The Dead Book

                                                                                                                                         

          In the 2010 edition of the American Best Essays, one of the essay writers, Jane Churchon, wrote The Dead Book. Jane Churchon’s essay was originally published in The Sun Magazine, and although not a full-time writer, she currently works as a nurse supervisor and focuses mostly on fiction. Throughout all her works, pertaining to her writing, she was able to have her essay, The Dead Book as a selected one by Christopher Hitchens, which allowed her to grow as an author. For instance, her purpose for writing The Dead Book was to aware the public that after a certain amount of time, every single person will have the last breath of their life, because she has seen it happen from person to person. Therefore, the people to who this essay most especially pertains is to those people who go on living life the same way each day, and don’t think about death because they think it is a long way to come from them. For example, The Dead Book was about a nurse who didn’t always pronounce someone dead, unless she was authorized to do so, but when she did, the hospital room would then be occupied by another patient. Then, the deceased were stored, or rather placed in the basement, and memories of those people or even curiosity on who they were moments before their death would start to creep in. And then, the same process continued to be repeated person after person. Therefore, for Jane Churchon to have been able to successfully address her audience, she set the context for her audience by setting off a curious but thoughtful feeling through setting the story of her essay in a hospital surrounded by many people either dead or alive. Not only this, but her decision to use an event found in everyone’s life, with a person, family, or doctors, consisting of being present with the soon to be dead allowed the thought of death to be more of a reality. In addition, her use of rhetorical devices such as imagery through describing how a person is treated after death, and the use of repetitive scenarios allowed the purpose of her essay to come through. As a result, I believe that Jane Churchon did accomplish the purpose of The Dead Book because she not only wrote about the process after death, but she also stressed the inevitable feelings, emotions, thoughts, and reality at the end of her essay, that one day the same will be done to us after we die.

(Dead Body Morgue, getty images)