- What is Mitford's thesis? Does Mitford expect her readers to agree with her viewpoint? Provide textual evidence to support this and analyze that evidence.
- What is Mitford's tone (the feeling of the piece)? What effect does that tone have on you as the reader? How does it affect your regard for her ideas?
- How does her choice of framing her ideas as a process essay impact your perception of her ideas? Was it effective? Why?
- Pick out one quote that was significant to you. Explain it and why it was significant.
- What biases did you have, for or against the subject, while reading this text? When did you become aware of it and did it hinder your evaluating the text in an objective way?
- What ideas were you unfamiliar with from the text and how did you approach that information?
- Pose one question you have about the text. Then, attempt to answer someone else's question.
- Respond to one other student's post by either adding to it or politely refuting their ideas.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The Embalming of Mr. Jones
The Embalming of Mr. Jones (1963) offers much in the way of analysis of semantics and style. Please consider the following questions fully and answer in a minimum of 6 sentences per post, not including the question you're responding to:
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1)What is Mitford's thesis? Does Mitford expect her readers to agree with her viewpoint? Provide textual evidence to support this and analyze that evidence.
ReplyDeleteMitford's thesis is that embalming is a practice that not many people know about. In the text it states that "books on the subject are extremely hard to come by. And they are not found in book stores or libraries." I would say shes trying to get people to agree that embalming isn't something you can find anywhere its more like a secret practice. And only professionals are allowed to engage in this practice. For its a long and difficult procedure.
1.What is Mitford's thesis? Does Mitford expect her readers to agree with her viewpoint? Provide textual evidence to support this and analyze that evidence
ReplyDeleteMitford tried to inform the readers of the embalming process. Her thesis was about how many readers will become apposed of the process, and a lot do it because they don't know what is done to the body. She goes into her viewpoint vivdly and raw. As a reader it's hard not to agree with her on how the embalming process is horrible.
2)What is Mitford's tone (the feeling of the piece)? What effect does that tone have on you as the reader? How does it affect your regard for her ideas?
ReplyDeleteMitfords tone is more like a relax peaceful tone. This shows when shes describing the procedure of embalming as bringing the dead peace. Also when shes uses the word bliss to describe how the embalmed person looked after embalming. This tone makes me able to read her text without being disturbed by the instruction on how embalming is done. Her idea of this makes me think embalming is a natural process. It helps the family of the deceased be able to look at there deceased family member on how they saw him/her back then.
2. What is Mitford's tone (the feeling of the piece)? What effect does that tone have on you as the reader? How does it affect your regard for her ideas?
ReplyDeleteMitford is objective in the way she describes the embalming process. However the tone she sets before getting into the process of embalming is, in my opinion, a little presumptuous. In paragraph 3 she says that maybe if people knew what happens in the embalming room maybe they wouldn’t want any part of it. I want to be cremated and I made that decision long before I read the piece. I think other people who chose to be buried are fine with being ignorant to the facts of embalming. There are not too many options for one self after you die and being embalmed and buried is a part of a tradition that has been part of death since ancient Egypt. Her tone and message makes me wonder what her motivations were in writing the book.
1. Mitford's thesis is that the procedure of embalming is not a topic that many people even know about well. People just assume that they know, when most likely they really don’t. How the text supports this is when Mitford said that these books are very hard to find. They are neither in libraries nor book stores. How is the average person supposed to find information about embalming if they cannot even find it? It doesn’t really make much sense to me. I think you can’t find books on embalming easy because it’s a subject that only people in the embalming field would know and should know about. It wouldn’t benefit the average person much.
ReplyDelete2. What is Mitford's tone (the feeling of the piece)? What effect does that tone have on you as the reader? How does it affect your regard for her ideas?
ReplyDeleteThe tone is very informative but sarcastic at the same time. How she explains all these procedures to make a dead body look alive. In a sort a way im shocked at how much work goes into a dead body just so it could be put on display. I definetly do not want the embalming process done to me. If this is what happens behind closed doors i rather have a closed casket.
The thesis to the article The Embalming of Mr.Jones was that embalming is indeed a most extradinary procedure.Mitford do expect her readers to agree with her because she goes into full details about the adventages embalming has on the body. Fist she explain how it peersevers the body and keeps a warm skin tone.It also keeps the body order. She consider it as the preparation room because they are ready to bid the world farewell. From reading this article embalming seems like a hard task.
