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Death: American style
A critical analysis of Evelyn Waugh’s The Loved One
Death: American Style
Life and death are inextricably bound to one another as they have been since the beginning of time. ... While much debate occurs over the happenings of after one’s death, and almost infinitely more debates as to what happens to one before it, there seems to be no one in any argument over the fact that we do die. ... The only logical conclusion then is that even though we know it is coming, death makes us very uncomfortable, and reasonably so. ... Albeit somewhat of a satirical stab at the ways Americans look at death, The Loved One describes a world were comfort is found within a guise of denial. Since death cannot simply go away, the best way to deal with it is to sugar coat it to the last drop. ... Within the gates of Whispering Glades funeral home death is seen as an art, and it’s workers that dwell within it artists. The intentions, although good are founded in deception, as Waugh shows the trends of the American mourner in the outrageous. ... To begin, it is in America, a place that deals with death unlike that of any other culture. ... Whispering Glades insists that “if you discuss it [death] openly and frankly, you remove morbid reflections” (Waugh, 44) giving the impression that the thought of death is dealt with in a manner that is blunt and straightforward. ... This somewhat tongue in cheek approach to how people wish to deal with death shows that people will look to any source of comfort, even if it means turning to the ridiculous. ... “A notice said: ‘tickets here for the lake Island of Innisfree’ and three couples of young people stood at the foot of a rustic landing-stage”,(Waugh,66) Despite the natural reservation of fooling around in a place of death the raging hormones of America’s teens still persevere and are, of course paramount. This all points to the fact that the death industry is trying to trick us into thinking that death is certainly a jovial thing. That perhaps we as people should not fear, but rather embrace the cold arms of death itself. ... The attitudes of death however do not lie solely in the physical plane, but the emotional one as well. Through human example there is an air that death is almost celebrated and glorified, to a point where it almost becomes a thing of love. ... Dennis finds himself working around the dead; however it is a breed of death that is much less disturbing than that of a human. ... They are still loved by their owners, still losing their precious and only life, still completely unaware of what occurs after their death, and yet no one out there is putting people into shoeboxes and throwing them out.
Approximate Word count = 2327
Approximate Pages = 9.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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