Western Attitudes Towards Death Analysis

Aries, Phillipe. Western Attitudes toward Death: From the MIddle Ages to the Present. Baltimore and London: John Hopkins UP, n.d. Print.

After reading the article Western attitudes toward Death by Philippe Aires it is simple to understand the main point made by Aires. The article covers the concept of death and how society 's attitude towards death has evolved from the middle ages, to today’s modern world. Aires main point is that the attitudes on death have transformed from it being easily accepted and discussed all the way to avoiding talking about it and denying it.

First, Aires discusses how death during the Middle Ages was a very common concept and easily accepted but now the concept of death is mostly avoided and people shy away from

Doughty, Caitlyn. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

When reading the passage Smoke gets in your eyes by Caitlyn Doughty it is easy to comprehend her main ideas and arguments. Right at the beginning of the passage, she describes a German woodcut which describes the journey of a man being introduced to his death and his reactions upon it. He is calm facing death which is very unusual regarding the usual perception of fearing death. After the German woodcut, she begins to explain her stance of death. She makes it clear that the main point is to live your life to the fullest and not be in fear of death because it is inevitable.

She believes there is two types of deaths, a good version and a bad version. She describes a good death as being mentally stable and not experiencing a lot of pain and suffering. Her attitude towards death is relatively positive but then she brings up the question of quantity versus quality. Her explanation of a good death involved being mentally stable, but research shows that the elderly population is vastly increasing and a many of the elderly will lose the mental stability before they die. She shares gruesome information of how elderly people start to lose their mental abilities and how they physically start to decompose from old age. This brings up the question, is it better to die younger before the body starts to fall apart? She backs up her argument with details of Alzheimer’s and illnesses that plague the elderly, arguing that dying with all these problems is worse than dying at a younger age. Her main goal as a person is to help people cope with death and teach people to not fear death because death is natural and