Summary Of Mark Harris's Six Feet Under
Six Feet Under
When we think of a funeral, many tend to picture a cemetery, a casket, floral arrangements and family and friends left behind with a priest giving a sermon death and resurrection. However, it is safe to say that this would probably be the worst way you could dispose of a body. The traditional casket in the ground method that many people are used to is what author Mark Harris calls a “modern burial.” The modern burial is defined by the chemical embalming of the remains, the burial of the body or the placement of the body into a metal casket, and then the placing of that casket and embalmed body in the bottom of the grave that we call the burial vault. This method of burial can be tagged as the American way of death. Even though it would be a great title for a novel, the American way of death is a terrible method of disposing a corpse.
The average cost of modern burial runs on average from $10,000 to $12,000, even though there are families who must have paid a lot more that. This is largely because of the funeral industry that has been known to engage in predatory business practices, none of which can be limited to selling vulnerable families add-ons and services that they don’t need. They have also been the subject of several class action lawsuits (Funeral Consumers …show more content…
There are other options. It could be a good idea to look at cremation as a funerary practice. Countries across the world cremate bodies. In Great Britain 75% of people get cremated, in Switzerland it’s 85%, and in Japan that number is almost 100%. The question is why is cremation any better? For one thing, it is a lot cheaper. A typical cremation cost around $1,400 compared to the $10,000 to $12,000 price tag for a casket burial. Apart from this, cremating a body also requires much less space, since there doesn’t need to be a grave and no formaldehyde is
When we think of a funeral, many tend to picture a cemetery, a casket, floral arrangements and family and friends left behind with a priest giving a sermon death and resurrection. However, it is safe to say that this would probably be the worst way you could dispose of a body. The traditional casket in the ground method that many people are used to is what author Mark Harris calls a “modern burial.” The modern burial is defined by the chemical embalming of the remains, the burial of the body or the placement of the body into a metal casket, and then the placing of that casket and embalmed body in the bottom of the grave that we call the burial vault. This method of burial can be tagged as the American way of death. Even though it would be a great title for a novel, the American way of death is a terrible method of disposing a corpse.
The average cost of modern burial runs on average from $10,000 to $12,000, even though there are families who must have paid a lot more that. This is largely because of the funeral industry that has been known to engage in predatory business practices, none of which can be limited to selling vulnerable families add-ons and services that they don’t need. They have also been the subject of several class action lawsuits (Funeral Consumers …show more content…
There are other options. It could be a good idea to look at cremation as a funerary practice. Countries across the world cremate bodies. In Great Britain 75% of people get cremated, in Switzerland it’s 85%, and in Japan that number is almost 100%. The question is why is cremation any better? For one thing, it is a lot cheaper. A typical cremation cost around $1,400 compared to the $10,000 to $12,000 price tag for a casket burial. Apart from this, cremating a body also requires much less space, since there doesn’t need to be a grave and no formaldehyde is