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)
As a nursing student, I have had some exposure to death during patient care. My first encounter with direct death was witnessing a patient after attempted resuscitation efforts die in the emergency department. As I observed others reactions, I noticed I was the only one who seemed fazed by the preceding events and the end result, although I didn’t show it outwardly. During my Aging and End of life clinical rotation, I have been exposed to a near death experience with a family and I had the rewarding experience of forming a relationship with the patient’s wife during the short hour I was in their home. From reading the accounts in this book, it confirmed to me the importance of catering to the needs of the family and the dying as an important issue to address as they are critical to overall care.
Dworkin, Gerald. " The Nature of Medicine." Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: For and Against. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998.
Nuland, Sherwin. How we die: Reflections on life's final chapter. New Yord: Vintage Books, 1993. 140-63. Print.
"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 .
Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson Before Dying. N.p.: Vintage, 1994. Open Library. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
John L McIntosh. (2003) . Handbook of Death and Dying. Volume 1: The Presence of Death. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference.
Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth. On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families. London: Routledge, 2009. Print.
‘Being Mortal’ was a fascinating read about a young man who grows in the understanding of death and dying and what matters most in the end. We all have constraints and no matter how well we take care of ourselves and live our life, death comes to us all; and how we meet that end can be very different depending on how we want to spend the last moments of our journey. Medical science has its power and pushes the boundaries of life and death, but it can’t always save you, it won’t always work out the way that you hope it does. Doctors like Atul Gawande struggle to fix everyone’s problem and cure the patients who come into the hospital; but as the book progresses Atul finds that there are ways to handle patients’ lives and it doesn’t always involve
Manu, Constantin D. "Assisted Suicide." Journal of Medicine and Life, vol. 3, no. 1, 2010., pp. 52-9.NC Live. http://nclive.org/cgi-bin/nclsm?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/ 755214846? accountid=13939. Accessed 24 Sept. 2016.
Rachels, Jame. "Active and Passive Euthanasia." New England Journal of Medicine 292 (1975): 78-80. Print.
[3] S. R. Benatar, "Dying and ' euthanasia'," South African Medical Journal = Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif Vir Geneeskunde, vol. 82, pp. 35, 1992.
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.
Frederick, Calvin J. "Death and Dying." Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997: Microsoft Corporation. CD-ROM.
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.
Nonetheless, a different approach is taken as the first stanza introduces ‘the lost company’ which could quite well represent lost ideals or values that once offered what was a company of lovers, which has now become short-term relationships. This emphasis goes on to describe, with passion, the joining of ‘hands together in the night’ of those “who sought many things, throw all away for this one thing, one only” – love.