Analysis Of Carl Sandburg's Cool Tombs

Everyone knows that death is inevitable, yet strangely, when the subject of death emerges, fear is evident in people’s faces and tone of voice. When deeply examining works of art, such as Gladiator, Myths to Live By, and world tragedies such as the horrific event that took place on September 11, 2001, the reality of death is a prime focus of human culture. Death is an event that everyone in the world will endure; however, human beings can’t live in fear with the thought of one day staring death in its face.

But nobody knows what’s going on inside the preparation room, all they see is their deceased relative, good as new, when they walk by the open casket during the funeral. Mitford depicts the American funeral industry’s manipulation of death throughout the essay with either blatant or thinly-veiled verbal irony. In the last paragraph, Mitford states that the funeral director has put on a “well-oiled performance" where "the concept of death played no part whatsoever”, unless providing it was “inconsiderately mentioned” by the funeral conductors. This is extremely ironic because a funeral is supposed to revolved around death, and this makes us think about funerals and the embalmment process in a way that we usually don’t. These processes takes away the cruelty and brutality of death and make it seem trivial while making our deceased relatives life-like, with pink toned skin and a smile on their face, and death is not like that at all. Mitford then says that the funeral director has done all that he can to make the funeral was “a real pleasure” for "everybody

In the novel, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, there are many passages that tend to be perplexing and difficult to understand, if not read closely by the reader. Although there are many passages in the novel that are compelling, the passage expressed by the deceased

In Toni Morrison's novel, Song of Solomon, the “Dead” family, including Milkman, Ruth Dead, and Macon Jr. Dead are the protagonists of the novel. Even though each of the main characters of the book expresses dissimilar characteristics and actions toward specific events as Milkman’s name, several of them become alike and similar without noticing. A major factor that evolves throughout the novel is the symbolism of the name “Dead”, and the main character that this symbolism applies to is Macon Dead Jr. Other subjects that correspond to the meaning of “Dead” are the characters’ social classes and their way of living life. Wealth and money are recognized as the two main elements that symbolize the liveliness and happiness of life. However, in this

Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant is a Fireside poem about death. The central message throughout this poem is that death is an inevitable part of life that we should not fear, but embrace. The use of personification throughout the poem helps develop the central idea. Personification is the giving of human-like qualities to a non-human subject. In lines 1-3 Bryant uses personification “To him who in the love of Nature holds/Communion with her visible forms, she speaks/A various language…” With the use of the personification Bryant shows that there is a unique relationship between an individual and nature, which is a characteristic of the fireside poems. “She glides/Into his darker musings, with a mild/And healing sympathy…” Bryant is showing in lines 5-7 that even when you are sad that nature has these healing qualities that remove the pain. He is saying that there is no sadness too great that nature cannot fix. Through the use of personification William Cullen Bryant makes death seem less frightening.

Edgar Allan Poe's short story “The Tell Tale Heart” and Nathaniel Hawthorne's poem “Go To The Grave” both demonstrate ideas on religion and faith. Both “The Tell Tale Heart” and “Go To The Grave” touch on the subject of death. They are both in the gothic genre.

Rain began to lightly drizzle onto my shoulders as I passed the endless headstones. It seemed like the cement markers continued for miles, and for miles they did indeed. With my fellow freshman, I ascended the hill of Arlington National Cemetery; the expanse of graves produced a feeling of sorrow within me almost impossible to illustrate. Tears began to well within me, and I had to choke them back. It was not yet time to cry.

Death is the ending of one's life and a beginning to another. Death is a common element in the novel “All The King's Men” by Robert Penn Warren. The novel is about an ordinary man who gets an insight on the political world and eventually works for it, Warren shows the risk one man has to take to survive in the political world and how it deeply impacts him. Stark unexpectedly dies and leaves an impact on the rest of the characters which creates a character development. The author uses metaphors, details and repetition which influences the theme “ you never know what you have until it's gone.”

When someone dies it is often assumed that the body is now useless and nothing but a decaying pile of bones. Yet author Mary Roach contradicts this assumption by arguing that the human body is perhaps the most useful dead rather than alive. Death may be brutal and difficult to cope with, but death is not at all in vain. Roach and other anatomists have objectified human cadavers by covering the body’s hands and face in order to bear with the natural emotional distresses of the human condition. As harsh as it seems, the death of one can potentially become the savior of the lives of millions. Therefore, Stiff should be kept on the outside reading list because Roach’s eloquent writing style addresses the sensitive topic of death in an entirely

Death can never be escaped no matter what. In “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe shows the theme of death, a suspenseful mood, and an ominous tone. Through Poe’s use of literary devices, the reader can discover tone, theme, and mood. Throughout Poe’s life he experienced death with two of his mother’s and his young wife. Death is shown how inevitable it is with Poe’s writing and experiences combined together.

Death plays a bigger role in life than life itself. When people die, people cry, and while people cry, a clear moment of lucidity occurs. Death is what makes every moment worth living and is told through stories of books and movies with symbols both subtle and blunt. Night, for example, is an autobiographical novel recalling Eliezer’s experience through concentration camps while The Book Thief is a historical fiction film where Liesel is a bystander who participates in activities symbolizing war. History is intertwined death. The setting of World War II is the epitome of demonstrating that death is everywhere and inevitable. While there are acute differences, Eliezer and Liesel are similar to one another as individuals who are constantly surrounded

In most cases, when reading a book about death, one thinks that the book is going to be extremely depressing. A tragedy filled saga of despair, sadness, loneliness- that people can’t wait to get over with. This is the same in real life as well. People think of death as a sad thing that people don’t want to deal with because of its scary quality, and overall demoralizing aura. In “The Book Thief”, Zusak, paints a different version of death, that apart from its fellow more depressing counterparts, death isn’t near the most tragic part of the story. “Even death has a heart.” (Zusak 242). With this quote, Zusak has made the readers realize that death isn’t the worse thing that can happen to somebody. Zusak’s purpose in writing “The Book Thief”,

Li-Young Lee’s poem “Eating Alone” expresses a son’s loneliness and love for his father that has passed away. He continuously connects the father to all that the speaker does whether it is lifeful or not. Lee does so in a way through imagery, tone, and irony.

In life people die. Usually at an old age after they have lived a long life. That's normal. But when people die at a young age, that's different. People who die early miss out on the rest of their lives and they didn't get to experience much of it. They could have changed lives or they could have made people happy. They could have been an important person to others. In the texts “Rooftop” by Paul Volponi and “In Memory of Trayvon Martin”, the author conveys the idea that much of the tragedy of death lies in life unlived. Both texts develop this theme in different ways. Paul Volponi conveys it through characterization, while “In Memory of Trayvon Martin delivers this theme through flashback, metaphor and repetition.

The inevitability of an eventual death is the only thing that we share, that ties all all humans together. When analyzing the characteristics of a cemetery, one must take into consideration how cultural meaning and social constructs affect the landscape, because there is significance in the details. Cultural meaning and social constructs are displayed at both the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery (Pierce Brothers) cemetery and the Los Angeles National Veteran’s Cemetery (Veteran) through regulation of space, geometry, military landscape versus celebrity landscape, and absence. Even after death, Americans’ deepest values are depicted through the manner in which they are buried in these cemeteries.