Representations of Death Across Genre

Representations of Death Across Genre
Richard Hatch
ENG 125 Introduction to Literature
Elizabeth Hoyle
February 7, 2011

Representations of Death Across Genre
Short stories, poetry and drama are all separate genres in the vast world of literature.   Within each genre there are many tools and techniques available to a writer to elicit the desired response from the reader.   Every person is different, with different ideas and thoughts on any given subject, and this holds true for writers and their audience alike.   Writers put to paper what their senses derive from a particular event, however mundane, in order to allow a reader to experience the same thing.   Because of the differences in people, interpretation of written works can vary greatly from one reader to another and from the author and the reader.   This is the wonder of literature.   An author attempts to give a representation of a concept, using various tools and techniques, and we as readers attempt to understand and feel their intent based on our own feelings, beliefs, and life experiences.   The concept of death and impermanence has long been investigated, written about and interpreted across all literary genres.   Comparing the representation of a single concept, such as death, between various authors and genre, allows for greater understanding of literature as a whole and an appreciation of the tools and techniques used in literature that bring a reader to their own interpretations and conclusions of any written work.   Theme, symbolism, point of view, and tone are some of the literary tools used by a writer to create an image they want to pass on to the reader.   These tools of representation will be compared in three works by different authors using a formalist approach; that is, focusing on the theme, symbolism and tone of the piece and how the writer uses these tools to provide an insight on how they view death, or at least how they want us to believe they view death.  
The short story I Used to...