`` Not Fade Away : On Living, Dying, And The Digital Afterlife

To conclude, author’s inspire their audience through evoking empathy and compassion in them. This is important because it helps people understand more about the world and know when changes

The power of the story has been very much a part of the lives of humans throughout time. The story is able to bring the past to the present and the dead to the living. The story can make the blind see. The story is able to make others feel for events in time that they have never experienced. The story has a profound effect on both the teller and the audience. As the audience is thought to be the beneficiary or the storytelling process, the teller is able to relive the times of old, or even teach a valuable lesson to his or her audience. Thus, allowing both parties to gain something intangible throughout this process. In “The Lives of the Dead,” O’Brien conveys the importance of storytelling and imagination by suggesting that the dead can be brought back to life in the minds of the people who hear it.

Recently the class and I read a short story called Blue Against White, which focuses on the importance of memories during childhood and how it affects one's life. Jeannette C. Armstrong the author, uses writing techniques like symbolism through common motifs to aid the reader to have a better understanding of the the hidden morals within the story.  Literary elements that were applied in the story includes plot and character which also had immense connections towards the author itself. This can be shown through the word choice and the placement of the setting, which displayed a large significance in assisting the reader through imagery. The fact that Jeannette C. Armstrong developed such a self-discovery story helps bring attention

As a fellow writer, have you ever wondered why personal non-fiction writers such as Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, and Alice Walker are considered “great” writers? What do they bring to the table that other personal non-fiction writers do not? For starters, Joan Didion has an unmistakable writing style, and in one of her most famous essays “The White Album”, Didion gives her essay a unique jazzy tone. Annie Dillard’s eye for descriptive detail and imagery is impeccable throughout her essay “Total Eclipse”. The way Alice Walker is able to connect with her audience through her writing is absolutely stunning in “Looking for Zora”. So, the question “what makes an essay a “good” personal non-fiction essay evolves into the following question: how can three essays that are completely different all be considered “great”? The answer is simple. Didion’s, Dillard’s, and Walker’s essays are connected by one common factor. They are all memorable. In their own way, they are able to connect with their audience through different elements of writing. A writer’s goal in writing an essay is to be memorable and leave their audience wanting to read more; however, they must utilize the elements of writing such as style, tone, detail, imagery, etc. like great personal non-fiction authors to be considered great.

“What the dead don’t know piles up, though we don’t notice it at first,” is an insight in Roger Angell’s descriptive memoir, “Over the Wall” (414). Emotional responses, stimulating thoughts and solid feelings are elicited through the use of personal reflection, regarding the death of his wife, Carol. This literary nonfiction, memoir uses the present tense, a constant tone, and an informal view to help add immediacy, by keeping the reader involved step by step as the author connects his personal present and past experiences regarding death. Readers are continually intrigued by Angell’s literary nonfiction essay, with provoking thoughts focusing on death, while using figurative language to keep Carol alive, with the use of vivid personal reflections and descriptive personal experiences.

It is within the human nature to be interested in other people’s experiences. Whether it be with reality shows or blog posts, people like to hear different incidents through diverse perspectives. Writers take advantage of this curiosity and try to tie experiences into their works. Many times writers will include experiences of their own in order to convince their audience of their perspective on a subject. These personal experiences are done in order to make an impact on the audience and it is written in a certain way to make it the most efficient for the readers. The use of personal anecdotes is effective when details are described to the point where readers can create their own opinions, when they are used as the main topic against an argument as opposed to being an unimportant detail, and when it has the ability to appeal to the audience’s emotion.

A comment from Beatty when he’s explaining the breaking down of society also clearly shows their society’s ability to forget people’s lives and how they lived.“‘Let’s not quibble over individuals with memoriams. Forget them.’” (60) It’s easy for people nowadays to restrict someone’s life down to just a page or two in memoriams and this is something Beatty brings up in his rant. Bradbury is speaking about how forgettable and unimportant someone is after death. People hear their neighbor died and go to the funeral but in the end their neighbor’s life is just gone and ended and their memoriam is just thrown to the trash and they are

