I have the option of becoming dirt, ashes, food, or a collectable; I’ll go with becoming a lemon tree. In Mary Roach’s novel Stiff, she explains the different ways cadavers are returned to the earth. The author explains the characteristics and effects of cremation, water-reduction, and composting. She uses a variety of anecdotes to expand the reader’s knowledge of the grotesque use of cadavers. Furthermore, the author’s spends a fair time with the story of Wiigh-Masak and the encounter she had with the idea of making corpses into fertilizer. Roach gives strength to her piece by adding rhetorical questions which compels the reader to think beyond the accepted idea of death. In addition, humor is one of the author’s greatest forces, for she is easily able to address dead bodies and taboo stories perfectly fine! Her purpose is to address the life of cadavers from every angle; hence, she describes the options given to a dead body. She seems to have an audience that finds an interest in ecology, cremation, or dead bodies in general in mind because her enlightened personality makes the subjects extremely comfortable.
Vocabulary:
- Veal: a calf raised for its meat
- Feat: a noteworthy or extraordinary act or achievement
- Miasma: a dangerous, foreboding, or deathlike influence or atmosphere
- Manure: any natural or artificial substance for fertilizing the soil
- Pagan: one of a people or community observing a polytheistic religion
Tone: Whimsical
Strategies:
· Allusions: “The paper’s authors describe Trendelenburg as a great innovator ...one of his slightest contributions to medical science”(231).
· Rhetorical Questions: “Is there a more economical way to dispose of the body? A more environmentally friendly way? Could something useful be done with the remains?” (251).
· Anecdotes: “In 1961, Jack Kevorkian drained four cadavers according to the Soviet protocol…jerking off into pasta sauce” (231-232).
· Humor: “My reasons boil down to Harvard Brain Bank donor wallet card, which enables me to say “I’m going to Harvard” and not be lying” (284).
· Dialogue: ““Sandy,” I blurted out, “I have to tell you what this is about! There was this guy who cut the butts off dead bodies to give to his brother to…””(243).
Questions:
- What inspired you to write a book about cadavers?
- The story resembles a diary/journal because of the multiple stories and experiences you’ve encountered, why didn’t you choose to write the book in an epistolary form?
- Why is death given a price and so many difficulties? Religion should focus on the soul not the body.
Memorable Quote: “Thus we should respect Nature, and when we die, we should give ourselves back to earth” (263).
