Hwk 50

Precis:
The American Way of Death (Revisited) By Jessica Mitford
Mitford is humorous as she approaches the funeral industry in our society in her revised version of the original book titled The American Way of Death which was published in 1963. Firstly she attends a seminar where she discusses her book and receives various comments from her audience. Later on she presents the issue of how the dead are cared for. Terms revolving around death are being exchanged for words that seem to sound more acceptable. Mitford then talks about the profession of funerals and the certain rules which are followed. Funeral directors make rules which will help them collect as much money as possible from their potential customers. Caskets are arranged in a various number of ways resulting in different price ranges; this helps the customer chose which casket is appropriate for their personal situation. Emotions are usually played with when it comes to the money which will be paid for such services; this tends to affect the customers decisions. Mitford then talks about how the body is readied for its casket, later on mentioning the topic of embalming.

Quotes:
- “Motels for the dead! That’s it, of course-a swimming pool and TV the only missing features.” (pg. 39)
- "How true; once the blood is removed, chances of live burial are indeed remote" (page 46).
- “Our customs require the presentation of our dead in the semblance of normality…unmarred by the ravages of illness, disease or mutilation,” (pg.47)

Analysis:
I found it surprising that people in our society as of today take advantage of everything they can in order to collect as much money as they can. In this case funeral directors take advantage of the situation and make their customers pay more money for reason. I think Mitford is right when she said that the funeral industry is brainwashed to believe inaccurate information. I personally feel that our society likes to take advantage of opportunities such as this by making up excuses. No matter what the situation may be they only tend to care about the amount of money going in their pocket. I think it’s absurd to do that within the funeral industry because this tends to deal with people’s emotions and usually at the time customers are emotionally sensitive. While reading, I was able to connect to the book I read in the birth unit titled Born in the USA. There they talked about hospitals and women having C-sections while paying large sums of money, even though they are not getting the attention they need. It’s the same type of idea here but with the funeral industry. In both cases the bigger authorities such as the doctors or funeral directors only seem to care about the money instead of the happiness of their customers. Overall I think Mitford does a good job of introducing the funeral industry to the public. Such issues seem to be hidden from society, but this text helps readers such as I realize the truth.