"The Death of Justina"

Pg 541

“ The soul does not leave the body, but lingers with it through cold, through the long winter nights when no one comes with a wreath or a plant and no one says a prayer.”

The writer is expressing his thoughts about after life. He is not trying to do anything to poetic or trying to spin it in a different way he is telling his honest opinion, he is not scared to express the reality of the after life. Religion influences and makes people believe in “ heaven,” “hell,” finding “ nirvana.” All of these theories that they use to influence people, this man speaking is not giving into any of that he is finding the harsh reality of death. It seems like he is sad, sad that he doesn’t actually believe in an after life. He is sad because he thinks that when he is gone his soul his mind wont be able to go anywhere or do something other then be left there un-touched.


“ There are some Americans who, although their fathers emigrated from the old world three centuries ago, never seem to have quite completed the voyage, and I am one of these…and wondering why, in this most prosperous, equitable and accomplished world-where even the cleaning women practice the Chopin preludes in their spare time- everyone should seem to be so disappointed?”

He speaker I have found throughout the whole story to be honest. He is talking about how even though Americans have come and settled, made rich fulfilling lives for themselves still crave more. Yet none of them actually do anything about this feeling. They just create different distractions. No on is any longer curious as our for fathers were, actually carted about developing a thriving culture, but now that they have this obsolete society they still crave more they still think that what they have isn’t good enough.