What Is The Main Idea Of On Natural Death By Lewis Thomas

Lewis Thomas, a scholarly, distinguished scientist and scientific writer, writes “On Natural Death” to alleviate fears related to death. Thomas details the naturalness of death and how, when the time has come, they will be guided into death without fears. After his introduction, Thomas introduces the elm tree that fell in his backyard with an anecdote. Thomas begins to appeal to the mournful emotions of his audience admitting that the “...normal-looking elm…” , (in one week) would be “...gone, passed over, departed, taken” (Thomas 1). Thomas shows how, like humans, life can be taken away quickly at moment’s notice. Thomas appeals to mournful emotions in order to make his audience think deeply of the death of an elm tree. Thomas discusses

Thomas details, through the perspective of the mouse, how death is painless. Early in his life, Thomas would flinch at the sight of the death of a field mouse, who had died from a domesticated cat. He believed nature was cruel. Thomas then begins to compare the deaths of the elm, something that does not feel pain, to a field mouse, who may feel pain. To support his claim that mice do not feel pain before death (that “If a mouse could shrug [when dying], he’d shrug”), Thomas logically appeals to his audience by detailing how a field mouse cannot feel pain, scientifically (Thomas 1). When dying, “...peptide hormones are released by cells in the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland; instantly these substances, called endorphins, are attached to the surfaces of other cells responsible for pain perception; the hormones have the pharmacologic properties of opium; there is no pain (Thomas 1). Thomas details with a logical appeal how special hormones will prevent pain before the mouse dies. He assumes that these hormones will work similarly to prevent pain for a human: nature will guide humans into death peacefully and painlessly. In fact, through portions of “On Natural Death”, Thomas has a scientific tone, strikingly different from the rest of the text, and uses words only a scientist would know (with words like: “peptide hormones”, “hypothalamus”, “pituitary gland”,

Montaigne was in a riding accident and ended up “all bloody, stained all over with the blood [he] had thrown up...” (Thomas 2). “...Despite having been ‘dead, for two full hours,’” he remembers the whole incident clearly (Thomas 2). Montaigne nearly died after that particular riding accident, and felt that he was in the same state of mind people close to death feel: “that sweet feeling that people have who have let themselves slide into sleep” (Thomas 2). Thomas himself has never come close to death, so in his writing, quotes the anecdote from Montaigne, who experienced death. Thomas appeals directly to the reader about his, or rather Montaigne’s, credibility. Thomas supports his writing through a first-hand telling, appeal, of Montaigne’s experiences of death. Painless death can best be proved through personal experience of an individual. Montaigne is one such individual who can share his knowledge of death with absolute certainty - he experienced the events he did. Writing that “If [one] know[s] not how to die, [they should] never trouble [them]sel[ves]; Nature will in a moment fully and sufficiently instruct [them]; she will exactly do that business for [them]; [they should] take...no care for it,” Montaigne can be considered a credible source on the topic of death, by which his past experiences guide him. Montaigne also uses descriptive details