Mechanics Of The Cremation Process example essay topic

George Bernard Shaw and His Short Story About the Cremation of The Narrator " sMother In a written exert from a letter about the cremation of his mother, George Bernard Shaw recalls her "passage" with humor and understanding. The dark humor associated with the horrid details of disposing of his mother's physical body are eventually reconciled with an understanding that her spirit lives on. He imagines how she would find humor in the bizarre event of her own cremation. The quality of humor unites Shaw and his mother in a bond that transcends the event of death and helps Shaw understand that her spirit will never die. The reader is also released from the horror of facing the mechanics of the cremation process when "Mama's" own comments lead us to understand that her personality and spirit will live on.

Shaw's diction is effective in conveying his mood and dramatizing the process of cremation. The traditional words of a burial service "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" are not altered for the cremation, the interior chamber "looked cool, clean, and sunny" as by a graveside, and the coffin was presented "feet first" as in a ground burial. In selecting aspects of a traditional burial service, Shaw's mood is revealed as ambivalent toward cremation by imposing recalled fragments of ground burial for contrast. Strangely fascinated, he begins to wonder exactly what happens when one is cremated. This mood of awe is dramatized as he encounters several doors to observe in his chronological investigation. He sees "a door opened in the wall", and follows the coffin as it "passed out through it and vanished as it closed", but this is not "the door of the furnace".

He finds the coffin "opposite another door, a real unmistakable furnace door", but as the coffin became engulfed in flame, "the door fell" and the mystery only continues an hour later as he gazes "through an opening in the floor". As he observes two "cooks" picking through "Mama's dainty little heap of ashes and samples of bone" the mood of dark humor is the only way he can handle the horror of his mother's death and cremated body. Heh as remained an unemotional observer on a journey through the crematorium with humor as the buffer between reporting the event and expressing raw emotion. Humor is the device to release himself and the reader to a new level of understanding. Plentiful details provide insight into the thoughts of the narrator a swell as a time schedule through the cremation. Shaw relates about cremations that "people are afraid to see it, but it is wonderful" and he "saw the real thing".

The narrator is acknowledging a general fear people share about facing the mechanics of cremation, and in doing so is admitting his own personal fear. He is also focusing on the accurate reporting of his mother's disposal and the statement that he was able to observe it and face it, thereby overcoming the fear. An order is provided for farewells from the initial "I went behind the scenes at the end of the service" to later "when we returned" (from the hour and half) to "and that merry episode was the end except for... scattering them (bone scraps) on a flower bed". All of these steps in the process of saying goodbye provide a loose chronological structure to his process of release. These details also provide an emotional way out for the reader who can share Mama's sense of humor about her own cremation thereby replacing personal fear about death with a feeling of the continuation of life and ones spirit.

The first person narration of this letter high tens the focus and insight of the principal subject. "I went behind the scenes", and "I found the violet coffin" bring the focus down to a personal experience, not just a documentary of similar event. By following the narrator's personal journey, certain truths about death and eternity are understood. The narrator goes on to recall certain truths about his mother: "Mama... leaning over beside me shaking with laughter " and "mama said in my ear... ". The closeness of the relationship the narrator had with his mother is clarified by their shared sense of humor.

The reader also feels at this point that their relationship will survive by humor in memory thereby overcoming the morbid aspects of death. The narrator has relived the entire experience by retelling it, but he has also reached a new level knowing his memories will survive and his mother's spirit will live on in a new shared understanding..