Death is difficult to deal with for most people. In the essay "The American Way of, Death" by Jessica Mitford, she explains the procedure of embalming. In the following passage Mitford writes about the embalming process and how Americans do not know much about it:.
Embalming is indeed a most extraordinary procedure, and one must wonder at the docility of Americans who each year pay hundreds of millions of dollars for its perpetuation, blissfully ignorant of what it is call about, what is done, how it is done. Not one in ten thousand has any idea of what actually takes place. Books on the subject are extremely hard to come by. They are not to be found in most libraries or bookshops. (357).
Many Americans spend tons of money on the embalming process and they are clueless about what actually goes on. The word "docility" says that Americans are easily managed or agree with the embalming procedure without any question about it. It a cultural custom, so Americans do not get insulted by having information withheld from them. "Blissfully ignorant" says that American do not want to know what going on. Blissfully ignorant is different from ignorant because ignorant is just not knowing. Americans just care about the final process, that the bodies look alive and healthy. "Perpetuation" suggests that Americans are actually perpetuating the illusion of life which helps Americans cope better with the harsh reality of death. .
The entire embalming industry is geared to make the dead look not dead. Blissfully ignorant Americans accept the embalming process because Americans are denying the reality of death by participating without a second thought. The embalming process is good for Americans because it helps the family remember the body as it once was, health and alive. Embalming is not a healthy response to the death of the body, but it is what satisfies Americans emotional needs.
