Works of Literature

Some of the books we have read this year portray death and man's fear or lack of fear of death in different lights.

*Beloved by Toni Morrison, discusses the issues of life after death in the sense of spirits who continue to stick around after their death. Part of the story is about how Sethe felt that death was better than returning to slavery so she attempted to kill her children and suceeded in killing one of them. So for Sethe she feared slavery more than death, which brings a new perspective to the idea of what death is. The other part of Beloved that deals with life after death is how the child that Sethe killed, at firsts haunts 124 the house the Denver and Sethe live in, but later in the story this child takes the form of flesh and bones and returns to 124 as a grown person, and continues to haunt the occupants of 124, but this time in a different way. Beloved recounts her time in what seems to be the after life, and how she came to be of flesh. The supernatural nature of Beloved's appearance is just another way to view of what happens to people after they die.

*The Stranger by Albert Camus, also touches on the subject of death. Mersualt commits what seems to be a cold blooded murder, since he has not connection to the man he kills and nothing against him. However, Mersualt goes through trial and is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Mersualt slowly comes to grips with the fact that his life is over, and instead of fear he just wishes he knew more about executions and how they work. Mersualt realizes his fate and accepts it instead of trying to stop it. It is not clear why Mersualt takes this view of death other than throughout the book Mersualt is very apathetic to many things and very unemotionally attached, so why shouldn't he be apathetic and unemotional to his own death.

Limerick

We wrote Limerick's based on our Big Giant Question, Limerick's are supposed to be light and humourous, however writing a limerick on death seems really ironic, but I figured I would attempt to write a light humourous limerick on Deat.

Why does man fear death?
Especially when he takes his last breath
for instead of fear
live your life my dear
and don't end up like Macbeth.