Eng 101- Midterm Embalming Mr. Jones PDF

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Jimenez | 1 Kristina Jimenez Diaz-Cooper English 101 PP Midterm Resembling Life The essay by Jessica Mitford entitled The Embalming of Mr. Jones was a story meant to enlighten the reader of the funeral industry and her views on the process of embalming. The job of a mortician involves many different skills including knowledge of the human body, resourcefulness, compassion to work with the family, and apathy for the dead. Mitford’s sarcasm was shown throughout the essay to give a comical tone to the very dark subject of death. The author’s view of the profession is disrespectful in some ways, giving detail to the reader of all that is involved in the process but also is very sarcastic in showing how they are numb to normal human emotions. The essay was used to deter people from wanting to embalm their loved ones or even themselves, hinting that the process is mutilation to a body, and accounts the many details of why she feels that way. Mitford hopes that the horrid details of embalming will frighten people from doing what is traditionally done to loved ones once they pass, giving them the knowledge so that they can make the decision for themselves. The author makes her readers fearful of what will inevitably happen to them or their loved ones, but does not mention the fact that families have been doing this process for centuries, and done to honor the dead not mutilate their bodies. It is human nature to fear death, so it is not shocking that the author, once informed, was fearful of her own morbidity, and uses fear to try to convince her readers that they should be afraid also. Although the process is extremely terrifying when imagining it happening to a loved one, it is a reality of what it takes to make them look themselves again. The author uses sarcasm to lighten the morbidity of embalming, the fortitude of a mortician, and the process. The author’s research in the subject of embalming gave her reader’s a look into the morbid world of preserving the deceased for the sake saying a final goodbye to family members.

Jimenez | 2 Mitford’s description of the blood being “drained out through the veins and replaced with embalming fluid” was a symbolic way of saying that life was completely gone from the body and now being replaced with a synthetic fluid which only makes a person resemble being alive. (303) The essay makes the reader question their own morbidity and the facts of what happens when their life is over and only their body remains. Mitford’s sarcastic remark of the mortician’s draining blood that has “typical favorites [that] are the carotid artery, femoral artery, jugular vein, subclavical vein” it is particularly morbid because those arteries are the human bodies’ main source of life when a person is alive and it is a mortician’s favorite way to drain it from them. (303) Mitford explains that there are specific fluids that can mimic a human child’s skin texture, which makes the reader sympathize with the innocent child that must feel soft so that their family member can feel their skin and still feel their familiar softness, which are things that a mortician must think more critically about rather than sympathize. The most shocking element of the essay was the end, when the author reveals that the horrific descriptions were that of a child, eventually clutching a “teddy bear” which gave the reader a sense of despair, imagining the mortician doing all of these procedures to an innocent child which makes you question if they are numb to the human condition.(305) Although the author’s tone in the essay is very sarcastic, she still respects the knowledge of the human body and its functions after death that a mortician must know. Recognition must be given to the fortitude of these professionals who have the “stomach for it” because not everyone can do this dirty and necessary work. (302) A mortician must set aside the fear of death and sympathy for their clients, because seeing people like children or families who have died would eventually be too hard to work with over time. Mitford’s account of a mortician’s job was mocked in some ways, saying that “in some cases the gruesome appearance of a mutilated disease-ridden subjects may be quite discouraging” she was downplaying the challenges that

Jimenez | 3 they face to make a person look as life-like as possible, for the respect of the family. (304) Mortician’s are not heartless, they just have a job that most people could not do, and if everyone felt the way the author does, there would be no one to prepare a body for their loved ones in time to honor them for their time of burial. A mortician sees a person at their worst in life, and although the author mocks the condition of some of the deceased, “ if a lip or two, a nose or ear should be missing” it is not expressed that their ingenuity is used to create the illusion of a person as if they were still alive.(304) All this is done for the sake of honoring a person’s memory, and capturing how their family remembers them last, no matter how mutilated their body was. The process of embalming takes not only the knowledge of the body but must be done in a timely manner and the author used sarcasm and humor to describe most of the process. Mitford’s description of taking all the organs from the body “it is jabbed into the abdomen … entrails…pump out and replaced with cavity fluid” and although this seems like too much information, it is the reality of what people have been doing for many generation, but it is not common knowledge to people. (303) The author explains very sarcastically that there are so many ways to fix a body that has been mutilated by death, “a hand missing… head off…swollen mouth... [or]…neck” and over time morticians have perfected and have made specific remedies for these problems.(304) The author uses those as examples to shock the reader, she is trying to show the normality of those horrific images and the numbness of that profession. The embalming process involves removing all organs that used to sustain life, and replace it with imitations, so that the body may appear as normal as possible. The blood that used to run through the veins are now filled with the artificial blood (embalming fluid) that they push through, all to preserve the body, just so the family can feel as if they are the same person. Mitford seems to be opposed to

Jimenez | 4 what she feels is mutilation to the body after death, it is what people have done to say goodbye to their loved ones without having to know what goes on behind the curtain. The author is very sarcastic in the essay which reveals her thoughts on embalming a person once they have passed away. Although it is very unpleasant to hear it described, unveiling the “formaldehyde curtain” is a process which has been done for many generation over many different cultures. (302) The knowledge of the process will not doubt make people upset or uncomfortable, but it will not stop people from practicing this tradition. People by nature need closure in life, and open casket funerals is a way of saying goodbye to a loved one, and seeing them in a familiar state, is comforting, giving the family peace knowing that they are not mutilated going into the earth. The author’s purpose was to try to stop what she feels is wrong to do to dead bodies, but she ignores that people need this profession in life. It may not be the most glamorous job, but an embalmer creates a sense of peace to both the deceased and their family. They give the deceased a last chance for their family to see them in an appropriate and honorable way, and it gives their family a chance to say goodbye, not having to look at their loved one in a state of horror, but rather restore them back to their old self, not matter how artificial it may be. The life of an embalmer is no doubt challenging to a person’s compassionate side, but it is a job that only certain people can do. Most people do not know about the details of the profession, because people are uncomfortable with the subject of death and Mitford’s research gives people a closer look. No doubt this essay will make her readers think of all that was done to their family or friend who died to make them look so alive during their funeral, but it will still give them the chance to see their face before they never see them again. The author makes it known in her essay that she is mocking the profession, using sarcasm to show that she feels that an embalmer, although very knowledgeable, and use of ingenuity, they lack a sense of human compassion.

Jimenez | 5 Works Cited Mitford, Jessica. "The Embalming of Mr. Jones" Patterns for Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide. New York.13th Edition. Bedford/St.Martins. 2015. Print....