The meaning of immortality is to live forever, to have eternal life. Kevin Brockmeier, the author of The Brief History of the Dead, uses the city and the many people within the city to express the theme of both mortality and immortality. The city is the afterlife of the dead and the theme uses memory to keep the people alive in the after world. The lives of the dead is irony within itself. The dead live in a city where people from the living world come after death. Immortality is present throughout the entire book by the people existing in the afterlife, but what creates the balance is the mortality in the other side of the world. Brockmeier expresses the theme using various characters. Laura’s life and her memory is what kept the people alive
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Mortality is to not have an eternal life. Like many other beliefs, mortality is a stronger belief due to physical experiences like deaths in a family or by the deaths in this book. The Brief History of The Dead gives the reader hope for immortality. Like stated before, everyone’s opinion may be different due to religious beliefs or even simply by the reading of this book. Mortality is looked upon as a more believable state than believing one can live forever. Brockmeier uses mortality and immortality as a theme because it is realistic in terms of human life. In an article by USA Today it says, “When is one officially dead? A person is officially dead when there is irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, explains Fred Jordan, Chief Medical Examiner of the State of Oklahoma, or when there is irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions. Most people are pronounced dead when heart and lung function ceases. Brain death requires documentation by special equipment generally only available in a hospital setting.” ("Mortality: Unshrouding Death 's Mystery." USA Today). This shows how human beings are and the book gives the human characteristics and shows how living humans still die in the other side of the world. Not only do people die in living flesh on the other side, but even in the city do people vanish. Although it may not be humanly deaths, these people still vanish from the city. People view the city as an immortal state of life, but then when they vanish, mortality is looked upon once again as a stronger
Mortality is to not have an eternal life. Like many other beliefs, mortality is a stronger belief due to physical experiences like deaths in a family or by the deaths in this book. The Brief History of The Dead gives the reader hope for immortality. Like stated before, everyone’s opinion may be different due to religious beliefs or even simply by the reading of this book. Mortality is looked upon as a more believable state than believing one can live forever. Brockmeier uses mortality and immortality as a theme because it is realistic in terms of human life. In an article by USA Today it says, “When is one officially dead? A person is officially dead when there is irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, explains Fred Jordan, Chief Medical Examiner of the State of Oklahoma, or when there is irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions. Most people are pronounced dead when heart and lung function ceases. Brain death requires documentation by special equipment generally only available in a hospital setting.” ("Mortality: Unshrouding Death 's Mystery." USA Today). This shows how human beings are and the book gives the human characteristics and shows how living humans still die in the other side of the world. Not only do people die in living flesh on the other side, but even in the city do people vanish. Although it may not be humanly deaths, these people still vanish from the city. People view the city as an immortal state of life, but then when they vanish, mortality is looked upon once again as a stronger