ipl-logo

Summary Of Behind The Formaldehyde Curtain

517 Words3 Pages

Whenever you see a dead person, in their casket, do you ever say “ that looks nothing like them” or “ is that really them?” This is because of the process that goes on in the funeral home. The funeral director does everything he can to prepare the corpse for the public. In Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain, Jessica Mitford explains everything that is done to the deceased. This essay is so in depth about what all is done that that is why it’s so effective in making you think twice about having this procedure done to yourself or loved ones. The main thing about this essay that really caught my attention and i think would catch yours as well is that being embalmed isn’t really necessary but nobody says not to do it. Actually it’s not even a question. …show more content…

Which is a long, hollow needle attached to a tube that is jabbed into the person’s abdomen, poked around getting all the contents of the chest out, and replaced with “cavity fluid.” The hole is then sewn up and the body is left alone for awhile but the cruelty is over yet. Another harsh thing that is soon done is how a drifting lip is fixed to look appropriate. The embalmer doesn’t want the deceased to have a stern, disapproving expression so he pushes one or two straight pins from the lower lip to the two front upper teeth. If that doesn’t work then he does what i feel is even more harsh which is to dislocate the lower jaw, drill holes through the upper and lower midline of the jaw, and run a wire through them. This is done often since the lips seem to not want to be together. If the corpse for some reason has a swollen mouth, neck, or cheeks. Some of the tissue is then cut from the inside of the lips or from incisions cut down each side of the neck. These incisions will more than likely not be seen because of how the body is positioned in the casket with the help of a pillow. Also liquid sealer is often used to prevent leakage from the incisions. All this is done to make the body look as close to “normal” as

Show More
Related
143 Words | 1 Pages

According to The Oxford English Dictionary, embalming is the process of preserving and sanitizing a dead body for the main use of public viewings such as funerals. However, is it necessary to have this procedure done to a human body after death? Embalming has been a long tradition to the Americans and has been carried around for many years. In modern times, it is important for individuals to decide whether or not they want their own body or a family member to go through this procedure. In Jessica Mitford’s “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain,” she effectively displays how a dead body should be treated with more respect and the practice of embalming should be discontinued.

Read More
1784 Words | 8 Pages

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

Read More
968 Words | 4 Pages

End of Life care This important documentary does not come close to doing justice to Gawande 's video: Being Mortal. The book is rich with excellent examples of doctors, nurses and family members doing their level best assisting others to live the fullest and richest lives possible right up until and including the very end of their lives. As Dr. Atul Gawande would say, the point isn 't to strive for a good death but rather to have the best possible life that is congruent with one 's own values; and to make medical decisions and choices accordingly. By living each day in harmony with one 's goals and values, one is likely to have a good death.

Read More
662 Words | 3 Pages

Saba Mirfatahi Professor Bourget English 1130 October 6th 2015 Mitford: Analysis of “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” Jessica Mitford’s, “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain,” is an assertive account of the true realisms involving embalming. Jessica Mitford takes a bold stand against the funeral industry and states that people are “blissfully ignorant” (Mitford 310) on preserving people. Ultimately, Jessica Mitford’s argumentative essay is successful due to her very somber but informative and organized tone, her style using dark vivid imagery and quotations make her claims credible. One of the way’s in which Mitford’s argument is effective is through the use of her sarcastic tone. There are many words to describe Mitford’s tone; cocky, blunt,

Read More
546 Words | 3 Pages

Mitford is not writing to professional morticians because she is explaining things that she would not have to explain if she were talking to a professional. The author in paragraph twenty explains with great detail how to put “Mr. Jones” into the casket. A professional would already know how to lay a corpse in a casket, but a novice like most people would not know the proper way to do so. “The earlier this is done, the better, for every hour that elapses between death and embalming will add to the problems and complications encountered…”This shows how imperative it is to embalm someone quickly so that the corpse will not rot, and the corpse will be preserved long enough for the funeral.

