take it anymore. She eventually found her brother by identifying the clothes he was wearing on the day he was last seen.
The nurse having seen so much death said these words. The nurse was trying to convey that there was so much death out there. Having witnessed it first-hand she was certainly an expert. The nurse had seen “…bodies of old and young men and women, beautiful gi...
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...97. Ways of Dying, Zakes Mda's novel of transition. Catastrophe and Beauty: [Online]. ISSN 0258-2279 79, 1-5. Available at: http://kanganof.com/kangablog/2010/10/14/catastrophe-and-beauty-ways-of-dying-zakes-mda%E2%80%99s-novel-of-the-transition [Accessed 04 May 2014]. (Busisiwe Magocoba)
Kirkus Reviews. 2002. Ways of Dying by Zakes Mda. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/zakes-mda/ways-of-dying. [Accessed 04 May 14] (Busisiwe Magocoba)
Padraig O’Malley. 2000. Chapter 7: Political Violence in the era of negotiations and transition, 1990-1994. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02167/04lv2264/05lv02335/06lv02357/07lv02372/08lv02379.htm. [Accessed 04 May 14]. (Busisiwe Magocoba)
Mda, Z, 1996. Ways of Dying. 2nd ed. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa (Busisiwe Magocoba)
Dworkin, Gerald. " The Nature of Medicine." Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: For and Against. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998.
For this essay I have chosen to discuss the Asabano of Papua New Guinea and how they have dealt with death before and after accepting Christianity. I will be addressing this topic in such a way that is true to the Asabano traditions and beliefs. As their practices with regards to how they had approached their deceased are very closely related to their beliefs in ancestral powers, magic, and witchcraft, and had an immense impact on their lives.
The funeral was supposed to be a family affair. She had not wanted to invite so many people, most of them strangers to her, to be there at the moment she said goodbye. Yet, she was not the only person who had a right to his last moments above the earth, it seemed. Everyone, from the family who knew nothing of the anguish he had suffered in his last years, to the colleagues who saw him every day but hadn’t actually seen him, to the long-lost friends and passing acquaintances who were surprised to find that he was married, let alone dead, wanted to have a last chance to gaze upon him in his open coffin and say goodbye.
Bibliography: Phillips. D.Z. (1970) Death and Immortality. Macmillan and Co Ltd, London.
Ponting, Clive. “The Changing Face of Death” in “A Green History of the World.” St.
Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson Before Dying. N.p.: Vintage, 1994. Open Library. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
"We have lost an outrageous number of Nurses and Drs., and the little town of Ayer is a sight. It takes Special trains to carry away the dead. For several days there were no coffins and the bodies piled up something fierce, we used to go down to the morgue (which is just back of my ward) and look at the boys laid out in long rows .
Horgan, John., Johnson, Johnny.. "Trends in Healthcare: Seeking a Better Way to Die." Scientific American 276. (1997):100-105. eLibrary. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
The concept between life and death cannot simply exist without one another, where the topic is widely discussed throughout “When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi. This memoir explores Paul’s definition of death as he passes through the distinct “stages” of his life. As Paul progresses through each stage, he views death differently as he transformed from a student to a neurosurgeon, neurosurgeon to a patient, and eventually becoming a father, where he needed to take full responsibility as an adult.
The concept of human mortality and how it is dealt with is dependent upon one’s society or culture. For it is the society that has great impact on the individual’s beliefs. Hence, it is also possible for other cultures to influence the people of a different culture on such comprehensions. The primary and traditional way men and women have made dying a less depressing and disturbing idea is though religion. Various religions offer the comforting conception of death as a begining for another life or perhaps a continuation for the former.
Frederick, Calvin J. "Death and Dying." Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997: Microsoft Corporation. CD-ROM.
DuNann Winter, D., & Leighton, D. C. (2001 ). Structural Violence . Peace, conflict, and violence: Peace psychology in the 21st. New York : Prentice-Hall.
The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda is far different from any other novel that we were assigned to read for apartheid in South Africa class. I had quite a love/hate relationship for the book, for it intrigued me, but I had to read it far too fast and don’t think that I got the true value of the book as I speed-read it. The first thing I noticed about the novel was of course the colorful cover, but when I thought about the title long enough I noticed that it sounded vaguely familiar. I had to read the Heart of Darkness while in high school, and not until I researched the book a little on the internet, was I able to actually correlate the title between the two. Apparently, the title Heart of Redness is actually an allusion to the Heart of Darkness by presenting an opposite presentation of the themes.
Ways of Dying is a spectacular novel by Zakes Mda, written during the apartheid era, which was a horrific time for South Africans who were abused and murdered by their corrupt government. Zakes Mda was able to provide a sense of history, comedy and hope all into one novel and that any reader would enjoy to read.
I was very excited to take Death and Dying as a college level course. Firstly, because I have always had a huge interest in death, but it coincides with a fear surrounding it. I love the opportunity to write this paper because I can delve into my own experiences and beliefs around death and dying and perhaps really establish a clear personal perspective and how I can relate to others in a professional setting.