ReplyDelete3)How does the choice of framing her ideas as a process essay impact your perception of the ideas? Was it effective? Why?
ReplyDeleteIt made it look in my eyes that embalming isn't as disturbing then other people think. Since her idea was to bring blissfullness back into people. It made the gross part of the embalming step not as disturbing. The way they put the idea within the process essay was very effective. Im pretty sure people think the same way as i do.
1. Mitford’s thesis is how people are unaware of the malfunctions of a funeral home and how bodies are embalmed and are placed for display. I feel as though Mitford expects her readers to agree with her viewpoint. She raises the question to me as a reader of why people continue to choose embalming when they do not know the actual process that is being hidden from them. Mitford states that “not one in ten thousand has any idea of what actually takes place (1). She also informs readers that book on the subject of embalming are extremely hard to come by and they are not to be found in most libraries or bookshops (1). She backs up her thesis by giving extremely vivid and sometimes disturbing descriptions of the step by step process that is done behind closed doors.
ReplyDelete1. What is Mitford's thesis? Does Mitford expect her readers to agree with her viewpoint? Provide textual evidence to support this and analyze that evidence.
ReplyDeleteMitford’s thesis is that the embalming is practice that was once mandatory for family to witness the entire procedure, but now a day people only pay for the procedure without knowing what is done to the body. She mention in the text that people don’t have the stomach to witness the procedure for it very gruesome.
1. What is Mitford's thesis? Does Mitford expect her readers to agree with her viewpoint? Provide textual evidence to support this and analyze that evidence.
ReplyDeleteThe main idea of The Embalming of Mr. Jones is people are ignorant to what happens in an embalming room, and if they knew what happened before burial maybe they would think twice about being embalmed. Paragraph 1 states that people are ignorant to the facts of embalming. Paragraph 3 says, Is it possible he fears that public information about embalming might lead patrons to wonder if they really want this service? I believe that Mitford expects her readers to agree with her pitch, but she only led this horse to water. I’m not thirsty.
4)Pick out one quote that was significant to you. Explain it and why it was significant.
ReplyDelete"In the case of little Master Jones a Teddy bear may be clutched." That quote really was significant to me because it showed that the embalming was done on a child. The text explains on how to embalm a child, but it just took me by surprise. Embalming a child is just sad to the the other readers. I guess because sometimes death can get anyone even an innocent child.
2. Mitford’s tone in the piece is very sarcastic and biased. She also has a subjective and judgmental tone. It affected me as the reader because instead of looking at this piece in a serious manner it was more of information put as a joke. The effect that the tone had on me as a reader was that it raised questions to me as to why this process is so common among people. The tone of her piece made me agree with her on every level and example she wrote about and described. I feel as though the tone of her being judgmental and yet sarcastic makes a big impact on an everyday reader and seems to have a bigger effect on their thoughts about the embalming process.
ReplyDelete5)What biases did you have, for or against the subject, while reading this text? When did you become aware of it and did it hinder your evaluating the text in an objective way?
ReplyDeleteI was still for the embalming of a child because it just makes them more at peace after the embalming. I wasnt aware of it though until the end of the text when they described master jones as little. Also when they said it was more suited to make him clutch his teddy bear. It didnt hinder any of my evalutaion for it was death that took him away. Embalming just makes them look more at peace.
2.Ms Mitford seems really anxious about explaining the importance of being embalm.She tells how the body is laid out at the morgue and how the blood has to be drain.The thought of knowing what a dead body has to endure just to be view is disturbing.to me it seems like the whole process of the mortuary is a waste of time an money. There has to be a quicker way to perserverd the human body after death. What was more pain life or death.
ReplyDelete6)What ideas were you unfamiliar with from the text and how did you approach that information?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't unfamiliar with the text. I talked with a friend who wanted to be an undertaker. I pretty much knew everything about it. Especially the part with how they die might change there skin color when the embalming fluid seeps in there artery. I just took the natural approach on it it had barely any effect on me.
4. “In the case of little Master Jones a Teddy bear may be clutched. Here he will hold open house for a few days, visiting hours 10 A.M. to 9P.M.” (18) This one quote was significant to me because mainly this dreadful and disturbing process was being done to a child. All of these cosmetic procedures and incisions were being performed behind closed doors to a little boy. Also the fact that she states “here he will hold open house for a few days, visiting hours 10 A.M. to 9 P.M.” this seemed to disturb me to some extent because they are making it seem like his viewing hours which are usually used for final goodbyes, is a social event. It disturbed me and made me question the embalming process all together.
