"Animals learn death first at the moment of death; man approaches death with the knowledge it is closer every hour..."

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Jacqueline D’Angelo

English 246 – 02

Prof. Jim Cody

December 20, 2002

        

        “Animals learn death first at the moment of death; man approaches death with the knowledge it is closer every hour…”
                                        -Arthur Schopenhauer,
The World as Will and Idea


        
Death is a theme that is inevitable to come across in day to day life. From the moment we are all born, we are dying. It is an idea that is common amongst all living creatures and because of its widespread cohesion many authors use it as a tool in their writings. Most of them mention death, depict death, and even reenact death, however every time this device is used an attempt is made for a different message to be sent.
        Messages of new beginnings, solemn endings, the halt to injustices, sadness, relief, etc. are all portrayed through different techniques while presenting death in literature. Over the past few months collectively as a class we have read many works that have shown death in one way or another. Three of them that stand out the most are
A Rose for Emily, Our Town, and I’m Not Rappaport. Each one of these pieces had displayed death in a different way and the messages sent to the reader through their depictions were all different as well.
        First, William Faulkner’s
A Rose for Emily deals with death in a strange and sometimes unbelievable way. Emily is not good at dealing with death and loss. For the most part she doesn’t like to face the idea of death at all. When it comes down to it she tries not to admit that it even happens. For instance, on page 34 when Emily is confronted about her taxes she tells the man “See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson.” Strangely enough, Colonel Sartoris had been dead for almost ten years when she had said this.  Another instance where death is an issue in the story is when Faulkner mentions the death of Emily’s father and the past occurrences.  On page 36 it is said that the day after his death  “Miss Emily met them [ladies from the town] at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face.  She told them that her father was not dead.”  It wasn’t until three days later that she was talked to and convinced to move the body from the house.  

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        In both of these cases, Emily was living in denial of death.  It was obvious that she did not like the idea of someone she knew leaving her or the idea of change.  With that person not in her life anymore, Emily would have to get used to life in a way that the deceased were not involved anymore.  Adaptation was the key to moving on with her life post-death and she didn’t like the fact that she had to change her life.

        Finally, at the end of A Rose for Emily the townspeople and we (the readers) discover that Emily ...

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