Summary Of Stephen T. Woodman's The Day Of The Dead

In the article “The Day of the Dead: How Death Became a National symbol” Stephen T. Woodman discusses death within Mexico and how it became an important symbol in Mexican culture. Woodman discusses the four main reasons as to why death is such and important symbol in the Mexican culture. The first of four reasons Woodman shares is based on religious beliefs of pre-Conquest Mexico. This is when the Aztecs made human sacrifices for the Gods in order for the earth to be born and to maintain the life of the sun. Woodman’s second reason for the symbolic importance of death is the attitudes the Spanish mirrored from the Aztecs. Representations of Christ’s suffering fascinated many people reminding them all that death will find them regardless of their …show more content…
The tone Woodman uses is clam and rational at the beginning when he first begins to explain Mexico and its relationship with death. Towards the end of the article he begins his conclusion and then begins to express his passion towards the topic. This is shown when Woodman states “death was to be promoted, because there was nothing more revolutionary. What better reminder is there that we’re all equal in the end?” the second evidence within the article that shows this passion is when he says “So the Day of the Dead retains its macabre vitality, despite efforts to co-opt it. In this quote he is stating that no matter who goes against the Day of the Dead or whoever does not support it wont be able to change the fact that it will continue to have its strong focus of death. Once Woodman’s tone is discovered you then begin to realize his motivation for making the argument he has. It seems as though his motivation was to inform others about the role history had on deaths symbol. When the article is dissected you begin to realize how important Mexico’s history is to Woodman and his motivation of writing this