50

After a person dies there is a set way things are done to either preserve them or cremate them. The crematorium is set up as a theater, there is the stage, business is handled with the remaining family members, and this area is homey and is trying very hard to make the crematorium a comfortable place for living visitors. And then there is the back stage area, where the dead bodies are processed through the system. There are different stations that the dead person gets handed off too, such as the prepping room, the retort, the sorting table, the embalming room and the dressing room. Sex and death are two things that we can’t control, but the systems we put in place helps us to deny them. Jessica Mitford thought to follow through the system comes at a large and unnecessary price. Even families, such as the C family who are not engrained with the idea that we must spend enormous amounts of money to hide the symptoms of death still conform to our ways. For the people that work in the preserving and funeral businesses there are valued qualities that are considered wonderful for the dead to have, that being said the employees are not phased at all by the tasks they perform or even the way they “up sell” caskets.

Quote 1: “then it all goes into a sturdy blender, which turns everything to powder” pg 10

Quote 2: “Nat hoses him down, then soaps his head and encourages me to clean his finger nails with a file and a j cloth. The radio on the wall plays the Foo Fighters and she sings along.” Pg 52

Quote 3: “Neil told me to be patient, that my natural fear would evolve into something deeper: respect and awe for the body” 75

Analysis:  I think that the way Tom Jokinen started off his first chapter with reflection and questioning what we are doing when we have a funeral was a good way to bring the reader in and to have them start thinking on a deeper level. Tom Jokinen uses his experiences to not only give the reader a perspective into a day to day life as an undertaker trainee. It is important that Tom isn’t writing through the eyes of a professional 3^rd generation undertaker like his boss Neil because Tom is still very new to the system and will be less accepting of the rituals being preformed. There were some parts that I felt Tom was going off topic on such as his co-workers behaviors at lunch time, but after reading further I found that it is critical that he gives us information on what the people who perform the caring for the dead tasks do in their free time. I wonder if later in the book Tom is going to place blame on the funeral directors, undertakers, embalmers and casket salesmen, as he describes Jessica Mitford did in her book or if he is going to take the point of view that the customers “run” the system and employees enable it.