ReplyDeleteWhat is Mitford's thesis? Does Mitford expect her readers to agree with her viewpoint? Provide textual evidence to support this and analyze that evidence. Mitford's thesis is that embalming is a process many people do not know about. she wants her readers to agree with her because she gives us information that many people dont know about. she implies that its for a safistication to the families but at the same time no one know about it.
ReplyDelete1.) That embalming is an extraordinary procedure. In my finding I don’t believe that she would expect everyone to have the same feelings towards embalming than she would. In the thesis statement, she refers to most people being “blissfully Ignorant” to the procedure taken place before viewing of the body. Mitford’s reference to people as being ignorant with bliss shows a light in which people are better off not knowing or prefer it to be that way. The simple fact of just being surrounded by people in a funeral home brings about a morbid feeling.
ReplyDeleteThis article was full of details.Ms Mitford nailed it if someone wanted to be a mortician this article would be the one for them to read.The things that was said will have a lot of people wanting to just be cremated. In my personal opinion it is better to just burn. Donate you body parts get cremated and allowed people to remember you as your were.I wont have to worry about getting all of my blood drain out of my body.
ReplyDelete2. What is Mitford's tone (the feeling of the piece)? What effect does that tone have on you as the reader? How does it affect your regard for her ideas?
ReplyDeleteMitford tone was bit a angry at the “blissfully ignorant” at beginning paragraph. Then from there she go to soothing calm tone, but being very descriptive of the gruesome sectors in Mr. Jones embalming procedure. She is trying to get through to the audience of how painful… oh wait the death don’t feel pain. Her tone make the text much more enjoyable to read rather restrict herself by making the text seem less gruesome, she go full on detail of how it look like. It helps reader to see a much clearer picture of the embalming procedure.
6)What ideas were you unfamiliar with from the text and how did you approach that information?
ReplyDeleteI was unfamiliar with the whole entire embalming process. I was shocked at how much preparation goes on these bodies just so they can seem at peace. I understand the families are the ones who choose to have this done, but on my point of view the embalming process tampers with the dead bodies a lot. Your getting pumped with like 4 different chemicals and and have holes all over your body. I rather just get cremated if that's the case, i know ill be dead and wont feel a thing but i wouldn't want anyone tampering with my body.
6. I was unfamiliar with the whole embalming process. I personally have always told myself that I would not like to be buried and placed in a casket but I would rather be cremated. The whole embalming process that was described was a new bit of information. I was stunned and taken back by the information and process that was described in this essay. I know have a better and clearer reason as to why I wish not to be embalmed and placed in a casket. The new information was disturbing and shocking to me.
ReplyDelete4. Pick out one quote that was significant to you. Explain it and why it was significant.
ReplyDeleteIn paragraph 3 she writes, “A close look at what does actually take place may explain in large measure the undertaker’s intractable reticence concerning a procedure that has become his major raison d’etre.” That line, actually the whole essay, makes me think that Mitford had her heart broken by a mortician. A mortician is doing his job, and it’s no different from any other occupation. To say that this is his “reason for being” is a little dramatic and I don’t see anything wrong with it.
3. Having this essay written as a process essay impacted my perception of the ideas because it helped me understand each step in the embalming process. Her use of a lot of descriptions also helped make my perception of her ideas much clearer. I feel the way this essay was written effectively impacted her ideas. Again, I feel that the use of description in a process essay helped back up her thesis and make her points even stronger.
ReplyDelete2.) In this whole story I get a sense of the author and the relationship that she has with funeral homes which sets the tone that the author has this fascination with how the dead is prepared as this “American ritual” as the author said. I also get a sense of morbid, depressed kind of attitude; a creepy tone as to why the author is so heavily fascinated by this procedure. Mitford’s Ideals is an eye opener as to what it takes to put away the dead.
ReplyDelete7. What ideas were you unfamiliar with from the text and how did you approach that information?
ReplyDeleteI was unaware that it only take 9-12 months of schooling to become a mortician. Sounds interesting, if it doesn’t work out here at Hudson, I have a plan B.
4.The preparation room is to be ready to bid the world farewell. To me it signifies getting pretty. to be look upon with much delight.For some is like going under the knife and getting plastic surgery.It can also reflect on a wife getting ready to meet her husband.I'm all about enhancing someone other beauty. This is all that a mortician does.
