What Does It Mean To Be Alive Summary

In Lives in Limbo, Gonzales mentions the word transition in the first chapter as well as the three important stages that are involved in each transition, which are the preliminary, liminal, and post-liminal stages. By transition, he means the conversion between childhood to adolescence, and adolescence to adulthood. In this book, he focuses on the transitions of undocumented youth and how having no legal immigration status can affect their daily lives. He states that “migrants without any form of legal immigration status remain stuck in the second liminal stage” because some of his respondents can’t proceed to adulthood like their fellow Americans. They cannot achieve this transition because of their inabilities to receive employment, housing or even a driver’s license due to their legal status.

From start to finish, Death has seen both horrors and wonders. However, in his profession, Death mainly witnesses the horrific parts of life, and he needs the reader to know that he is not immune to the suffering he

In “Defining Life”, Josh Gabbatiss expresses the difficulty of distinguishing between the living and the inanimate, and examines various attempts at this age-old yet still developing struggle through the perspectives of virology, chemistry, astro-biology, technology, and philosophy. “Defining Life” is contextualized by an extensive history of deliberation by both modern and historical figures such as Aristotle and Carl Sagan, and institutions such as NASA and the Christian Church. The relevance of this article is also shown through current advancements in physical and life sciences, engineering, and philosophical

    In his short story The Dead, James Joyce creates a strong contrast between Gabriel, who is emotionally lifeless, and the other guests, who are physically aging and near death. Though physical mortality is inevitable, Joyce shows that emotional sterility is not, and Gabriel ultimately realizes this and decides that he must follow his passions. Throughout the story, a strong focus on death and mortality, a focus that serves as a constant reminder of our inevitable end of physical life, is prevalent in Joyce's selection of details. In the story, the unconquerable death ultimately triumphs over life, but it brings a triumph for the central character, not a loss. Despite the presence of death, the

Where there is life, there is death. Writers around the world have tried to define death; to give it meaning and explain its impact. A common literary device known as personification is often used to attribute human-like characteristics to death in an attempt to show their interpretations of death. Personification allows us to “use insight about ourselves to help us comprehend such things as forces of nature, common events, abstract concepts, and inanimate objects” (qtd. Quinn). In Billy Collins’ “My Number”, Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Death has been personified into characters that range from civil to malicious and content to discontent. “My Number” is about a man who is fearful of what he believes to be a cunning and cruel Death.

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.

As I read the reading “death”, I can conclude that the main idea for this reading that the author wants his readers to believe that the death is not something scary. We all should not be afraid about the fact that our bodies will cease to exist after death.

It would be different if Death wasn't showing so much effort to care about so many people dying. The author did do a good job on making Death the author and no one else. He said everything in a way that he was kind of telling his story about all the humans dying. In the novel “The Book Thief” death is the narrator and I wouldn't change it because the way he tells the story is that even though it's death you know how he feels about what is happening while the war was happening. In general he was tired of hearing about humans because all everyone would talk about is that people were dying and that they would die when the people came to bomb Himmel Street. I think it was effective enough as to where the person who was reading the story can kind of relate to the pain and suffering that Death had to go through because that was his job. In the end The Book Thief would have been a great book even if did have Death as an author but i would prefer if it was death telling the

When it comes to death the typical person is not that knowledgeable about or understanding of death. People are very scared when the topic of death arises. We all want to live forever with no fear of having to explore the aspect of us dying and having to plan a funeral or their own funeral. Death is never an openly discussed topic. With death and dealing with it we are lucky to have the book Final Gifts by Callanan and Kelley. They have provided a ton of information to help us to grow strong and at ease with the area of death. I will tell my feelings on the book and how it has impacted me.

If you don’t like blood and are easily grossed out, then Mary Roach’s “How to Know If You’re Dead” is not the book for you. In “How to Know if You’re Dead” Roach touches on what defines on what makes us living and what makes us dead. This is very important because we often believe that because someone’s heart is beating then they are alive. But Roach makes us question this belief.

While Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book takes a different approach and delves into what is, by all accounts, unknown and unseen; it more than raises the question of what happens when one dies and explores the physical world as well as the supernatural. Upon her death, Bod’s mother entrusts her son, a mortal being, not to other living beings, but to those who have already gone before her - those with the wisdom to raise him well. With various cautions along the way, Bod is kept safe until he learns what he needs to learn to exist as a force for good in the world. Through disobedience or excess curiosity, Bod sometimes finds himself in perilous situations along the way. Thoughout the story we are reminded that life indeed is fragile; but death, for most, is not to be feared. The story explores the existence of other spiritual beings who watch over us (the Hounds of God) and well as some of the bad guys who once held places of honor in the current physical world. Indeed, the dance of the macabre demonstrates that death is much closer than we think by it’s inevitability and we would do well to consider the consequences of our actions.

Tim O’Brien grew up in a place where if you were to look in the dictionary for the word “boring” you might find it. O’Brien was a World War 2 veteran and of an elementary-school teacher where he served as a WAVE. Although he has wrote many other books, he is primarily known for “If I die”, “Going after Cacciato”, and “The Things they carried”. The latter book opens with “The Things They Carried” and closes with The Lives of the Dead. The Lives of the Dead is a short novel about young Tim and his older self, Timmy, and his overall experience of coping with death. The Lives of the Dead shows the concept that the dead lives on by remembrance and telling stories.

This is a very difficult part of the reading for me. It paints a picture of saying goodbye to family, being strong for others, placing trust in doctors, and making a conscious choice about how we want to live and conduct ourselves in our final days. It talks about surrender and acceptance with no resistance and faith as we, in a dignified way set this one final example for our loved ones. This is a beautiful image but sadly, makes me acutely aware of how that this is not the experience of some elderly. Some are abandoned by their family or did not have a family to speak of to say goodbye and they are left to face this new phase of their life alone.

One of the main things I noticed throughout the “Waging a Living” is that no matter how tough time’s got, everyone was constantly trying to better their situation. They weren't necessarily doing it for themselves, but for their children.

The book made me think a lot about the way, people react to other people deaths, and how I reacted, when someone I knew died. I absolutely agree, with the theme in this book, that people should stop avoiding the topic