How the Concept of Death has Changed the Way which Civilizations View the World - Essay Example

Death as the Culmination of the Human Body’s Existence Death makes humans human, or what makes living creatures living things. It is what separates generations from each other, aside from being born at different times. The thoughts of death bring different effects on people: some shudder at the thought of it; some think it is a happy ending to life’s miseries; and some just simply celebrate it as a road to eternal life. This is how the concept of death has changed the way which civilizations view the world, and this was how medical sciences developed, how healthy ways of living were invented, as well as creative ways of staying alive. As long as the human body can move, a person can experience just about everything, and upon death everything ceases. Death is the ultimate escape from worldly things, or if seen from an optimist or a spiritual person’s point of view, it is a journey worth waiting for. Whichever way it goes, death deliberately sets a person or a group of people into action, whatever the intent is. Death is something special and prominent in humanity’s growth, the main reason for living, the great equalizer of mankind, as well as the driving force of actions and reactions, and without it, everything would be constant, never changing, not growing, even through the passage of time. In this paper, three stories that deal with death were chosen as examples of how death affects a person or a group of people in general, including the readers. While most would think that those who are near to death are the ones that think about it the most, it is those people connected to the dying person who think about death more. For example, Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour (1895) shows how the fragile nature of humanity can bring changes to a person’s mindset, how a person’s death could affect other people, and the different ways that people see death: either as a means to an end, or a way of salvation. The main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard is shown at the beginning as a person that “was afflicted of heart trouble,” (Chopin 99), describing her as a very frail and sickly character. However, after learning the death of her husband, Brently Mallard, it was shown that she only grieved for a short time, and afterwards found a new sense of hope and freedom, even exclaiming and affirming this to herself (Chopin 100). Based on how she handled the death of her husband, his death made her feel liberated, happier, and closer to life than death compared to the day before when she was almost welcoming death at her door. However, her happiness was short-lived when during the end of the short story her husband went home, alive, well, and rather unaware of the accident that was supposedly claimed his life (Chopin 101). In the end, Louise entertained death, not due to happiness, but to her foiled plans of being free and living her life for herself. While it may imply that the characters in the story think Louise’s death was due to her overwhelming sense of joy upon seeing her husband alive, the readers would think otherwise. The strength of her desire to live well in accordance to her wishes was also the same strength that ended her life after getting shocked with the realization that it would never come true. How her body reacted to such a strong possibility of a dismal future shows how death becomes a form of escape from all troubles being experienced by a person, physically or emotionally, and is a strong motivator to end all suffering. In relation to suffering and death, Margaret Atwood’s Happy Endings (1983) shows satirical examples of how all worldly sufferings or successes come to an end, inevitably through death. It is similar to a “choose your story” way of thinking, of various possibilities, but with almost similar conclusions. At the beginning, the perfect story of John and Mary were shown in story A, having a perfect family and living perfect lives until “eventually they die” (Atwood 352). In the alternative stories B-F, the settings and situations may differ, but in the end, they all fall down to story A, where they live perfect lives until they die. The story shows that no matter what people do in their lives, it would all end in death. Whether is it eventual or instantaneous, the cessation of human existence is universal, and even subjecting the body to preservatives would not give life back. It is what makes all people equal, regardless of when or where they catch up with death. On the other hand, while death may be the end for the person, for the people with connections death is a way to make them much more aware of life and living. Across all cultures, death of the physical body is regarded as a celebration of life, of achievements and misfortunes. It is also full of supposition by bystanders, especially when the dead person was someone that they did not know personally. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World (1955), translated from Spanish by Gregory Rabassa, the main protagonist is a tall, handsome dead man that washed ashore in a small, unnamed seaside village. Everyone on the village came together to arrange the man’s funeral rites, and in the process of washing and clothing the dead unnamed man, the women named him Esteban due to his extraordinary handsomeness and seemingly-nice disposition (Marquez 459). While Esteban the dead man did nothing, and the village people did much more of the actions, these acts aimed at celebrating the unknown man’s life, as they imagined it to be. Even more than mourning his loss, the people made so much fuss over the dead man’s funeral, even bringing along some people from neighboring villages to have them gaze at him, and turning the whole unnamed village into his own kinsmen (Marquez 461). The funeral rites that the whole village did for Esteban changed the people’s mindset, even convincing them to repaint all of the houses into lively colors should Esteban choose to come back from the dead. It can be inferred from the story that from the death of a person, a whole group of people can be affected by it, even changing their own lives and way of thinking. In a sense, this is a way of immortalizing the dead, as observed in traditions and major religions around the world. Thus, despite the escape from the human body, the people that get left behind after a person’s death gain a lot more new insights, and even changing their ideas regarding death and life. Death is ultimately seen as the culmination of the total experiences of a human being. While the death of the body may be seen as temporary, the actions of the person while being alive would be able to live on. Also, death is able to change the mindset of a person, whether dying or not. By contemplating death, and at the same time life, death has changed the way by which mankind thinks and acts. What ties the three readings together is that the thought of death is able to either give a sense of liberation to worldly sufferings, as well as having the chance to make one think of the quality of life one has. Also, while death may be different for each person, the ending of the stories of all people are the same, and death can be seen as the one thing that makes all humans similar to each other. Lastly, if not for death, changes within societies and civilizations would not happen, for death sets forth actions and reactions by people to changes. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. "Happy Endings (1983)." Pope, Rob. The English Studies Book: An Introduction to Language, Literature and Culture. London: Routledge, 1998. 352-355. Print. Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour (1894)." Bishop, Margaret. Single Scene: Short Stories. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2007. 99-101. Print. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World: a Tale for Children (1955)." Kirszner, Laurie G. and Stephen R. Mandell. Fiction: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994. 457-461. Print. Read More