Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers

Organ donations from one donor can save up to eight lives, and also change the lives of more than fifty people (“Facts About Organ Donation”). What is simply baffling about this statistic is the fact that most people usually don’t consider that something like organ donation could be that impactful. However, in Mary Roach’s Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, she explores the relevance of this process, as well as many other topics associated with the scientific study of cadavers. The purpose that Roach is trying to convey in this novel is to persuade the audience to think about the impact cadavers have had in history, as well as in the world today, and to consider the options she provides as to what can be done with the human body after

Yet when looking over the entirety of it, it seems that Roach uses sequential structure to manipulate the readers into possibly donating their bodies to science by giving a clear-cut explanation of how the organ extraction procedure works. This is effective because when trying to persuade a person into doing something that requires a large amount of commitment, people usually want to know exactly what they're getting into-- no ambiguity, no bias, and nothing misleading. The beginning of the excerpt contains graphic imagery, some of which is shown through similes, depicting the removal of cadaver H’s internal organs in order to donate them to living humans who need them. In the section she uses descriptive phrases such as “‘Cherry Sno-Kone’” and the simile “cutting off veins and arteries to be included, like spare sweater buttons” to implant a vivid illustration of the scene in the reader’s mind. By using this imagery, Roach places the reader into the situation she’s recreating in order to make it easier to manipulate or convince them to donate their organs after death. The picture that she creates depicts exactly how the operation commences, but doesn’t describe it in such intense detail that it is perceived as gory or grotesque. Roach presents the operation as it is, which is considered standard procedure to the surgeons and medical personnel