An Analysis Of Jason Patterson's 'The Alligator And The Slide'

It is obvious that the movie My Girl illustrates several aspects of the cognitive and emotional development of children’s understanding of death. Although Vada seems to have a fairly clear understanding of the inevitability and unpredictability of death, she has some difficulty with its all-inclusiveness in that, although she is quite preoccupied with her own death, with her constant visits to the doctor reporting various fatal diseases, she does not seem to be concerned about the possible death of those close to her. This is consistent with the finding that “most children understand their own personal mortality before they understand that all people die” (p. 17, Corr & Corr, 1996). This is so despite her extensive experience with death while living in a funeral parlour.

Nagy suggests this final stage to be a child’s first realistic view of both death and the real world. I too had a similar occurrence but it was a number of years after the age of nine. Nagy’s stages are quite insightful and probably useful to understand if raising a child. I understand these stages are not strictly contained to specific age groups, something Nagy acknowledges, but I cannot help but notice the fact that stage two continues far longer than Nagy foresees. It is probably fair to say that most people do not view death as the definitive end to living and through supernatural belief many see themselves transcending into a beyond of some kind. In a sense, most people never surpass stage two. I don’t mean to be controversial, but in order to inter stage three one has to understand death as definitive and unavoidable, something most people well over the age of nine do not. To conclude, Nagy’s stages, fascinating though they may be, in my opinion are not fully applicable to the development of death related concepts in

The Disney Way of Death explains the unfortunate/sad reaction to the evident loss of a loved one (friends and family). The reactions associated were common characteristics that Americans experience when they encountered death- Invisibility, silence, dispassion, institutionalization and taboo. (Laderman, 2000)

Smith explains that even though there are different people it has the same plot and reaction. Once the boy dies people’s reaction to it is to always bring it into the spotlight in the media creating protests or trying to make his death become a symbol of why they should focus on a specific issue. This reaction repeats itself every time a boy dies with the audience standing up supporting the cause they create from the boy’s death. The author explains

Wow, that's pretty violent! Anyway, I see this quote supporting the statement that the author is alluding to ancient humans. I see this traps symbolizing a crude form of technology, yet a form that is impressive for the children and the environment they are in and one equivalent to ancient humans.

mother’s death I can remember everyone who was in the stands that day...” This reference to the narrator’s vivid memory and the detailed depiction of the event shows the gravity of the situation and allows the reader to fully grasp the impact that the accident had on both the protagonist and the narrator. This act of bizarre violence is used masterfully in the author’s recount of his life. It shows how hard it is for a young boy to lose the only parent he ever knew and it also shows how hard it is for a child to be implicated in an event where someone close to the child has been unintentionally killed.

People deal with grief in different ways. As a small child, the way the narrator handles uncertainty and pain is distressing, yet also expected. She finds distractions in the furniture and decorations. The child notices a

The Disney way of death also introduces the audience to grief because of the death of a close relative. For example, the feelings we experience after Bambi’s mother is killed off camera are because of our own subconscious fears. This experience is

Fear is also generated in this piece of propaganda in that it plays on the emotions of the viewer by making them aware of what may be left behind if they die by a thoughtless and preventable accident. This further prompts safe driving, that it reveals to the viewer real life accidents, and promotes concern to the viewer. It also gives a sense of pity for the child that has been abandon by its deceased parents.

In addition, Cicirelli said, “The meanings of death and life are interdependent. Life gains its meaning from the fact of death. How, when, where, and why one anticipates dying influences the meaning of the life that one has. Such a view implies changing individuals over time, and consequently a life-span perspective on development of personal death meanings and related death fears. One would expect the individual to develop different personal meanings and death fears over the course of life from early childhood to adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and old age”( Cicirelli 715). When I was seven years old, I fear of death because the dead body and the coffin. There are a lot of Chinese horror movie talk about dead people who become zombies, then at night, they will come out of

I slipped beneath the surface of the pool of grain, my hands sticking straight up over my head as I held my breath, preparing for death. I was preparing for the world to go silent. This was the exact situation my father had warned me about, and I had fallen victim to it despite that. Fourteen years old as of two months ago, and death had already come for me. Or so I thought. I felt firm, callused hands grasp my own, plucking me from my grave. The relief was wonderful. I drank the air in, filling my burning lungs with as much as possible. I almost laughed out of sheer happiness – until my eyes met my father’s.

Through the victim’s eyes, he expresses sadness, how he feels unimportant while questioning everything about his life. “Is life worth living?” “Is my life meaningless?” “Will I be missed if I die?” Then suddenly a blast signaling the end of his life!

The sister prepares the evening meal, making her contribution to the family; and calls on the boy to come and eat. The saw in the boy?s hands was still running and when he took his attention away from his work, and that split second of carelessness cost him an extremity. His instincts raised his arm upward to keep all the blood from spilling out immediately. When he realized what was happening, the boy finally realized he was to young to be doing a man?s work. The boy ?saw all spoiled,? and now knew his whole childhood had vanished and it was impossible to get it back. The boy frantically called out to his sister to make the doctor keep his hand on. The boy?s body must have instantly gone into shock and not felt the absence of the hand. When the doctor arrived he gave him some ether to make him go to sleep. The little boy began to lose his pulse and soon he was a stranger to the world. The people surrounding the boy never expected the loss of his hand to tragically end the little boy?s life. Frost?s almost appalling casual description of death shocks the reader enough to make them think. ?Since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs,? describes the environment of the survivors. They are forced to move on with their life and keep working because they cannot afford to stop and mourn.

     When the snake first came to the water-trough, the narrator was excited and glad "he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water trough." He "felt so honoured" at this visit whilst at the same time, the voices of his "accursed human education" advised him to kill it, for it was a gold snake and therefore venomous.

I was supposed to go camping that evening, but little did I know that I was going to be spending the next three days in a hospital fearing for my brother’s life. This is my story about the scariest moment in my life, when my brother was on the edge of dying.