Short Bio
Isaac Osterhoudt is a humorist and novelist. When he is not editing his novel The Beautiful Death, he is writing jokes and entertaining his family. No matter how hard he tries, his absurdity and comedic stylings come out in even the most serious of his work. Visit Isaac at http://badgranola.tumblr.com.
Long Bio
Isaac Osterhoudt has always been obsessed with fantasy, comedy, and novels that contain both. He has created the beginnings of countless novels until one entitled The Beautiful Death, finally clicked. 80,333 words later, he toils away at the editing process.
Born the middle child of five, Isaac started life and died shortly after. He and his mother were prescribed Codeine cough syrup. The doctor, unaware that opiates travel
He was constantly high on heroin, and when he was not, he was grumpy and abusive towards her. Eventually in times of lonesome, Baby got a hold of drugs on her own. First, she tried magic mushrooms. At first, getting high was a way for Baby to entertain herself. However, she eventually tried her father’s drug of choice, heroin. She quickly becomes addicted to the feeling she gets when high off this drug. Heroin entwines itself into Baby’s day-to-day life and begins to impair her normal decision making, “There wasn’t much, but there was enough to make all my anger dissipate. As soon as I was high, I couldn’t even remember what my escape plan had been (569).”Her quick addiction allows Baby to find an escape from her reality. Turning to drugs to fill the void her parents left within her childhood is not only temporary, but it is dangerous. People close to Baby demonstrate first-hand the dangers that this coping mechanism can pose. Her pimp, Alphonse, even died of an overdose with her in the room, “As soon as I looked at Alphonse’s face, I knew that he was dead, even though I had never seen a dead body before (604).” Baby’s method of coping from her father’s negligence is to turn to the exact thing that she witness ruin him, heroin. However, as a child of her age, she would not know any better. Her father is happier and more affectionate towards her while he is high, so it would only make sense to her to think that she would be the
Death. To many, it is the end of life and start of a new beginning from this world, but in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Death is our narrator. He is the one who guides us through the life of a young German girl named Liesel during Nazi Germany. Death manages to see her three times, and soon enough, becomes fascinated by her and the trials she must face in her life. Liesel manages to change Death’s character, surprising him in a way he thought humans never could and changing his viewpoint on them forever.
In these three literary pieces a prevalent theme is death. Death may be defined as the end-ing period of physical life. However, throughout the development of these stories, it was possible to distinguish plenty of physical but even non-physical death as well. This absolutely
This essay will focus on the theme of death in this story. There are lot
Edgar Allan Poe is a famous well known writer known for his dark and gothic horror stories such as “The Tell-Tale Heart” and many others. The well-known author had a rough life which dealt with a lot of death, so most of his stories revolve around this idea. In “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Masque of the Red Death” Poe uses similar themes or darkness to convey tone and conflict throughout the story. His writing style is dark and revolves around one main concept: death. Edgar Allan Poe uses diction and syntax, setting and conflict, and characterization in his writing style to develop his stories.
Death is an important theme in Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Masque of the Red Death”.
A comparison of the ways that the dead affect the living in the novels Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.
The deaths of his parents, sister and brother, all taken by tuberculosis, lead to Edgar Allan Poe’s obsession around the subject of death. This obsession enterprises historically ingenious writings, that did not just scare the reading population by inducing a death at the climax or tying in a death to create a gasp worthy ending. Poe’s historic greatness was his ability to use death as a catalyst, not an end. His stories, specifically short stories, strengthened the idea that the end of a life, has so much more meaning, than just the end. This precision was formed by how Poe ingeniously used the knowledge to not only comprise stories involving the subject of death, but used the stories to create deep ideas of the phantom of fatality. The short stories “The Black Cat,” “The Facts in the Case of M.Valdemar,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” all feature the inventive writing skills of Poe, that have enthralled populations since their publications.
James Joyce’s short story, “The Dead” depicts characters that all are seemingly alive, yet, on the inside, are very much dead. The main character, Gabriel Conroy, is more concerned with himself and how he is perceived than anyone else. His conceited nature plays a major role in his epiphany at the end of the story. After his wife, Gretta, divulges her childhood to Gabriel and the first young man who ever loved her, Gabriel come to the realization that “he had never felt like that himself towards any woman but he knew that feeling must be love (p. 628). With Gabriel’s sudden epiphany, the issue the readers knew, but he did not, surfaced. Gabriel was dead inside and only cared about himself. Any form of love he ever gave was to himself to boost his own egotistical personality.
Grimm, Jakob and Wilhelm. “Godfather Death.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 12-13.
Edgar Allan Poe once said, “With me, poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.” When stressed, writing was his coping mechanism, and through observation, many grasp how much death encompassed Poe. Although not appreciated during his era, he revolutionized mystery with mesmerizing story plots that yield suspense, but also makes readers question his stability. Most importantly, unlike those famous during his lifetime who are now forgotten, Poe’s legacy will live on forever. Moreover, throughout life, Poe experienced catastrophe, and because of this, writing became his creative outlet.
Usually, fairy tales are in connection to big and illustrious happy endings. But in Edgar Allan Poe’s case, it is evident that they do not exist, for his stories more often than not bear a grotesque demeanor. His life was surrounded by death. All of the women in his life died young, including his mother, sister, and wife. By the age of three, he had experienced what most would not experience until nearly the middle or end of their lives. Living in such an atmosphere allowed Poe to reach deep into his emotions when writing. Edgar Allan Poe was known for his macabre metaphors. These metaphors challenged the reader to endeavor themselves into his simple words; coming to find the gothic elements portrayed. He most commonly portrayed love and death in his poems. Poe is even credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Edgar Allan Poe utilizes symbolism and portrays an envious love tale, ending in tragedy to expose the speaker’s emotional state in the poem “Annabel Lee.”
The theme death has always played a crucial role in literature. Death surrounds us and our everyday life, something that we must adapt and accept. Whether its on television or newpaper, you'll probobly hear about the death of an individual or even a group. Most people have their own ideas and attitude towards it, but many consider this to be a tragic event due to many reasons. For those who suffered greatly from despair, living their life miserably and hopelessly, it could actually be a relief to them. Death effects not only you, but also those around you, while some people may stay unaffected depending on how they perceive it.
Although a scene of a funeral home might come to mind when a reader first hears a short story aptly named “The Dead,” the tale actually takes place in the festive setting of a winter dance at the home of the two aunts of the main character, Gabriel Conroy. James Joyce’s short story “The Dead” has a literal title, because its main concept is death – both physical death and spiritual death.
The composer’s use satirical techniques to show humility’s countless attempts to cheat death and by doing so, leads to the death of spiritual, emotional and cultural death of our society. Through the two texts, “The Loved One” by Evelyn Waugh a post-war satirical novel written in 1948 that deals with the superficiality and materialism of the funeral industry in modern day society and “death” an episode of the popular British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous written in the 90’s that comments on the rise of consumerism and the trivializing of death. Both texts depict their purpose through the use of satirical devices such as macabre humor, hyperbole, understatement, caricature, parody and juxtaposition. The texts studied both critique to the