Prewriting

For my second Essay, I am choosing to write about Lorde’s poem “Power.” I feel her work is extremely profound especially with today’s current events. I am going to discuss the racial tensions occurring throughout the poem as well as society during the era in which it was written. I will also discuss the carelessness of the death of a young child still holding on to innocence and the relevance within Lorde’s era as well as our own. 

Read More »

The Death of Henry Junior

The light begins to dim. The crimson convertible is at a halt beyond the gray flowing waters of the Pembina and Red Rivers. The air is silent. The mood is overcome with disparagement. The two men encircle the warmth of a fire created by hand. The river is almost still although ever flowing none the same. It is as if the river itself derives from the source of Acheron(www.theoi.com). The darkness of the landscape as the sun sets entails death; the death of men. Can the soul of man die as the body lives on? Henry Junior died long before he ever came home. Only his body survived the trip from the treacherous forest of the Vietcong. “When he came home... Henry was very different, and I’ll say this: the change was no good”(Erdrich3390). Henry had become mindless. Only his central nervous system controlled him now. The thoughts within his head were hollow; nothing more than that dark forest in Vietnam. As the two stood on that river bank, the bank of the dead, Henry dove head first. He liberated himself from his given body. He was now completely freed from this Earth. Nothing was left to tie him to the soil. Within moments he was gone. The current carried the unmoving body into the underworld of Hades. 

Endrich entails such a dramatic conclusion as to depict an other worldly ambiance. One can die in many ways. The metaphysical nature of the scene brings forth the eventuality of death as well as the ways in which a human may die. Death is not always what it appears. Many die far before their physical selves leave the Earth. Endrich’s abounding illustration illuminates the uncertainty of life and the human soul. 

Read More »

Death: "The Gashlycrumb Tinies"

Gorey reflects upon a childish delusion entwined with morbidity and despair in his rhyming didactic couplets found amongst the pages of the “Gashleycrumb Tinies.” The children within the story can be found encompassed by the likelihood of Death, himself. The tribulations and demise of the children entrance the reader creating movement amidst the ever-flowing ode. Gorey begins in saying “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs”(Gorey). With each letter of the Alphabet a depiction of death is made. Never is death directly stated though. The cessation of life is eminent in the circumstances, but only ever alluded. Gorey does so to bring forth a sense of light heartedness. It is less horrific if verification is not made of the child’s death. The alphabetic nature also brings forth a sense of childlike creativity. How else to depict death, than to bring it to the simplest state of being, deriving from the basic function of language. The rhyming didactic couplets also create an easy dialect to comprehend. The work, itself, reads very smoothly. “Gashleycrumb Tinies” is a necessity for the elemental depiction of intrinsic morbidity.

In the year of 1963 many great men succumbed to the inevitability of the darkness surrounding death. Gorey released his work in a relevant manner, as death was a commonality of the year. Robert Frost as well as the President, Jonh F. Kennedy sparked a fear of the eventuality of death. It was a topic of much discussion. The social and historical content of the year 1963 defines Gorey’s work

Read More »

Finality of Eternal Rest: Morality

Is morality a derivative of death? It is human nature to amass a virtuous state after encountering the finality of eternal rest. The unknown is daunting to even the most cerebral being. To deviate from the permanence of death, a sense of rectitude procures within a being as a means of vindication for the imminence of the soul’s departing. Flannery O’Connor depicts the hypocrisy of the multitude in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” The Grandmother delineates the lack of discernment within the human race. She continuously slanders the name of humanity in saying, “it isn’t a soul in this green world of God’s that you can trust”(O’Connor 2779). The grandmother brings forth little positivity into this world. With her assertion she conforms the human race into a single, fallacious being. Simply stated, no man nor woman can be of good nature in this world under the reign of the “all sufficient”(2 Cor. 9:8) one. As the story progresses, the family encounters a man enthralled within a “transgression of divine law”(dictionary.com). The misfit, as he is known, displays to the grandmother the palpability of death. Out of desperation, the grandmother says to the Misfit “I just know you are a good man”(O’Connor 2783). She contorts her sentiment of the world to attain a sense of control over the situation. With a sense of morality, it is felt that one can overcome a seemingly insurmountable travesty. In the end, death is imminent for the grandmother. The Misfit closes in saying “she would have been a good woman...if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life”(O’Connor 2786). Does the reality of death conform human nature? Why do we, as humans, reflect upon our lives only in the hour of death and then choose to conform? 

Read More »