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Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Analysis

Decent Essays

The Story of My Search I once went to a program at Yale University called Sprout, where students could choose classes normally not offered at a typical high school. There, I took a class called “The Solution to the Problem of Death through Love, Art and Religion.” My class had discussed how, although people’s bodies can die, their legacy can live on in memories, art, fame, or pretty much anything. We discussed how the image of you can be preserved much like the bodies of the dead; however, we only touched the surface of the fear that is associated with death. The poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good” Night by Dylan Thomas describes the anger associated with dying and the fear of not leaving your mark on the world. After a short discussion, I determined the general message of the poem: People should be angry about death, but afraid if they haven’t done anything memorable. The words of the poem intrigued me: “Though wise men at their end know the dark is …show more content…

We deal with death every day, but have an obsession for hiding bodies. Bodies are “hidden away in discrete, inaccessible rooms…. During the funeral ceremony they lie in closed coffins until they are lowered into the earth or cremated in the oven.” (Knausgaard, 3). Do we not want to deal with death because not only are we afraid of death, but are we frozen in fear of just the name? Death in movies or books are regarded as sad, somber occasions, at which point the character sinks into an insufferable depression, or is inspired to live life while they’re alive. How is death depicted in our society? Most typical funerals are at a cemetery of a church, which leads to the question: How do different religions deal with death? A well known piece of art is Jesus nailed to a cross, only to return to the mortal world, alive and well. This prompts the final question, is it possible to live forever (or longer than an average person would exist) through

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