Death is one of the only true constants in the universe and is the only guarantee in life. Everyone knows of death and everyone will experience it, but to the living death is still one of life's greatest mysteries. In some cultures death is celebrated and embraced, while in others it is feared. However it is perceived, death holds different meanings for different people. Through the art of poetry a writer can give a reader many different outlooks and maybe a better understanding of life and death.
Death is always an interesting topic for discussion. Individuals will respond differently to it emotionally and physically. Some will see it as a nuisance and attempt to remain as busy as they can to not think of it but once death catches up to us we hope and pray that there is an afterlife where we can continue living. Others will do anything in their power to fight against it and make sure that they live their life to the fullest. These individuals are determined to leave some trace of them behind before it is too late. There are a few individuals who find the beauty in death. As if death is all around us and we simply need to take the time to look at it. In any case death is something we will encounter and in Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, Thomas’s, “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”, and Seuss’s “Still-Life with Turkey” we are shown these different viewpoints in very different and unique ways.
In this essay I wrote about examples of stories that have incorporated the fear of death. The theme of fearing death has come up a lot in literature history. These stories have been inspired by diseases and
Two people die every second on average in the world. Death is a major theme in human lives; it appears in many different forms. People might see the death of a famous person in the news; a family member could die, getting a bad report card making parents want to “kill” you. It’s around even if it’s unnoticeable. Humans love to read about death and tragedies; many authors’ ideas for books now revolve around the theme of death. One such author by the name of Ernest Hemingway loves to use the theme of death. Death seems to pop up in a lot of his books and short stories. He was born in Illinois but spent much of his childhood hunting and fishing with his father alongside the banks of Lake Michigan. Memories of his childhood often reflect in his writing. Starting his career as a news reporter for the Toronto Daily Star, Hemingway launched his career into action. He became the author of many books and wrote quite a few short story collections. His books often contained the element of death. He wove death into his reader’s minds through his intricate stories. ...
Death is a highly personal event. It affects each of us differently. It affected Peter Kocan's man in the City Cafeteria by making him look empty and disoriented. It affected Dylan Thomas by making him think about what there was afterward, and what you could do to avoid it. Death even affected Robert Lowell by making him realise how much it changed his life. I, fortunately, seem to have avoided death in many ways, but also have been touched by it, even recently.
To reach some understanding of the important affects that death can have, we must first explore the devastatingly real shock that the end of something so permanent as life must provide. No one can ever truly know what the feeling of death is like until they actually feel it for themselves, but for the purpose of this exercise, let us imagine what it must closely resemble. Words such as afraid, daunting, intimidated, unsure, confusion, hopelessness, sorrow, and countless others spring to mind. The actual realization that death is very near must be unbearably weird, for it is something that is as much a part of life as birth, yet is totally unprepared for in our culture, as evidenced when Morrie says, “Everyone knows they’re going to die…but nobody believes it. If we did we would do things differently';(Albom81). We as a society are too consumed by material possessions, money, and status and the way in which these ends are met leaves little time for people and the development of relationships--which is the key to leading a meaningful life...
Thesis: Death is a not that bad of guy as the story tells is side of the story. Death does many things when taking the dead to the afterlife. Death is a kind and caring person who actually seems to be forced into doing this.
The word “death” is unique. In fact, we can imply both peaceful and horrific in it. Moreover, death definitely has a powerful message that nobody is ever prepared for it. We are not only unprepared at the loss of beloved one, but also the loss of our own life. The fear of death is related to the uncertainty of what follows death since nobody comes back to tell of an afterlife. Based on national polling in 1997, “Heaven is not just in your mind: It's a real place”, says 88 percent of a national sample of adults interviewed by Opinion Dynamics for Fox News. However, the poll found that far fewer Americans, 71 percent, believe in hell (Morin). It is not to surprise that many poems have been written on the topic of death: some offer ways to live life before death, some show the grieving for a loved one’s death, some depict inability to escape from death, and some tell about facing death itself. Gwendolyn Brooks, W.H. Auden, Emily Dickinson, and Randall Jarrell wrote poems about death and tried to explore the curiosity by creating a death scene that is familiar to the living. Through a good style of writing, vivid imagery and effective symbolism, these poems all created to be understood universally as the acceptance of death.
...t ourselves to and bring some sort of understanding to its power and ability to overwhelm us or to even show how some can conquer death by accepting it and many other ways. The two ideas that, We say that the hour of death cannot be forecast. But when we say this, we imagine that the hour is placed in an obscure and distant future. It never occurs to us that it has any connection with the day already begun, or that death could arrive this same afternoon - this afternoon which is so certain, and which has every hour filled in advance.(Final Destination) and “You only live twice: Once when you're born And once when you look death in the face.”(Fleming) Both those quotes work together in understand why we should respect death and how we should face it because no one can run away from, so rather you take it as a force or personify it, respect it because we all must die.
If I had to pick one presidential era to live in, I would choose the Lyndon B. Johnson era, 1965-1969. I would choose this era because of all the things that happened throughout the presidency. During this time, I would have most likely decided to be a hippie. This would have been the most interesting life to live, in my opinion, because everything was so smooth. I would live a life without judgment, while experimenting with the wonders of the sixties. Throughout this era, I would have listened to a wide variety of music from the era, much like I do now. I would not agree with everything in the presidency, such as the Vietnam War continuation, especially if I were living the hippie life.