Hw 50

Precis: After death caretakers in funeral homes play one of the biggest roles, we have to make the transition from life to death as smooth as possible for the dead's loved ones. We do this by adding outrageous ornaments to the coffins and artificial chemicals to try and take away the smell of the dead. Although us caretakers put a lot of time and effort into the process of fixing up the dead for wake's and funeral's, it is still a hard task to make the lifeless room feel emotion.

Quotes:

"In my head, it sounds like a fairy-tale: the dead come from a magic place called the Silver Doors, from which they are whisked into boxes or made to drink potions that turn them from yellow to green, then they're painted pink and purple and powdered, and some are baked in an oven where they are turned into flour by special death-fairies" (Jokinen 19).

"But dead themseleves became a nuisance" (Jokinen 23)

"He has amazing drainage!" (Jokinen 55)

Analysis:

After reading the first third of CURTAINS by Tom Jokinen it was very easy to see that the process of caring for the dead is mainly a business. From cremation, to the coffins everything has a price, and in our society that's what makes everything work in a cycle. The factories in which embalming is done is very similar to slaughter houses (worker wise) Workers get in a routine and simply lose emotion while doing the same thing over multiple times a day. As a society we give into these rituals by thinking the only way for our loved ones to "rest in peace" is by having them suffocated in an oak coffin that would probably making a living person feel constricted and suffocated. Curtains has pulled me in but certain parts such as reading about co workers actions during their lunch break doesn't seem very important to me, I am very eager to keep reading and finding out other secrets and routines that care takers follow when handling the dead. It would also be interesting if Tom stands up to the system and changes the routines of handling the dead that he doesn't agree with.