ReplyDelete3. How does the choice of framing her ideas as a process essay impact your perception of the ideas? Was it effective? Why?
ReplyDeleteShe chooses an excellent choice to framing her ideas into a process essay. Despite it’s not a descriptive essay it still share the element of it. She can go into as much details as she goes on writing about the procedure of embalming. It certainly add more interesting as how it present in orderly and adding minor details to give reader an even further understanding, for example if the person was disfigure they have to remove this or add in that.
1. Milford’s thesis concludes that people in general are not aware of what really goes on when a dead body is being embalming. She implies that although the treatment is being done for memorable cause, there’s a lot of thought you have to take in consideration before doing a funeral. I don’t believe she wants us to agree with her, simply she is showing in very specific detail what goes on when a body is being embalming.
ReplyDelete2. Her tone of voice from what I can detect by reading her essay is that maybe she had lost someone or has worked or witness how things are done and she didn’t like the idea of the whole procedure. Like taking out the blood, putting make up on to touch up the discoloration on the body, all the things that are being done to the body so that it can appeal to the audience. I’ve been to many funerals and people that I lost and cared about. I don’t want to see that person with a bullet hole or scratches and burns on them; I want to see them looking sharp and just be buried in a formal form. So my opinion towards her idea differs.
ReplyDelete3. Her process essay doesn’t really change or makes me think different. I am well aware of what goes on while a body is being embalming and I think is a wonderful idea, if it wasn’t? Why would people choose this proper process before embalming or burring a person?
ReplyDelete4. “How well he looks…” this quote represents my whole idea or main point of view of the embalming of Mr. Jones. Nice hair cut, well dressed, nice tone color looking almost as if he never left and he was sleeping eternally. That is the most crucial evidence of embalming a body. Who cares what they do to the body after its dead and maybe it has been damage in a way to most people, looking at the body before embalming is disturbing.
ReplyDelete5. One question I would like to ask Jessica Mitford, How would you like to be buried or presented to your family after your death of a gun robbery where your body had been shoot multiple time including your neck, arms, and legs?? For the text itself…Why make things look so bombarding when after all it’s a ceremonial event for a love one?
ReplyDelete1.The thesis for Mitford’s essay “The Embalming of Mr. Jones” is the process of embalming a dead body and what people don’t know happens behind closed doors while the process is going on. She says that people were once allowed to watch the process being done but now they are excluded by law from the preparation room. Yes, I think that Mitford is expecting her readers to agree with her viewpoint because she goes great detail about the process. When she says that books on this procedure are very hard to come by I think she is basically trying to say that this has become a secret practice.
ReplyDelete5.The is a subject that affects all of the human race embalming is the only procedures beside being cremated. Everybody has to live this world. I was not interrested but it was good to know.
ReplyDelete1. Mitford thesis is about informing her readers about the embalming process and what is relatively unknown about it. Also that the people who perform this procedure are relatively secretive about it. I don’t think she expect her readers to agree with her viewpoint, but to become aware of just what their paying for and what takes place. Mitford says that “Not one in ten thousand has any idea of what is actually takes place.” I think she wants to relieve their ignorant about it. For example Mitford states “Americans who each year pay hundreds of millions of dollars for its perpetuation, blissfully ignorant of what it is all about, what is done, how it is done.”
ReplyDelete4. Pick out one quote that was significant to you. Explain it and why it was significant.
ReplyDeleteThe quote that I find most significant to me is Raison d'être or reason for being. The reason for being I find it quite amusing for his reason for being is thanks to the death of other. A spark in my mind asking me this so is the author saying so everyone reason for being is base on their job? Aside from that the quote sounds cool. I can also relate that quote to another issue in this text. Birth, live, love, spouse, and finally death, so is the final journey of our Raison Detre final journey of our reason for being is as always death.
2. I believe that Mitford's ton in this piece is little sarcastic. I didn’t really know any effect her being sarcastic had on me. Other then the fact that her sarcastic tone shows that she is slightly byes, and did not like the idea of this procedure. In regards to her idea the tone also had no affect on me. I still think that she still made an insightful info.
ReplyDelete5. I had no biases for or against this subject, while reading. Though I can say after reading this I’m a little agents being embalming. I became aware of embalming when I was younger from a TV show or something like that. In truth though I didn’t know all of what the procedure initialed. I still don’t think it really hindered my evaluating of the text in any way.
ReplyDelete