Precis:
Near the end of Stiff, Mary Roach talks about canibalism. She tells stories such as one about two brothers whom worked together in taking human meat to a restraunt and serving it as dumplings. She also talks about the options people have for what should be done with their dead body. She goes on to talk about how cadavers can also be turned into fertalizer. She continues to use anecdotes while explaining by using facts and examples of how cadavers can help earth itself. Finally, she decides to give her opinions and talks about her wanting to become a lemon tree after death. During this last section she talks about the dead persons family being harmed about the idea of their loved ones cadavers being used for science, research, art, and so on. She says that a person can choose what they want to have done with their cadaver but they must also think about the effect it will have on loved ones because ultimately they are the ones that stay behind and suffer. She encourages people to donate their bodies to help in some way and she does so by telling the facts and what really happens with the bodies. She basically doesn’t leave the audience with much doubt about what happens to a body if they donate it to a school or even if they go for cremation and get turned into fertilizer. Her writing style makes her book comfortable enough to get through and still wishing there was more.
Tone: euphemistic, optomistic, passive
Vocabulary:
1. Feat: noteworthy or extraordinary act or achievement, usually displaying boldness, skill
2. Pagan:one of a people or community observing a polytheistic religion as the ancient Romans and Greeks; an irreligious person
3. Atrophy: (n.) a wasting away of the body or of an organ or part, as from defective nutrition or never damage.
4. Delirium: (n.) a more or less teporary disorder of the mental faculties, as in fevers, disturbances of consciouness, or intoxication, characterized by restlessness, excitement, delusions, hallucinations
5. Entity: (n.)something that has a real existence
Rhetorical Strategies:
Personification: “ive enjoyed hanging around rooms doing nothing much, and look, I get to do it after I die.”(pg281)
Rhetorical questions: “Is there a more economical way to dispose of the body? A more environmentally friendly way? Could something useful be done with the remains?” (pg251)
Humor: “I will include a biographical note in my file for the students who dissect me (you can do this), so they can look down at my dilapidated hull and say, “hey, check this. I got that woman who wrote a book about cadavers.” And if there’s any way I can arrange it, I’ll make the thing wink.” (pg 292)
1. Why did Mary Roach feel the need to include canibalism in her book? Why scare the reader with the thought of humans eating other humans?
2. Why do something out of the ordinary with a cadaver instead of the easy, traditional burial?
3. Why does Mary Roach feel her husband should be the one to decide what happens to her body when she passes away if in most cases the family choosed to go by the deceased wished?
Quote: “My reasons boil down to a Harvard Brain Bank donor wallet card, which enables me to say “I’m going to Harvard” and not be lying. You do not need brains to go to the Harvard Brain Bank, only a brain” (pg284)
