Death Forgets No One: a Paper on the Theme of Death in World Literature Essay Example

through the reading of world literature. World Literature can show how they meet the needs and demands of their workplaces, meaning the reader can decide what to learn and not learn from it.

World literature can help him experience personal and spiritual fulfillment by allowing him to take a look into others’ religions. By exploring the religion of others, he can truly appreciate the religion of his choice. Other religions can open his eyes to things we have not heard of before, seen before, etc. It can make him think critically of his own religion or of their religion. It can also make him think critically by bringing up points that are thought of differently in his society such as death. Death is viewed many different ways.

It can be viewed as a good event, a bad event, it can be brutal, it can be peaceful, etc. There are just so many different ways it can be viewed. This paper will touch up on a few of those ways from the works studied such as Candide, The death of Ivan Ilyich, and Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias in the world literature class. Studying death in these three pieces can help us to learn how death was viewed in three different countries. From these three works, it definitely seems like the three different countries of France, Russia, and Mexico view death differently.

Candide by Francois-Marie Arouet De Voltaire is a French piece written in 1759. Death is inevitable in Candide. For example, within chapter three, we begin to read about corpses being everywhere. In chapter four, we read about many cruel deaths, such

as, beheadings, disembowelments, rapes, being cut to bits, etc. An example from the story is: “…she was disemboweled by the Bulgar soldiers, after having been raped to the absolute limit of human endurance; they smashed the Baron’s head when he tried to defend her, cut the Baroness to bits, and treated my poor pupil exactly like his sister” (Voltaire 195).

Just from this little bit of information, we can make inquiries that at this time in France death was not a big deal. Even more so, there is much, much more death later on in the story that is just as bad. Death was everywhere and normal. However, that is not the case in the next work. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy is pretty much the opposite of Candide. It was written in 1886 and is a Russian piece. Ivan Ilyich is a character who ends up developing a sickness. His family ignored the fact that he was dying and refused to talk about the fact that death was a possibility.

If they did acknowledge it, they blamed him for the problem. For example: “Praskovya Fedorovna’s attitude to Ivan Ilyich’s illness, as she expressed it both to others and to him, was that it was his own fault and was another of the annoyances he caused her” (Tolstoy 630). When Ivan was near death, his family went to “the box” because it would be “an instructive and aesthetic pleasure for the children” (Tolstoy 641). It was very shocking that his family was there for him in the end. Perhaps they finally accepted the fact that he was dying and decided

to say goodbye.

Saying goodbye is exactly what the author is doing in Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias. Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias is by Frederico Farcia Lorca, was written in 1935, and is a Mexican piece. It is about a man who died bullfighting. In the first part, his friend, the writer, refuses to believe it is true. He wants the blood to be covered up because he is fine, not hurt, nor dead. However, in part two, he accepts his friend’s death. However, Lorca rejects any religious themes and says his friend has “died for ever” (Lorca 1014).

Throughout the entire lament however, his friend is always so respectful and loving toward Mejias. As we can see from these short descriptions of the works, each work views death differently. France seemed to view death as something one did not want happening to them, since the main characters, Candide and Cunegonde are always running for their lives. However, it also seems like it is not a big deal because it does not really disturb them when someone dies. They do not stop and mourn, but keep on going.

An example of what people can learn reading world literature is the history of what actually was going on in that time period. At this time, France was battling the British for the Quebec area, and losing quite badly (Historical Events for Year 1759). Perhaps death did not seem like a big deal to the French at this time because it was actually going on quite frequently during the late 1750’s. During the year this story was published, France lost to Britian about

nine times, meaning death was all around them. It is no wonder that death did not seem to disturb them too much.

Death in Russia seemed very unimportant to the people in the late 1800’s. From what we read of The Death of Ivan Ilyich, nobody cared but a total of two people. It isn’t until he is actually dying that his family cares. Even after Ivan passes away we get a glimpse into his friends Peter’s mind and reads that he does not want to go to the funeral, let alone pay a visit to his widowed wife, but feels obligated. What we can conclude from this is that people in Russia at this time are too self-centered to care about others, including their own friends.

Another example of what we can learn when reading world literature is thinking critically. The attitude towards death at this time in Russia is that people are not very compassionate when it comes to an ill or dying person and that people are selfish when it comes to visiting those that are grieving. Some may connect this to America. Americans are actually somewhat compassionate when it comes to death. However, when it comes to grieving people, we think of our own selfish needs first. For example, if we are to go to a funeral, we sometimes think of how we could better spend our time.

We may chastise ourselves for thinking it, but the matter still stands, that we thought it. Death in Mexico, however, is viewed differently. In Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias we read how much the author respected his friend. At first,

he tells the time of when it happened and everything going on around them. This first part is so moving that we cannot help but want to read on. We want to read on so we can know the life of Mejias and feel like we knew him too. Lorca writes that he is dead permanently and does not mention anything about moving on to a better place.

However, throughout the lament, we can see how much he loves and respects his friend. One can acquire new information when reading world literature if they do some additional research. If doing research about the love and respect for the dead in Mexico, one can see that Mexico has a day dedicated to the dead called The Day of the Dead or, Dia de los Muertos. The Day of the Dead let’s loved ones pay respect to the ones who have passed away and celebrate the return of their spirits (Farfan). What the people of Mexico do is make food such as tamales, give drinks, and decorations on homemade alters (Farfan).

Every single thing that is put on the altar has some sort of meaning to it. The celebration started with the Aztecs long ago, who believed that death should not be sad, but celebrated (Farfan). In conclusion, one can see that world literature is very important in our lives. We can gain so much appreciation and information from reading it whether it be from researching the history of an era, to learning a new vocabulary word, to learning about a Mexican holiday. It can teach us about culture, customs, and politics.

It can

teach us so much and help us to understand other texts along with other subjects such as history class, language classes, English classes, and many more. Furthermore, we can compare major themes of world literature such as the views on death. Death is something that happens daily and comes into our lives sooner or later. We can either view it as they did in France and run from it, we can choose to ignore it or blame it on somebody as in Russia, or we can choose to respect the person who has died and celebrate them as in Mexico.