Death In Casablanca

Running from death or walking towards death is a common theme throughout literature. A passage to a different life is the theme shared by “Because I Could not stop for Death” and Casablanca they differ in that one is a journey taken with Death as a companion, while the other is a journey to escape death.
“Because I Could not stop for death” is a poem written by Emily Dickens. In the poem the speaker tells that Death lead her through past events in her life and on in to the afterlife. The speaker in the poem is not afraid of Death, if anything she speaks of him in a friendly manner. In the last stanza of the poem it is revealed that the speaker is dead. She sees her death not as a halting point but a way to experience her life again from the
outside looking in. The poem is worded as if she enjoys death, and she is taking a pleasant journey on a normal day in the life of the speaker. Yet it reads as if this were a journey that she has taken few times. The speaker reveled in this journey at being able to see her life again. The speaker has already faced Death and sees him as a friend; which is a stark contrast to Rick Blaine in the movie Casablanca.
The movie Casablanca tells of a man who lives in a city that most people must pass through to get out of Europe during World War II.
The entire city is filled with people trying to escape the war and possible death to find a better life outside of Europe. The people leaving Europe must have the correct papers, many must wait in the city for the papers, risking possible death if they cannot leave. The people are leaving a war zone, and many are leaving behind all that they have. Rick sees all of this and tries to isolate himself, so that if he needed to leave there would be no problem with it. This all changes when Ilsa who he used to love comes to the Casablanca to get transit papers to Lisbon. Now Rick is faced with his past, the very thing he was avoiding in Casablanca, and with it come the possibility of death if his past is discovered by the authorities. Rick does not want to meet Death, he knows that he would not look back upon his life fondly.
These two are contrasts of each other because one is a person who is already living, in the afterlife, with Death and goes looking through her old life; the other is a man running from his old life and his fear of Death. Both were written during times of war, so the idea that death is either the friend or the enemy would be share among many people during the time. Some people during war may be willing to walk with death, and others may want to keep death away from them. Both ways a journey is taken and Death is meet eventually whether
we are willing or not.