Read More
1690 Words | 7 Pages

Stiff, written by Mary Roach, follows the lives of donated human cadavers, where each cadaver goes on a different journey. The book’s first half begins with an introduction about what cadavers are and how they are used for research purposes. Roach then goes on to detail the different uses of cadavers or the different research done on them, which include; surgery practice, human decay, crash tests, bullet and bomb tests, crash investigations, decapitation, crucifixion experiments, and the research for the human soul. With the quote, “They can’t play water polo, or lace up their boots, or maximize market share. They can’t tell a joke, and they can’t dance for beans.

Read More
724 Words | 3 Pages

Thoughts in regards to suicide often include empathy for the dead, and wonder as to what drove the person to end their life. All too often, people ignore a rather important consideration: the thoughts and feelings of those left behind. The loved ones are left with the remorse, despondence, and grieving, while the dead are absolved of their worldly anguish. In “The Grieving Never Ends”, Roxanne Roberts employs a variety of rhetorical tactics including metaphors, imagery, tone, and syntax to illustrate the indelible effects of suicide on the surviving loved ones. Roberts effectively uses metaphors to express the complex, abstract concepts around suicide and human emotion in general.

Read More
979 Words | 4 Pages

2. Quotation: “When people die they are sometimes put into a coffin, which means that they don’t mix with the earth for a very long time until the wood of the coffin rots.” “But mother was cremated. This means she was put into a coffin and burned and ground up and turned into ash and smoke.” (pg.33) Response: This gives a bit of knowledge to the reader about what happens to people after death and what

Read More
810 Words | 4 Pages

Summary Essay In the Essay Good as dead written by Jane Campbell is heart touching essay. It depicts the life of approximately 70 percent of high school and graduate students. The main idea of the essay was what we could do for the dead besides thinking about them and praying for them, peaking to the interest of the dilemma that surrounds thinking about them. The writer tells a story of graduate friends, that were no more then friends or nothing more than Facebook friends.

Read More
495 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
775 Words | 4 Pages

In The Jungle, Upton Sinclair explains how horrible working conditions were for people in the meatpacking industry. Have you ever wondered what effect Upton Sinclair had on American industry? The Jungle is about the poor working conditions and the very poor sanitation in 1906. We will also be talking about the backstory behind Upton Sinclair. Upton Sinclair discovered how bad working areas were.

Read More
864 Words | 4 Pages

In my opinion this is the most gruesome and awful form of torture. It was also known as the mouth pear or the choke pear, as it was often used in the mouth. This form of torture was reserved for women, homosexuals, and liars. If you had lied it would go in your mouth, if you were a woman it would be inserted in your genitals, and the same for homosexuals. The device itself was a pear-shaped metal mechanism divided into spoon-like segments that can be spread apart with a spring or by turning a key.

Read More
530 Words | 3 Pages

In that essay, I thought that we could put one example of the theme, satire, and symbolism, and elaborate on them. I guess I didn't elaborate enough to get the credit for the other two details. I learned that elaborating is one of the most important things to do in an analytical essay. Elaborating is going to be a skill that I have to work on in my future writing pieces. I also didn't use transitional phrases in this essay.

Read More
775 Words | 4 Pages

Death plays an important part in everyday life, in the way life moves on, changes, and improves, but in terms of ourselves and our relationship with death, it has become more of a taboo subject. (Needs something here?) The concept of death itself changing as its significance (in how it is viewed from the Victorian era to the present day) reveals how the beautification of death in its interpretation within post – mortem photography, in comparison to how modern day photographers challenge the view of the extraordinary image of death as it is seen today, in which society will not view death as anything but a subject to be avoided due to the way it has become twisted into something of an unspoken topic that would more likely be feared in the modern era rather than embraced. Post – mortem photography became

Read More
2523 Words | 11 Pages

The term “post-mortem examination” refers to any form of examinations that are carried out after death. While necropsy (look at the dead) and autopsy (see for oneself) are also used together with post-mortem examination, the word “autopsy” is more accurate in matching the procedural aim: to observe the body directly than to depend on disease indicators like signs and symptoms. Forensic medicine, on the other hand, comes as a subset of medical jurisprudence. It involves retrieving and analysing of medical evidences from samples to formulate objective information in legal usage.

Read More

More about Summary Of Behind The Formaldehyde Curtain

Open Document