HW #52 - Third Third of "The American Way of Death Revisited" by Jessica Mitford

Précis:

While this country is full of expensive and elaborate funeral traditions, England differs in fundamental ways: its people insist on respectful sensibility and simplicity while choosing caskets, preparing the deceased for viewing and burial, and holding funeral services. American funeral directors are attempting to evangelize British funeral businesses, some of which are frustrated by the lack of opportunities to profit from their business. Most Brits are perfectly happy with their non-commercialized practices. To encourage the deceptive practices in the US, the heads of funeral businesses by rewarding employees with the most sales, reprimanding employees who made less money than the predetermined goal, writing widely distributed and deceptive reports about the integrity of the industry, and manipulating funeral pre-payers. Despite these victories, many clergy and educated and wealthy Americans are purposely encouraging simple memorials rather than extravagant funerals, which threatens the funeral industry because simple memorials so often accompany donating the body to scientific research instead of burying it. Some industries handle this threat by proposing public relations programs in protest, establishing offices in Washington, D.C., or remaining quiet. Over the years, I have received mail from individuals who are simplifying caring for the dead; one woman started a casket making business that promotes family members caring for their own dead. If you opt for a traditional funeral, ask yourself where your money is going and how safely it is being invested before paying for anything. If you are overcharged, remember that you can demand justice and that there are laws established to protect you.

Quotes I Enjoyed:

• "Wise Ben! Could he but visit Forest Lawn today, he would have no need to go to Los Angeles" (page 154).
• "The funeral director is in a sense the prisoner of his own wall-to-wall carpeting; that, having installed all the expensive gadgetry and luxurious fittings, he is obliged to charge high prices in order to pay the upkeep of his fancy establishment" (page 166).
• "Assign a single spokesperson when possible...If you have more than one, it is important that everyone sing from the same song-book" (page 201).
• "Those who are inclined to even a modicum of ceremony would have to add a few items from the FPW price list to the above rock-bottom minimum" (page 204).
• "It took a long time for our missionaries to show tangible results for their efforts. The Brits seemed to like being fifty years behind their Yank counterparts" (page 208).
• "I think they're perfectly awful-looking things" (page 215).
• "The attitude of the general public is it's a practical thing - If you don't want to say anything about it, just don't mention it" (page 218).

Analytical Paragraph:

          There are many parallels between manufacturing food and manufacturing the dead in the US. Food is treated like a commodity; animals are fed physiologically inappropriate foods and chemicals that are unsustainable just as dead bodies are pumped full of fluids that are neither natural nor necessary. Packaged meat and embalmed bodies may look "right" but they have gone through wasteful processes to reach that point. Once animals are processed, they are packaged in economically unfriendly materials such as plastic, and sometimes a story is told about the dead animal via a picture of a farm and happy cows on the packaging. Likewise, dead bodies are placed in elaborate caskets in order to portray that the deceased's family loved them and that money spent reflects esteem of the dead. The "packaging" of the dead tells a story of a life successfully lived, in a sense. However, this packaging is made from materials that are non-recyclable and non-decomposable, and then placed in the ground to harm the earth. People spend money on funerals like society spends fossil fuels on their nutrition. Eating and caring for the dead are political acts, albeit small when on an individual basis. If every individual regarded such practices as political actions that determine the state of society, the fact that dying and eating should not require extensive and unsustainable procedures might weigh more heavily on their minds.