“Natural” versus “Nature”
Does natural still mean the same thing in America today? Caitlin Doughty, author of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, struggles with the idea of what is truly natural in present American society, because the word natural had been tarnished. Doughty takes us through her experiences as a crematory operator at Westwind Cremation & Burial. A topic woven throughout the text is the idea of “natural” versus “nature.” Doughty argues that our culture’s false use of the term natural, a reliance on embalming, and our fear of death has changed our perception of what natural means.
In order to look at the difference between “natural” versus “nature” we must understand each of the terms and how the author defines them. First we should look at the actual definition of natural, which is “Existing in nature and not made or caused by people” which could also be known as how Doughty defines “nature”. According to Doughty, “The processes used to make someone appear natural are often highly unnatural.” Doughty’s definition of “natural,” which …show more content…
We do not know what a natural body looks like; we have no reference to base our fear off. Our denial of death is what has also caused our fear of death. According to Doughty, “Today, not being forced to see corpses is a privilege of the developed world.” We do our best to remove ourselves from death and any part of death that we may fear. Due to the fact that we distance ourselves from death we cannot actually know what a corpse looks like. For this reason we have a fear built in ourselves. We fear death so much that we try to deny our own death. Therefore, decomposition and decay is a reminder of our own death. We avoid thinking of our death with “Our obsession with youth, the creams and chemicals and detoxifying diets pushed by those who would sell the idea that the natural ageing of our bodies is
Does natural still mean the same thing in America today? Caitlin Doughty, author of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, struggles with the idea of what is truly natural in present American society, because the word natural had been tarnished. Doughty takes us through her experiences as a crematory operator at Westwind Cremation & Burial. A topic woven throughout the text is the idea of “natural” versus “nature.” Doughty argues that our culture’s false use of the term natural, a reliance on embalming, and our fear of death has changed our perception of what natural means.
In order to look at the difference between “natural” versus “nature” we must understand each of the terms and how the author defines them. First we should look at the actual definition of natural, which is “Existing in nature and not made or caused by people” which could also be known as how Doughty defines “nature”. According to Doughty, “The processes used to make someone appear natural are often highly unnatural.” Doughty’s definition of “natural,” which …show more content…
We do not know what a natural body looks like; we have no reference to base our fear off. Our denial of death is what has also caused our fear of death. According to Doughty, “Today, not being forced to see corpses is a privilege of the developed world.” We do our best to remove ourselves from death and any part of death that we may fear. Due to the fact that we distance ourselves from death we cannot actually know what a corpse looks like. For this reason we have a fear built in ourselves. We fear death so much that we try to deny our own death. Therefore, decomposition and decay is a reminder of our own death. We avoid thinking of our death with “Our obsession with youth, the creams and chemicals and detoxifying diets pushed by those who would sell the idea that the natural ageing of our bodies is