Duality In Becker's The Denial Of Death

Immortality has been made into this ultimate goal. Literature and films have often painted immortality as a gift only given to the few who have proven themselves worthy of it. A life full of great wisdom, experience, and many other joys. In Journey to the West, it opens up with the birth of Monkey and follows him as he tries to achieve immortality. Monkey wants immortality and is willing to do anything to get it; thinking immortality will bring him a an enlightened life. After reading Journey to the West, I believe immortality should not be something that is prized as the ultimate gift. I think living an immortal life would be far worse than a mortal one and throughout this paper I will discuss why.

In my mind, dualism is a more attractive view to take when considering the mind-brain issue. The idea that the mind is a separate entity and that it is independent of the physical body is the central point of dualism. One reason it appeals to me is because of my religion, my Catholic upbringing. Introspection is another good reason why dualism is a little more logical to me than materialism.. It logically explains why the mind and brain are separate. Also, the divisibility argument raises good points to allow dualism to appear to be the more attractive idea in my eyes.

By biological logic, we human beings will face death sooner or later in our life and death has its very own ways to approach us - a sudden deadly strike, a critical sickness, a tragic accident, a prolonged endurance of brutal treatment, or just an aging biological end. To deal with the prospect of death come different passive or active reactions; some may be scared and anxious to see death, some try to run away from it, and some by their own choice make death come faster. But Viktor Frankl, through his work Man’s Search for Meaning, and Bryan Doyle; in his essay “His Last Game” show us choices to confront the death, bring it to our deepest feelings, meaningful satisfaction. To me, the spirit of the prisoners at deadly concentration camps, Frankl’s Logotherapy theory of “. . . striving to find a meaning in one’s life is the primary motivational force in man.” (99), as well as the calmness of Doyle’s brother on his last ride, like an awaken bell, remind us of how precious life is, how we should find the significance in every act of living, determine to live a meaningful life at any circumstances; hence, when death comes, we can accept it without anxiety nor regrets.

Death is among the greatest mysteries of the human existence, one of the issues being that neither science, religion, or philosophy have definitive explanations on it. Although Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet explore death and dying, the former advocates for people to be more optimistic in these circumstances than the latter. Station Eleven’s characters focus their thoughts on living and improving their situation to achieve their goals while Hamlet's characters concentrate on dying and how to end the misery of life, as they are hopeless to change their fate. The ability to make decisions result in opposite outcomes for the characters in each text as Station Eleven’s characters have free will and are rewarded for using it, whereas Hamlet’s characters are punished for seeking to control their future. The development of each character’s life is due to their respective text favouring or punishing free will. The consequences of exercising free will in Station Eleven yield positive results because humans can control their own destiny in a world of death, while in Hamlet, contrarily, humans are controlled by fate and have to endure the consequences of attempting to defeat it.

Society tends to live day to day without much question of their own existence. Humans are born into the world and without second thought begin to live their lives, but there comes a time when individuals begin to question the reason for their being. In Richard Taylor’s, “The Meaning of Life”, Taylor explores the thought that our existence, when viewed externally without our prejudices, is fundamentally pointless. A thorough analysis of Taylor’s ideas will be given to understand the reasoning behind his thoughts, his argument will then be defended from counter arguments that state that the meaning behind any entity’s life could have any alternative meaning.

Therefore, Williams’ asserts the immortal life would be undesirable, or unlivable since we will inevitably exhaust our categorical desires (100).

In human nature there exists a morbid desire to explore the darker side of life. As human beings we make every effort to deny our curiosity in the things that frighten us, but deep down we secretly thrive on that cool rush of fear. Despite our efforts to maintain a balance of our emotions, we are a society of people who slow

Becker’s use of anaphora displays emphasis on the centralized idea that life is valuable and important. By doing so Becker appeals to accomplishing extraordinary goals in life. Furthermore, the repetition of “our life” demonstrates a greater importance on how people need to view life further than what they own or think. Adding to the idea that life is limited to the little amount of time we have on earth and shouldn’t be wasted on materialistic items that will only bring happiness for a small portion of time whereas the happiness that is sought after is permanent. Time shouldn’t be wasted but used

The idea of self is a significant part of every individual’s life. The way we visualise ourselves can be altered by feelings of self worth and self esteem and lead to a change or influence in the way we act. The evaluation of one’s attitude towards self can be seen to be improved by the individual believing they are worthy which could lead to a self fulfilling prophecy. The better-than-average effect can depict this theory by assessing individuals on their motivational bias and attributes (Brown, 2011). In this particular study, participants are given a questionnaire regarding ten traits, half of high importance and half of low importance. They were then told to rate these attributes on importance of possession. As predicted, the results show that the

Whether it is hope for a better position in society, or hope for a lover's companionship, the attachment to desire ignores the eventual reality of impermanence. Death assures our mandatory individuality. Though we may accumulate relationships and material possessions throughout the course of our earthly life, we are nonetheless subordinate to the limits of time.

Within all these theoretical standpoints, the theme and process of coming to terms with death and relationship could be regarded as the essence of an existential quest; one

In fact, this theory proposes that, “to live is to feel inferior” (Mosak 1995). However, when the individual begins to act inferior rather than feel inferior, the individual is engaging in “discouragement” or the inferiority complex (Mosak 1995). “To oversimplify, the inferiority feeling is universal and ‘normal’; the inferiority complex reflects the discouragement of a limited segment of our society and is usually ‘abnormal’” (Mosak 1995). This theory views the healthy and “ideal” individual as one who engages in life experiences with confidence and optimism. “There is a sense of belonging and contributing, the ‘courage to be imperfect,’ and the serene knowledge that one can be acceptable to others, although imperfect” (Mosak 1995).

The existence and purpose of human live has always posed a question for society. To answer this question, philosophers ponder Existentialism. Existentialism is the philosophy that humans exist for no true purpose and that each individual changes essence in his or her lifetime by finding meaning in life through freewill, choice, and personal responsibility without certain knowledge of right and wrong. This theory gained popularity in the mid-1900s after WWII caused many people to lose hope in an ordered world and accept that no cosmic justice exists. According to this theory, no absolute rules govern humans’ lives. This theory appears throughout literature and offers a grim perspective on human existence. The Metamorphosis, written by

Life is a complicated twist of suffering, laughing, and learning all merging to tell a great story - or great many stories. Based on this view, "it is not the end goal or outcome of life that gives life meaning but rather the quality of the story, the quality with which one lives out and develops his or her role."

“The existential theory is concerned for the personal "commitment" of this interesting existing unique in the "human circumstances”.