Browne uses her humorous jokes about funeral food to warm people up and feel less sad. Whether it is at a funeral, like in this essay or just in general, food makes everyone happy. “Everybody loves funeral food; it’s a universal truth…” There is no denying that people love food, let alone home-cooked food. It allows them to relax from work and school or to spend time with loved ones.
She begins to tell how even though death is inevitable and a part of the circle of life it must be dealt with in different ways. “Granted it’s a pain in the butt…” is the beginning of Browne’s explanation of her feelings about funeral food. In the South the tradition is to make a delicious home-cooked meal to bring to the funeral. Browne says, “It’s practically a law.”
“And let’s face it as I’ve suggested earlier quantity is at least as important as quality.” states Brown. Even if someone has just cooked/made their best dish in existence and there is very little, people will become very dissatisfied. Cream of mushroom soup, Velveeta, and Cool Whip are some examples found in her essay that are relatable and give it more credibility and provide for a small laugh for the audience.
Jill Conner Browne’s essay is proven to be relatable in the sense that she is trying to see the brighter side of death and funerals. Stating “one of the primary qualifications for good food: Someone else prepared It.”, makes funerals seem like more than a mourning process in the South.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
1. Watch “The Undertaking” where this video examines a family who works in the funeral industry as a window into American feelings on death and dying. Then, respond to the following questions: How do funeral rituals describe by the Lynch family show our cultural values about death and dying? How would a sociologist create a research question to systematically evaluate the claims that the Lynch family makes about death and dying? The funeral industry arguably exists to serve micro-level relationships, consoling individuals who have just lost others central to their social existence. How is the funeral industry connected to institutions at the community and national levels? While it seems like the funeral industry is very helpful and necessary, why do you think there is a stigma against it at the society level?…
- 4218 Words
- 13 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Instead of being a film that is gloomy and sad, the film has the remaining family members preparing a feast and arguing over where to bury the body. We don’t ever feel sad that the character is dead in the first place. We just laugh at the way they go about putting her to rest. They set the story up so that we focus less on the death and more about the bickering between family members. One of the characters also pokes fun at certain aspects of religion, which is always a very controversial topic in movies.…
- 843 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Guest's audience for her essay is the average american. As a whole, our society loves to eat the highly processed, chemical-filled foods that are cheap to buy and excessively sweet to the taste. Guest acknowledges…
- 326 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
To most, a story about a funeral would have a somber, darker tone. Schmitt uses an optimistic tone throughout the story. This conveys that even though she is very unfamiliar with the culture and her new neighbors, she is optimistic that things will get better and easier for…
- 488 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Trying to cope with the death of a person in your life is a time of sadness and some people even feel guilt. Through the emotions people face, some try to cope with death by telling jokes to make themselves feel better. By telling jokes, it temporarily relieves the sadness that was on your mind and just reminds you of the good times you have had with that person. In “The Things They Carried”,…
- 1081 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
“What is a self-respecting restaurant cook doing in a flavor-free environment anyway? (65)”- Purpose: To express doubt about Pete’s honesty, she overemphasizes the blandness of the food he serves.…
- 1031 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Thinking about the importance and significance of food respective to our health, ethnic culture and society can cause cavernous, profound, and even questionable thoughts such as: “Is food taken for granted?”, “Is specialty foods just a fad or a change in lifestyle?”, and even “Is food becoming the enemy.” Mark Bittman, an established food journalist, wrote an article called “Why take food seriously?” In this article, Bittman enlightens the reader with a brief history lesson of America’s appreciation of food over the past decades. This history lesson leads to where the social standing of food is today and how it is affecting not only the people of America, but also the rest of the world. Bittman attempts to display awareness in his audience by supporting his argument and encouraging his readers to see his perspective through three proofs of persuasion: ethos, logos, and pathos.…
- 1295 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Hill demonstrates this at the start of the book, when we feel sympathy for The Woman when Arthur sees her at her sister’s funeral. We feel sympathy ‘that a women who was perhaps only a short time from her own death, should drag herself to the funeral of another’. This makes the reader feel sad for The Woman.…
- 1739 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
