Ways of Being Dead

Forum 1. Ways of Being Dead

Week 1. Response

Mary Roach begins Stiff with a metaphor that introduces a new way of seeing: “The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship” (9). This is a great hook. Right away, we’re drawn into her story; we want to find out more. “What in the world do being dead and cruise ships have in common?” we might ask ourselves. Roach is a good storyteller; she’s caught our attention.

After working through our reading and viewing materials for this week, you’ll come up with your own metaphor for being dead. Drawing on what you’ve read and viewed and discussed in your photo journal challenge so far, how would you use metaphor to visualize in words the story of being dead? In a thoughtful response of about 500 words, explain your metaphor. Your response should discuss at least two quotations* from two different sources to show how your metaphor connects to our reading and viewing materials.