The Death
9
Screenshot of Dawn taken by William Siege
plain
2019-11-19T16:59:51-08:00
This tranquil image of wildlife is completely at odds with the text. The text speaks of the narrators last time spent with their father and their last moments on earth and yet the picture shows an endless supply of life, unconcerned with inevitable death. The purpose is to show that even though every person must experience pain and one day die, life as a whole will continue. Plants will still grow and flowers will bloom and the world as a whole won't stop just because of one person's pain. The addition of the image to just the words makes an otherwise depressing part of the poem turn calm and reminiscent. There is still loss and sadness in the narrators voice but it has already passed grief and reached a tone of acceptance. The text contains no capital letters, even where they should grammatically exist, making the words seem very monotone and calm. Instead of fearing death, the narrator is trying to "record" everything, in other words they are trying to experience everything they can before their life is over. This optimistic perspective doesn't eliminate the sensation of loss but it transforms it into optomism, giving the reader a sense of hope. Not all loss is insurmountable. This form of acceptance after loss is comparable to the emotions evoked in Loss of Humanity by Kyle Yuan. The main difference is that Dr. Grubel has accepted the loss before the tragedy has occurred, whereas ordinary healthy acceptance only occurs long afterwards. Acceptance is important, but becoming jaded to loss as a whole leads to insanity.
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