Attention Getter: How many people here have ever had to get an IV in the hospital? Was it a positive or negative experience for you? If you are one of the people that said yes then you know it can be a frightening and sometimes painful experience. What I am about to explain to you comes from my 8 years of experience as an emergency room nurse starting thousands of IVs. Some of the things I tell you could help you understand the process better and ease your anxiety for any future emergency room visit you or your loved one may have.…
- 526 Words
- 3 Pages
Powerful Essays -
A powerful message was written on an Irish headstone reading, “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal”. A loss of a loved one can leave a scar in ones heart and may not be healed for a long time. In “Shoofly Pie” by Naomi Shihab Nye, the main character Mattie, suffers from the loss of her loving mother due to cancer. Because of this tragedy, Mattie becomes grief stricken and the only way she gains comfort is through cooking. While working at the “Good For You” restaurant, Mattie shows her grief, and compassion but also displays her strong will and independence as she fights her internal and external battle.…
- 687 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Considering the topic of the essay, I find the author’s tone quite interesting. Throughout the essay her writing has an air of sarcasm. She is informing the reader of what goes on in a funeral parlor and the process a corpse goes through, but it is almost in a joking way. Her tone seems to indicate that she finds the whole procedure of making a dead person beautiful again then letting the family view them, somewhat ridiculous.…
- 462 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Symbolic Interactionism is found in the article on pg 225 when the author discusses that people that work in funeral homes use various symbolic measures to rename or change the outward image of the work they do. On pg 231, one funeral director tells Thompson, "My hands tend to be so cold and clammy. It's just a physical trait of mine, but there's no way that I'm going to shake someone's had and let them walk away thinking how cold it was". Cold hands are a symbol for death. On pg 230, there are various spoof ads tucked away in the desk drawer of one funeral director, meant for inside humor for those in the business. These jokes, while humorous to insiders, are actually truthful, and say something about the lack of reality-conscious discussion that goes on when dealing with their customers. They must use "politically correct" words and concepts so as not to upset the public. Life is a symbol of impending death, yet no one wants to accept it. However, the funeral home workers must do so on a daily basis. On pg 237, a funeral director discusses his many perks, non-necessities of life that his wealth has allowed him to enjoy, thus gaining more respect and prestige through the public eye. Lavish lifestyle is a symbol for hard work and/or intelligence, which both are symbols for respectability. A few of the funeral workers told of their emotional detachment while working on a corpse. A body for them becomes a symbol for emotions to end and work to begin. By naming themselves "professionals", funeral directors are requiring respect for their positions within the occupational realm. Pg 234 states that "Profession is a symbol by occupations…
- 4227 Words
- 17 Pages
Good Essays -
The sense of death crushes one’s heart, but what happens behind the scenes before a funeral, the author: Jessica Mitford was the one to bring this dark secret to light. She goes into great detail of the gruesome make over loved one’s go through. This response is a sort of recap on what she said through greater detail. Through reading this I believe some of this is simply to make money off of people deceased family members. I think this is very appalling.…
- 549 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Leslie Marmon Silko’s story entitled The Man to Send Rain Clouds describes a funeral service carried out by a Native American Pueblo family. Though many perceive the funeral service narrated in this story to be lacking in emotion and also lacking respect for the passing of their loved one, it portrays a ceremony that is quite common for the Native American communities. There is also a hint of conflict occurring between the characters in the story that are carrying out their traditions while including an outside religious figure in the ceremony.…
- 1187 Words
- 5 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Food can making relationships that are already formed by choice or by blood, even stronger. Sisters are an excellent example of a relationship that is truly magical. This sibling bond is best exemplified when Kate Delany describes her Sunday morning chats over breakfast with her sister in her poem “Ditching.” Delany says, “Our mother couldn’t understand or wouldn’t— we were hungrier than the Host, had things to talk over” (lines 8-10). This bond over their Sunday breakfast meant more to them than anything. Not even their mother could understand what those pancakes meant to them. It was not just about the food to them, it was about the topics of conversation. Delany goes on to mention some topics of things discussed each week such as a friend on drugs, a broke boyfriend, and even their little sister’s bad health (lines 10-12). This was not just a breakfast for them. This was a time when they would grow together and grow closer to one another.…
- 1032 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays