Draft 1:
Grace Tutt
Professor Jesse Miller
ENG 110-H5
11/27/2019
(Your task: Using DFW and two other texts we’ve read, expand on David Foster Wallace’s claim that “there are limits to what even interested persons can ask of each other.” In a 1500 word essay (PLUS a Works Cited page), summarize Wallace’s argument and explain how the other authors’ ideas of your choosing* connect/overlap/come into conflict with/complicate DFW’s thinking, and to what extent.)
Reconsidering human’s thoughts. What are humans willing to think about and what aren’t we willing to think about? Humans push certain subjects away that they are nervous or not willing to talk to one another about. Humans shy away from the thought of death and having to deal with it they also shy away from the thought of killing animals. As portrayed in these three articles by David F. Wallace, Caitlin Doughty and in the article Animals Like Us. These three articles show how humans aren’t always comfortable talking about death in their families. People shy away from also thinking about the thoughts of animals and how we don’t think for a second when we kill certain ones but then on others we have a conscious that tells us that it is bad. Death isn’t as scary and bad as everyone portrays it to be. Death should be more of a celebration and a time in our lives to really show how important life was to us and the people around us.
Death shouldn’t be a bad thing, I myself have gone through the process of dealing with deaths and seeing how it affects the ones around me.
Draft 2: 500 Words
Reconsidering humans thoughts. What are humans willing to think about and what aren’t we willing to think about? Humans push certain subjects away that they are nervous or not willing to talk to one another about. We shy away from the thought of death and having to deal with in our own families and or the pets and animals that live around us. As portrayed in these three articles by David F. Wallace, Caitlin Doughty and Jessica Mitford.These three articles show how humans aren’t always comfortable talking about death in there families. People more away from the thought of also deaths with animals and how we don’t think for a second when we kill certain ones but than on others we have a conscious that tells us that it is bad. Death isn’t as scary and bad as everyone portrays it to be. Death should be more of a celebration and a time in our lives to really show how important that life was to us and the people around us.
I see death as being a closure time you have your final goodbyes with the loved one that you have lost. It shouldn’t be a rushed period many humans want to just hurry the process to get it over with. In all reality it’s understood why humans want to rush this sad period of time but it shouldn’t be, but what it should be is more of a time to think back with all the time you had with this person and when it comes to the thought of death it should be more of a happy time.
Death shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing, I myself have gone through the process of dealing with deaths and seeing how it affects the ones around me. In Doughty’s interview she talked about how important her job is,but also how much it does affect her. Doughty was very strong about the points she made many had to do with the involvement of the family and how much she wished that they would be more in the process of death. “I think that we’ve been so hidden from death in this culture for such a long time that it’s very refreshing and liberating to talk about death in an open, honest manner.” This claim that Doughty makes about her philosophy is very true. Humans have had to deal with death for millions of years, continuing to hide from the thought of death that if we were to be open about death it would be questioned, but the thought of being open about it would be more refreshing and more of a relief than having to be so uptight about death.
As well as Doughty’s thoughts on the involvement Jessica Mitford talks about the process of death as well and what the job consists of. There are multiple options when it comes to death but considering that many humans aren’t educated in the field of forensic science they don’t know the process of what happens in the morticians stance.
Draft 3 1500 words:
Grace Tutt
Professor Jesse Miller
ENG 110-H5
27 Nov 2019
Reconsidering The Thought of Death
Reconsidering the human thoughts we only think about the things we want to. What are humans willing to think about and what aren’t we willing to think about? We push difficult subjects away that we are nervous or not willing to talk to one another about. We shy away from the thought of death and having to deal with it in our own families and or the pets and animals that live around us. People move away from the thought of also deaths with animals and how we don’t think for a second when we kill certain ones, but then on others, we have a conscious that tells us that it is bad. Death isn’t as scary and bad as everyone portrays it to be. Death should be more of a celebration and a time in our lives to really show how important life was to us and the people around us.
I see death as being a good closure time to have your final goodbyes with the loved one that you have lost. It shouldn’t be a rushed period, many humans want to hurry the process to get it over with. This time should be used to reconsider a difficult loss. We should think openly about both the good memories and the realities that our loved one is gone and we should accept and adapt to that. Like said by Herzog on the last page there is such a thing called a “troubled middle”, but he reassures you that it is okay to be on either side. It’s okay to be conflicted about the topic of death and final goodbyes. In all reality, it is understandable why we as humans want to rush this sad period of time because it brings so much emotion all at once but it shouldn’t. What it should be is more of a time to think back on all the time you had with this person and when it comes to the thought of death it should be more of a happy time. I think it is okay for this time to be full of emotions, but we also have to think back on the life that we are choosing to celebrate. Emotions happen when a death happens and then when memories recur. Some people have a hard time accepting death and it affects them in a negative way, when a death occurs, we as humans tell stories to keep the spirit alive. But, what I think is some humans have a hard time thinking about their future without this person and they struggle with it. We can’t think about this death as a negative when the anniversary of this death comes around think of it more in a positive way, remembering all of the positive this person brought to you and your life. In our culture we normally do a funeral to celebrate this life which I think is great, but we also need to think about who it affects and how much time is put into what we decide to do with the corpse. As portrayed in three different articles by David F. Wallace, Caitlin Doughty and Jessica Mitford. These three articles show how the authors reflect on death and its connection with humans.
Usually death is seen more as a negative situation, but in all reality it shouldn’t be. I myself have gone through the process of dealing with deaths and seeing how it affects the ones around me. In Doughty’s interview she talked about how important her job is,but also how much it does affect her. Doughty talks very strongly about the points she made, and many had to do with the involvement in the family and how much she wished that they would be more in the process of death. Like Doughty said, “I think that we’ve been so hidden from death in this culture for such a long time that it’s very refreshing and liberating to talk about death in an open, honest manner.” This claim that Doughty makes about her philosophy is very true. Humans have had to deal with death for millions of years, continuing to hide from the thought of death that if we were to be open about death, it would be questioned, but the thought of being open about it would be more refreshing and more of a relief than having to be so uptight about death. This period of time is understood to be a difficult time but we have to think of all of the memories this person has brought to our life. We have to stay positive about the time we did spend with them and we can let it drag on with us for our whole life or else we won’t be able to move on and heal from this difficult time in our life. We can’t stay shielded forever from death it is going to happen to everyone of us but us as humans do not want to accept that fact maybe once we accept that we are not going to live forever maybe life will be easier and better.
Along the same lines as Doughty’s thoughts on the involvement of the process of being a mortician Jessica Mitford also talks about her process of death and what her job consists of. There are multiple options when it comes to death, but considering that many humans are not educated in the field of forensic science they do not know the process of what happens in the morticians stance. There is so much more done behind the scenes than on the day of the funeral where the body is presented for the people who choose to come for thirty minutes to an hour. Many days are put in to make the body ready for the funeral there are so many steps from draining the blood to sewing body limbs back together to make sure everything looks connected. “These some 120 hours of labor are the basic value on which the cost of funerals rests.The hours that the morticians put in the make sure the body looks presentable is crazy. There are humans out there who find this normal, there days start when they wake up for their job knowing they have to come to work and take care of this diseased body. They are just trying to get through their checklist on this body to have it done in time for the funeral service that you’re doing for this person. By the end of this process many say how the human that they knew just looks completely different is this inhuman on the person? How about the thought of respect the hours of work that you are putting this body through this is exhausting for the body would this person really want you putting them through this many hours of the embalming.
The footnote 20 page 509 of Consider The Lobster. Wallace talks about how humans have a hard time deciding between wrong and right. It’s truly all about what you believe in the end, many have a hard time and are “on the fence” about their opinions on what’s wrong and what’s right. Many apply the phrase “what’s best” what is best for me, and what is right in this situation. This applies to how humans have a hard time accepting death and the situations related to it. Why have we been sheltered from it for so long that now humans hide from the fact of dealing with it. This time is okay to be hard and it’s okay to have a lot of decisions to make but we shouldn’t hide our feelings and shelter how we are feeling to just rush this period of time. This time should be spent around family and really remember the person or loved one who we have just lost. But, we should also accept it and move on because we shouldn’t let this hold us back from what we need to do in life.
Like most people, we are tempted to hide away from the topic of death and sometimes I myself shy away from the topic when it is about the people we love in our lives. Its generally natural to shy away from this, but it is something we have to accept it is going to happen to each and every human. But, the thing we can control is the way in which we deal with the situation the things we can do to ease the pain. When we make things more complicated than it needs to be we put so much pressure on ourselves.
Works Cited
“Consider the Lobster.” Consider the Lobster, by David Foster. Wallace et al., Ascensius Press, 2011.
Doughty, Caitlin. “A Mortician Talks Openly About Death, And Wants You To, Too.” NPR, NPR, 8 Oct. 2014, www.npr.org/2014/10/08/352765943/a-mortician-talks-openly-about-death-and-wants-you-to-too.
Herzog, Hal. “Animals Like Us – Features – Utne Reader.” Utne, 2011, www.utne.com/environment/animals-like-us-human-pet-relationships.
Mitford, Jessica. 1917-1996,“The American Way of Death Revisited.”
