3.05 Reading Journal Part A In the Premature Burial, by Edgar Allen Poe, the author speaks of his terror upon being buried while not dead. The theme of overwhelming terror and the way it alters one mentally is used to show the narrator as he is swallowed up by his dread of being buried alive. The narrator is afflicted with catalepsy, which is a nervous condition that inflicts a trance or seizure with a loss of sensation and consciousness accompanied by rigidity of the body. The narrator internally fears that his paralyzed body will be falsely misconstrued as dead.
“ Just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death.” Pg 83 This quote is important as it shows the readers how the theme of the book, death, is supported by the events and characters. Death is one the main themes shown throughout the book, and that the narrator of the story is death himself, Death is shown throughout the whole book at times through war, bombs, suicide, and old age. He is something that no one can escape and all the characters in the story show an understanding of this concept. But death is misunderstood to have no feeling when he has some feelings or at least knows when things are not fair to even though he said that all he is fair (contradicting himself).
There are many tragic reasonings through nature, where it may sadden a person or make a person happy. In the poems “The First Snowfall,” “Thanatopsis,” and “The Chambered Nautilus,” the value of nature is said to be that death is not tragic. In “The First Snowfall,” there is a broad understanding that is given to listeners to analyze that humans cannot care for their loved on who have passed, nature will. In “Thanatopsis” nature has the abilities to make us feel better by lightening out dark thoughts of death allowing us to understand that death is upon all, as we are not alone. In “The Chambered Nautilus” it gives us an understanding that nature remains with us and it tells us to make ourselves better than who we really are.
This example portrays that when you die you are not forgotten, you are apart of a whole world and a million ways that you will be remembered. Once you die you are not going to be a thing of the past. You have people that will cherish you forever. This helped give the reader more comprehension on what he was talking about with death this whole time. This quote connected something else Morrie said, “‘... death ends life not a relationship’”
Bryant also explains how death is feared by many but he offers comfort to the people that do fear it. Bryant tells the readers about death in a way no poet has said before. Bryant gradually tells the reader more and more about death in each stanza. In “Thanatopsis,” Bryant uses diction to describe death, details to describe how death takes place, and organization to help show the different levels of how people feel about death.
‘’Thanatopisis’’ like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. ’’ This quote is describing how he laid down and died peacefully, Feeling death is a welcoming gift. ‘’Devil and Tom Walker’’ emotion in this poem is in my opinion is considered wicked. ‘’He leaped for joy; for he recognized his wife’s apron.
The end of Robert Frost's poem tells the end in such a clever way that it may not seem scary. “So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. ”These words written by Robert Frost explains how corruption sets in, over all of its victims. A similar theme of death, and dying is presented in the novel The Outsiders. Dallas Winston loved only one person, Johnny Cade.
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner In the excerpt from William Faulkner’s Southern novel, As I Lay Dying the author structures his novel through the use of literary features such as allusion, similes a belittling yet humorous tone, concrete imagery and a stream of consciousness style in the passage. Faulkner throughout the passage not only describes Cash’s reserved character and Darls perspective imagination but he also foreshadows the struggle the Bundren’s will go through as they prepare to go on the journey of burying Addie. First, Faulkner has the speaker Darl create a gloomy mood by using similes to display the ambiance in the room. Then Faulkner alludes to the bible and uses concrete imagery to illustrate both the surroundings and Cash’s concentration and determination as he makes his mother’s coffin.
She considered it all a part of the circle of life. Bryant’s work Thanatopsis, has a quote with a similar significance. “Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.” This quote demonstrates how every individual should live life to its fullest, so that when death comes, they are ready to go. Bryant recommends a noble acceptance in the face of death, because it is an inevitable event that every living thing must undergo.
Whitman and Dickinson share the theme of death in their work, while Whitman decides to speak of death in a more realistic point of view, Dickinson speaks of the theme in a more conceptual one. In Whitman’s poems, he likes to have a more empathic view of individuals and their ways of living. For example, in Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, the poet talks about not just of himself, but all human beings, and of how mankind works into the world and the life of it. Even though the poem mostly talks about life and the happiness of it, Whitman describes also that life itself has its ending, and that is the theme of death. For Dickinson, she is the complete opposite of happiness.
In the following passage from the novel We Were the Mulvaneys, Joyce Carol Oates laments that even though most everything in one’s surrounding is dying, not everyone has managed to find the adequate amount of maturity to accept the fact that they are not immortal, even though the idea of death is difficult to come to terms with. Oates conveys this universal idea and characterizes the narrator through the usage of a depressing tone and dismal imagery. The tone set in the passage is fairly dark and depressing. An “eleven or maybe twelve,” year old child should not be fixated on the idea that “every heart beat is past and gone.”
The fear of death is one of humanity’s most base and natural of instincts. It helps us motivate ourselves to be out of harm’s way and seek to find pleasures to distract ourselves from death. In Book 4, Lucretius makes the distinction in the poem to Venus, that her ability to allow the instinct reproduction to happen, is necessary for life to continue. The continuation of life in this context is natural and good and I would say the same thing for the fear of death. What I mean by good, is the Epicurean definition of good whereby the purpose is to avoid pain and seek pleasure.
Isabella Churchill Ms. Jonte AP Language 10 December, 2015 On Natural Death The concept of death is vague and incomprehensible. On natural death begs the question of if death actually is painful or if it is only minute and diminutive. Lewis Thomas illustrates to his audience the conceptual idea of death being small. He begins with people's view of versus his own.
In the essay “An Hour or Two Sacred to Sorrow,” Richard Steele describes how different types of deaths afflicted him through life. Steele’s first encounter with death, occurred when he was a young child and his father had passed away. Not understanding the reason why he thought that “he was locked up there” until he saw his mother sobbing by his coffin. Steele argues that “a body in embryo; [receiving] impressions so forcible, that they are hard to be removed by reason,” stating that a loss as an adult is nothing compared to a loss as a child. The second type of death is the death of a soldier, who “move rather our veneration than our pity.”
At the end of the 15th century, the play "Everyman" by an unknown author talks about the game of morality. The themes of this literature are: life is a pilgrimage; death is inevitable and medieval theology. It is not faith that will save Everyman, he needs learn to listen and knows what the difference is between what is salvation and condemnation. In today's day, many people struggle or experience death.
