Something to Talk About on the Way to the Funeral

Being a funeral director takes having a strong stomach and skill dealing with grief. There are many different ways people mourn. Religions have different rites as well as celebration of someone’s life. Every culture and civilization has three common threads dealing with death and their final internment. There are three main steps when someone dies. First is the preparation of the body, then some type of ceremony, and finally internment.

The role of women in society has grown and changed tremendously with the development of the world. Within the American culture, women’s rights have expanded to the extent of being able to vote for who runs our country or even possibly being the person that does run our country. Although the American culture has somewhat promoted the growth of a woman’s role in society, does not mean women receive the same respect in other cultures around world. For example, in Africa women are viewed lower on the totem pole of importance even though without them the village would fall apart. Chinua Achebe is an author that was born and raised in a village of Nigeria. From growing up there, Achebe understands the culture of Africa better than

Creaking sound of the door to kitchen, followed by rhythm made by the wok and ladle.

We, as humans, often get involved only with the issues that affect us or our environment. Furthermore, sometimes we do not see what is happening around us that affects the rest of the society. The article “Drugs are killing so many people in West Virginia that the state can’t keep up with the funerals” by Christopher Ingraham discusses the fact that in West Virginia, the amount of deaths caused (mostly) by overdose has increased so much in recent years that their indigent burial program has ran out of funds to cover funerals for people that do not have the funds to pay for

Leymah Gbowee is introduced as a Nobel Laureate and a fighter for peace, freedom, and women’s rights in her home country of Liberia; primarily throughout their civil war. She begins by walking the audience through several of the key stages of protesting. Gboweee discusses her troubles, seemingly insurmountable obstacles at times, and successes. She also discusses how she was singled out to be a leader among the protesting women of Liberia. As a leader she and her fellow protestors gave demands to the President of Liberia himself and went as far as taking control of a government building until a peace resolution was signed. She finishes this interview by answering questions by the Columbia audience in regards to US and other foreign

If there's anyone who could brighten up a room full of people arguing over which part of the turkey they want, disagreeing over politics, sharing the latest family gossip, it's definitely him. It's Thanksgiving and as I enter my grandparent’s house, I see him conversing with my aunt who's resemblance is uncanny, as he sips his glass of white wine and instantly looks up at me. It’s my grandfather, Gelo.

The loss of a loved one is one of the most difficult experiences to endure in a human lifetime. The grieving process often encompasses the survivors’ entire world and affects their emotional, cognitive, spiritual, and physical selves in unexpected ways. After a major loss, such as the death of a spouse or child, up to a third of the people most directly affected will suffer detrimental effects on their physical and/or mental health (Jacobs 1993).

Build a presentation informing an audience about at least two of the most popular types of social gatherings within your time period.

Today was funeral day. My mom’s funeral. It was a dark October thursday, the clouds were brewing a storm. A slight breeze disturbed my neck. My uncomfortable suit sleeves bellowed in the cold breeze.. I hadn’t felt any emotions since the day of her death, which was weeks ago, almost as if my emotion is grey. It was warm then, as my mind was too. Nowadays, up until today, my mind has been a dark fog, as if my mind was released into the sky, darkening everyone’s day, arriving at my mom’s funeral or just to cuddle up with their friends and family in front of a warm crackling fire, telling the stories of their childhood and how times were better. Not me, my dad usually ignored me and he only worked on managing my mom’s fortune. Yeah. My mom’s

Mankind’s history of burial practices and funeral customs are as old as civilization itself. There is no specific way to planning a funeral. Every civilization and culture has provided for their dead in different ways. Religion and personal beliefs play an important role in the burial practices and funeral customs of a given culture or civilization. Furthermore, each civilization and cultured ever studied have three things in common: some type of funeral rites, rituals, and ceremonies; A sacred place for the dead; and memorialization of the dead. As far back as the time of Christ, burials have been noted to take place. In time burial and funeral customs have become very distinct, interesting and

now. The only thing I can do now is pray and hope. To pray that I will

The author’s effort to display oral literature, including expressing Ghanaian English speaking and non-English speaking society, in her work reflects her own persona as a contemporary writer resembling the African oral traditions and art work. “Shall I go to Cape Coast, or to Elmina I don’t know, I can’t tell. I don’t know, I can’t tell,” (Aidoo) Language, mainly English, is promoted to throughly capture various backgrounds and events of the play. Aidoo tries to distinguish Eulalie’s American-English speech that instantly alienates her from the rest of the characters. The author also quite succeeds in reflecting Ato’s educated language with a hint of lecturing that proves he has been indeed abroad, as oppose to his Ghanaian family. It crucially exposes the impact of colonialism on communication between Africans with distinctive educational and social situations, as for instance, the married couple’s complexed struggle to not only fully accept their cultural differences but also keep and hold onto their own identities. Aidoo also catches the inflections and outcomes of oral literature by using simple songs, traditional proverbs and imagery, such as the interesting ones in the dialogue between the two old Ghanaian women. “1st W.:But you know, my sister, That my name is Lonesome. I

“We Need New Names” by Noviolet Bulawayo, is a story considered to be full of despair and of the African continent. The main idea that leaves the audience wondering is the change of situation and the cost of escape. “In Ghana Must Go” by Taiye Selasi, the characters come together to give a story of their experiences as a family. Both of these stories have similarities due to their settings in the African Diaspora. The African Diaspora setting gives the two stories a sense of an African feeling as written by the two authors.

These strong, and independent African women authors use insightful and educational language, which invites the western world to be a part of their world through the power of literature. One of the

Elisabeth says then there will never be any solution to the problem of novel in Africa if the Africans wanted a ‘living voice’. The main problem faced by them was because the African writers unlike the French and the English were not acting as writers but were actually behaving like interpreters of their exotic cultures and that the root of their problem was ‘ Having to perform your Africanness at the same time as you write.’