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 …show more content…
She opens up her essay by saying “How surprised [Yorick] would be to see how his counterpart of today is whisked off to a funeral parlor and is in short order sprayed, sliced, pierced, pickled, trussed, trimmed, creamed, waxed, painted, rouged, and neatly dressed transformed from a common corpse into a Beautiful Memory Picture.”(Mitford) Funerals are meant to protect people from seeing what kind of toll death has on their loved one; to remove the scars of being human. Kubler-Ross touches on this when she says “The more we are making advancements in science, the more we seem to fear and deny the reality of death. How is this possible? We use euphemisms, we make the dead look as if they were asleep” (Kubler-Ross) which connects to her opinion that death is feared and people take responsibility when a loved one dies, even if they had no impact on their death. The eradication of the sense of death is the key reason why the deceased are embalmed. Clifton Bryant discusses that the reason why people want to have their dead embalmed is because of “death anxiety”, that it is the collective phrase for all the different and complex fears of death. He later states that death anxiety is why we tend to have “death denial” and why we tend to avoid it wholly. “Likewise, the use of metaphors or euphemisms that serve to soften the harshness of death (e.g., passed away, deceased, expired) clearly represents a culturally approved attempt to deny or camouflage death's impact on our daily lives.”(Bryant) This reflects well on the point Mitford makes, when she says “[The funeral director] put on a well-oiled performance in which the concept of death played no part whatsoever” (Mitford) Kubler-Ross feels that death being ever increasingly more taboo the more
In Sandy Hingston’s “The death of the funeral business”, the story motivates people into moving into different sets of values or beliefs that weren’t acquainted in their previous ideas. I feel the understanding of change in culture is motivating the author. The time that she is living a time and era in which we as the people search for many ways to have freedom. This includes freedom of choice from the restraints of our own minds such as culture and beliefs we are so accustomed to. Hingston is seeing as a change on how we perceive our body because of the time and era it occurs in. One of the the biggest change in history is the since 1884 which introduced the use cremation. This later rose in popularity overtime in which it finally reached
There is no right or wrong way to grieve (Huffman, 2012, p.183), it is a melancholy ordeal, but a necessary one (Johnson, 2007). In the following: the five stages of grief, the symptoms of grief, coping with grief, and unusual customs of mourning with particular emphasis on mourning at its most extravagant, during the Victorian era, will all be discussed in this essay (Smith, 2014). In 1969 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a psychiatrist, published the Pioneering book
In “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain,” Jessica Mitford presents an intriguing, if unnerving, argument for the generality of death and the funeral business specifically in the United States. She explains that the role of the funeral director has evolved to the point that he (or she) “has put on a well-oiled performance in which the concept of death played no part whatsoever”. Embalming plays a principal role in this exhibit because it is the method through which the funeral industry can present the deceased in a manner that will make them appear as presentable or “not as dead as they should look” as is possible, given their limitations. Embalming and presenting the dead has spawned a vast supporting market into which, Mitford notes, Americans
Death occurs daily and is a normal part of life. People see death in a condescending perspective, as it signifies the end of one’s living, but fail to see how death presents an individual’s journey. It is a cycle that has ultimately come to an end. Yet, America rather desire to depict death as controllable factor as many headfast think of preparing for their looks when death comes closer. Many Americans have come to dsire to acquire the embalming process without fully comprehending what goes on behind the scene.In “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtains,” Mitford uses metaphor, imagery, and a logical appeal to enlighten the audience of the underlying reality of embalming as a irrational procedural custom America has deemed as the norm with ignorance
Forensic toxicology is one of the oldest disciplines in forensic science history and dates back hundreds of years. However, the actual understanding and examination of forensic toxicology only dates back for about 200 years. Due to the development of technology, this discipline has been able to progress and flourish.
Herman published The Meaning of Death in 1959 a piece of writing that would galvanize the interest for psychologists to study death. Prior to publication, Feifel joined the Air Force in 1942 as a psychologist for pilots during WWII and became very intrigued that the best pilots didn’t think about death (Herman, 1990). In addition, during the screening of pilots they were never asked about how they felt about death, what would happen to their family if they die, and what they would consider a dignified death (Herman, 1990). During the Holocaust Feifel witnessed the manslaughter of the Jewish population, he was surrounded by death. Throughout Feifels experiences and the death of his mother in 1952, he wanted to investigate the thought process of death at the conscious level and the unconscious level (Herman, 1990). Until Feifel began investing the psychology of death and how people felt about death itself, there was very little research on death. His research and commitment revealed the importance of studying death attitudes, and those actually facing life-threatening
...o keep our eyes from anything resembling death at a funeral of all places. Our society has shifted from family members cleaning dead bodies on their kitchen tables and having open caskets, to some stranger cleaning our dead relative and never seeing the body of the dead at the funeral. We now mourn in private and don’t want others to know the hurt of such a tragedy. This is a huge pendulum swing from the ancient Greeks who would pull out their hair and shave their heads as a sign of mourning. Luckily, sociologists are seeing the pendulum begin to swing back to public mourning.
