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Behind The Formaldehyde Curtain Summary

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Do you ever wonder how a brutal murder victim appears to look their normal selves at their funeral? Well, in Jessica Mitford’s “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain”, she takes us through the amazing, yet disturbing process called Embalming and Restorative Arts. Mitford is disgusted and completely against it because she thinks it is inhumane, so she goes into illustrative detail by using similes, and a great deal of imagery. Mitford’s purpose of the essay was to gain support in objecting towards embalming, and inform us of the process through graphic detail. She did this using process analysis and telling us step by step. To get started, you need to get the equipment needed to perform the procedures, drain the blood out of the body so that the chances of a live burial are non-existent, and replace with embalming fluid. Next, you sew the mouth together, glue the eyes shut, pump full of cavity fluid, replace missing body parts, remove tissue from swollen parts or inject cream to flesh out the body. Then, you …show more content…

Jones is both the static and dynamic character is a weird kind of way. He is the static because throughout the story, mentally, and emotionally he does not, and is not capable of changing because obviously he was dead. I also say that he is the dynamic, because physically, he changed a lot throughout the process, and dying and looking grayish, he went back to looking life like again for the funeral. “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” was a rather interesting essay to read and analyze. The author, Jessica Mitford clearly, and successfully got her point across about her stance on Embalming and Restorative Arts. She did so, by using an abundance of imagery and oxymorons, describing in graphic and stomach turning details, and being very blunt with the process and how she feels about it. It surprised me that they are allowed to do that to the bodies without even consulting with the family that sets up funeral

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