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Death In Mark Twain's An Incantation For The Night

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“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it” (Twain). Death is a natural fear in which all people face at one point in their life. Because people do not know what happens when they pass away, it is natural to either be scared of the unknown or push the thought to the side and accept it blindly. In literature, often times as people get near the end of their life, they accept their inevitable doom. Their death is usually imagined as a happy and romanticized version of death, rather than dark and gloomy. To further accept the cycle of life, Americans have a fascination with death in literature, and put a big emphasis on funerals, burials, …show more content…

In the story “An Incantation for the Small Hours of the Night”, the character is dying and describing her experience. As death finally enters her, the character exclaims, “Terror is all I am.” The lady was terrified of dying, and never came to terms with the fact that she will no longer be a part of society. F rancis Bacon once said “Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark.” This is relevant because children naturally fear the dark because it is an instinct just like men fear death because it is inevitable. Similar to children, men fear death because they do not know what lies in it, precisely the same reason why children fear the …show more content…

One person might miss a recently deceased person, while a complete stranger does not even bother to think about the same person. This is because death is a natural thing and if it does not affect a person directly, people tend not to care. This is false, however, when a person comes across a corpse or a horrific death scene has occurred. This is exemplified when a character in “Cape Cod” states that “if I had found one body cast upon the beach in some lonely place, it would have affected me more.” Finding one body is terrifying but coming across a handful of dead bodies makes someone think of the event rather than the person themselves, thus proving that death itself is subjective

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After a few years of those, I imagine death presents like a holiday at the beach. When someone dies it can have a very concentrated impact on someone. “So eden sank to grief.” When Johnny passed away in the hospital, dally felt he had nothing to live for. “Johnny died, my soul died.”

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It's scary because no one knows what really happens after you die. For example in the book “Fall of the House of Usher” ushers feelings about his sister's death had him sad and depressed and his thoughts were he thinks his sister is dead. “I must perish in this deplorable folly. Thus , thus and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves but in their result..

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The narrator says, “There had been so much in her stern nature to impress me with the belief that, to her, death would have come without its terrors– but not so” (Poe 672). Not only is the narrator fearful of her death, but she still lives in fear after it has come. When individuals worry and fear everything, it is truly hard. It can be psychologically

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All creatures are destined to die. When it comes to it, everyone get scared, because no one knows when it is going to come. There are people who know when there time is set. There are people who stay frightened of the idea of dying; on the other hand, there are people who are not. They are not afraid of death not because they do not want to live their lives, but because they have a reason not to.

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But, when the Grim Reaper comes knocking at everyone’s door, most people fight dying, which is a natural until it jeopardizes their loved ones. Death used to be a celebration for a new beginning, but in the modern age, death has become an end to a long journey, instead of the beginning of a new one. While the present day society fears death, human characteristics, such as greed and free will, often causes the loss of life. The personal choices people make in their daily lives leads to their different fates, good or ill. These choices will also impact the lives of everyone around them.

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In his tale, death can be portrayed as desirable. The Old man, otherwise known as Death himself, longs to die so that his days of suffering on earth may come to an end. As a Christian, death is viewed as a joyous thing because with death we are set apart from a world of misery and placed into heaven. Christians don’t fear death because they have something greater to look forward to. Death is a gateway to an eternal, everlasting utopia.

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“Quite an experience to live in fear” (Scott). Humans view death as final and therefore fear it. Death brings the unknown and humans deal with this fear by either suppressing it or seeking comfort in religion. To die is to become insignificant. Humans have a deep desire to cheat death.

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A negative and depressing connotation is what is usually connected to Death. Death is something that humans fear and try to avoid constantly, yet in the novel Death appears to be caring and kind to those deserving. Death feels very miserable when someone dies that did not deserve it, especially when they die in a horrible way. When Reinhold Zucker dies in the bus crash, Death says, “It kills me sometimes, how people die” (Zusak 464). Death exhibits emotions of remorse and pain for those who pass that contradict the hateful sense of Death shared by many.

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Fear, a concept that everyone has made contact with at least some point in our lives, whether it be through insectophobia, nyctophobia, or acrophobia, the emotion of fear is an emotion everyone has to come to terms with. Yet so many of us take for granted all the necessities we receive every day such as food and water while others need to work immense hours a day or trek an absurd amount of miles to obtain these resources just to survive, fearing that they still won’t have enough. Even so, there is one thing that we, as humans, always overlook until it’s creeping right around the corner: death. Although this may be true, receiving the fear of death does bear some fruit. For example, if someone were to escape death, they will most likely value life more highly.

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The thick musk scent of dried herbs wafted through the dry air. Macbeth aimlessly bumped into the chamber doors. The “firm-set earth” (II.i.69) resonated Macbeth’s strides as he frantically yet cautiously tried to hide himself. As he tried to control his exasperated panting, he halted his breathing and observed his dim-lighted hall to see if he was being watched. Macbeth repeatedly quenched his parched throat by swallowing.

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Sure, some people think that it is because when you die you cease to be the person you were in life. I understand why some might find it scary, however how can death be bad when no one knows exactly what happens after death? It is unfair to assume that one of the most normal and natural processes is inherently bad when we do not know why it would be considered bad in the first place. I think that people fear death because they cannot comprehend that all their actions and accomplishments are ultimately meaningless in the long run. The average person, when they die, will become forgotten relic of the past; a fading memory trapped in a painting or photograph whose story has been lost to

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However, because we don’t know what death is, it isn’t strange that we fear it. People like to have control over things. And when we can’t control something, we fear it. Throughout the years, we took more and more control over nature, for example, building a dam to protect ourselves from the water, but we still cannot control earthquakes, and therefore we fear them.

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Secondly, people often fear death as they cannot control it. They try to take hold of almost everything: even their life. We try to control our aging processes, eating habits, romantic involvements. We try to become the Gods. But how can we, if in reality, we do not know anything about the world, our purpose of being here.

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From the beginning, children are taught to fear the concept of death. Most people spend their lives fearing death, but it’s not death that they are afraid of. It is part of nature to die, and our minds know that, what scares most people is the thought of death before they have had time to accomplish what they want in life. In “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be,” John Keats put into words how people feel about dying before they have been successful in whatever mission they have set forth for themselves. His poem touches the reality of people’s feelings though imagery and figurative language.

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Everyone has to face death. There are some people who fear death because it will take them away from their loved ones and rip them off what they have earned throughout their life, such as money, honor, and power. However, there are people claiming that they do not fear death since they have experienced many wonderful moments in their lifetime. Death sounds so terrifying because it means an end of someone’s life. Reading Epicurus’ “Letter to Menoeceus”, I will argue that a reason to not fear death is that we do not exist anymore after we die.

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