While reviewing "The Funeral" the first thing that became apparent was the title. A funeral is ceremony held in connection with the burial of a dead person. So already just by looking at the title we become aware that we are dealing with a dead body. Death, in some cultures, is the separation of the body from the soul. The soul continues to live and may even find shelter in another body.
The Victorians had a precise view of the “perfect death” that was similar to societies current view of a good death. Most deaths occurred at home because hospitals would not admit extremely sick or dying patients if they knew medical care couldn’t help (Mitchel 160). The “perfect death” allowed a person to fade into death in the comfort of their own home, surrounded by their loved ones (Cedar Hill Cemetery). A dying person would be visited by all family and friends so they could say goodbye and offer advice for the future. Death was not feared by the Victorians (Cedar Hill Cemetery). This idea parallels most people’s current views of a good death; an unexpected death is feared by most people now as much as it was then. Once the “perfect death” occurred, families kept the body in their home before it was buried.
Is there such a thing as free will, what is the relationship between mind and body, and the true difference between right and wrong are a few questions about human existence that have plagued philosophers and average men alike since the days of Socrates and Aristotle. While not everyone may pay these questions much attention, there is one philosophical thought that has probably crossed the mind of every human at some point in time, and that is the concept of death and what happens after. There are widespread thoughts about what happens postmortem which range from the idea of immortality during the days of the ancient Greeks to the belief in reincarnation that is associated with many Eastern religions. These beliefs, along with others similar to them, provide some with a sort of safety net because they know that their essence (soul, spirit, etc.) will continue to exist after they pass. That being said, not everyone shares these opinions and for some the idea of death can be frightening. Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise examines this fear through Jack Gladney and several other characters. While the novel does not offer any answers, it does stimulate thought regarding death in modern society and how it should be handled. Although many of the characters try to do things such as ignore or embrace their fear in order to get it off their minds, Jack cannot shake his angst, all of which mirroring the various reactions people in today’s society have regarding death.
Death is something that no one wants to go through or have to deal with, especially concerning the loss of loved ones. Unfortunately, it is not possible to go through life without experiencing this loss. Throughout the past several decades, the way that we view death and the funeral industry has changed significantly. Recently, it has seemed much more apparent that funeral industries are using death as a means of getting rich. But why?
Kubler-Ross passionately expresses her empathetic thoughts regarding loneliness and seclusion as related to death. She writes, "our presumed patient has now reached the emergency room. He will be surrounded by nurses, orderlies, interns, residents, and lab technicians, he slowly but surely is beginning to be treated like a thing." Here she certainly reefers to the impersonality demonstrated by friends, family, and caretakers alike during an ailing patient’s last minutes. The ...
in the short stories a Rose for Miss Emily, the Lottery and the drama Before Breakfast there is one theme they all have in common, death. People handle death in their own way some mourn for the loss of a loved one others fear death even if it’s for the benefit of others and some even take their own lives to escape a miserable life on this earth. Only by watching people and how they react to death is the only way of knowing how certain people handle death. In these three stories the author uses diction to display the human condition, shock of death.
Jessica Mitford uses several different quotes to bring written explanations to how the process of embalming works and to also support her view that embalming is a horrible process. After reading these quotes, an uneasy and negative feeling towards the practice and the people who perform and support it. The reason being is that Mitford uses quotes that use a passive tone towards the subject being talked about. She also uses quotes that make it personal to the reader. By quoting these specific words and phrases, Mitford portrays embalming and those who perform it as insensitive to the postmortem ceremony.
We as people try to avoid the unpleasant things we witness in society, and from these observations it looks like people aren’t away of just how busy embalmers can be. This lack of understanding can also cause misconceptions to be created. The life of an embalmer busy and always moving, yet hardly anyone knows exactly what they do, and I plan on rectifying that. For this essay I will tell you about three of the weirdest misconceptions that I have come across, I will show you how these misconceptions are wrong by telling you how things are properly done. Let me introduce you to the world of embalming, and show you that the misconceptions