Many authors use storytelling as a vehicle to convey the immortality of past selves and those who have passed to not only in their piece of literature but in their life as an author. In Tim O’Brien’s work of fiction The Things They Carried, through his final chapter “The Lives of the Dead,” O 'Brien conveys that writing is a matter of survival since, the powers of storytelling can ensure the immortality of all those who were significant in his life. Through their immortality, O’Brien has the ability to save himself with a simple story. Through snippets of main plot event of other chapters, O’Brien speaks to the fact the dead have not actually left; they are gone physically, but not spiritually or emotionally. They live on in memories as Linda lives on in the memories of O’Brien and as many of his war buddies live on through his stories. He can revive them and bring them back to the world through his writings and through these emotions or events he experienced with them and with their deaths can make them immortal. Through the reminiscent stories of Linda and O’Brien’s war companions and himself, O’Brien conveys that storytelling allows people to reanimate others who have died and past selves to create an immortality of humans.

Rather then visiting a grave, many visit a “ ‘memorialized’ profile” (589) in order to remember a loved one and share memories with others. Social media allows memories to be shared with one another when separated and unable to come together. It allows those divided by distance to grieve together. In “grief in the age of Facebook”, Elizabeth stone explains how the tragic death of a student named Casey opened her eyes to social media and how well one actually knows their peers. Stone explains that social media became a place of consolation for grieving friends and family, but it also made them question how deeply they actually knew their friend. “I’m not sure, but I wander- if I should have known her better” (598). Stone questioned how well she actually knew her student because of the characteristics that were revealed through others memorializing posts about Casey. Stone struggles with the thought that social media is a place for “solace but also uncertainty” (588). Often times one believes they know their peers very well, but once they examine their social media and what their other friends posts, they seem to think they no longer know them as deeply as they previously believed. Social media allows one to learn a lot about a person with just one click, but that one click likely leaves out what hardships someone is going

of the most expressive and meaningful stories that have lots of great deep meanings. These stories

Drawing upon the ability of fiction to preserve life against death, O 'Brien says that, during wartime, that they were able to "[keep] the dead alive with stories" (239). To the living, stories were a way to keep the memory of the dead alive, but to the dead, it was the simple act of remembering that kept them alive: "That 's what a story does. The bodies are animated. You make the dead talk" (232). This theme of preservation is exemplified by story of Linda, in which O 'Brien uses the power of storytelling and memory to keep people alive: "Stories can save us. I 'm forty-three years old, and a writer now, and even still, right here, I keep dreaming Linda alive...They 're all dead. But in a story, which is a kind of dreaming, the dead sometimes smile and sit up and return to the world." (225).

Short Stories normally address issues in society at the current time of the story which these issues sometime end up being timeless issues that still occur in the current time period. For instance, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman the story deals with the issue of postpartum depression in new mothers. While postpartum depression is still a very real and current topic in today’s society. Current society handles the issue differently than when the “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written. The difference in modern day and past society is contributed to the increasing knowledge of postpartum depression that has led to a new view for society, improved treatments, and a better approach for support from family. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Once there was a woman who told a story. However, she had more than just an entertaining tale to tell. She chose common images that everyone would understand, and she wrapped her story around them, and in this way she was able to teach the people . . .

In this day in age new technology such as the Internet has allowed a person to create and maintain relationships online through social media networks in ways that were never possible before (Egnoto, Sirianni, Ortega, Stefanone, 2014). It has allowed a person to digitally document his/her life through sources such as photos, videos, or personal blogs. With the incorporation of new technological advances it will result in change in both the emotional and legal aspects of the dying and mourning process so it is important for everyone to prepare for the inevitable change that will occur. This paper will point out the importance of why we will not only have to evolve emotionally to keep up with the change but also how important it is for federal and state authorities to set specific rights and guidelines of how to handle the digital footprint that is left behind after someone dies.

Remembering the dead is often by an elegy or serious reflection on their lives, usually we learn great deals from the dead even after they have passed. As people die everyday there are reflections into their lives to see what they have don’t both good and bad to learn from their lives to change ours. More often than not, you will learn the most from a person who is very influential to you and is close to you. We all lose some close to us and depending on who was lost do you understand and learn from their successes or their failures, these lessons can change your life in a great way. My aunt was one of the most caring, loving, and honest person i’ve ever met and the lose of her lead me to reflect on how i want to live my life. If we all care