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Document 911

Essay on The Loved One

Author(s): Rosie Bell

Copyright holder(s): Rosie Bell

Text

The Loved One

The humour in "The Loved One" brings out the author's attitude by drawing our attention to the Americans' hypocritical attitude towards death: the false sentimentality, the over-emphasis on ritual, the euphemisms used "Loved Ones", Waiting Ones." All of these draw our attention to the false values of American society where symbolism is substituted for reality.

His satire is quite subtle; the use of names such as "Joyboy" and "Thanatogenos" for people employed in an industry which should be sober and solemn; the dressing and painting of the corpses so that they look even more "life-like" to the "Waiting Ones"; the "stage-managing" of the "paying of respects" to the corpse - posed with a favourite book, reclining on a settee, or some other fashionable posture.

He offers us two weak main characters - on the one hand, a female who has no personality, who relies on the guidance of a run-down agony-columnist who, when he gets the "push" for being inefficient, advises her to jump off a building as the only answer to her latest problem. On the other hand, we have a man who, after having tried his hand at being a poet and an animal mortician and failed, allows himself to be bought off by the local Cricket Club when he intends setting up as a Lay Preacher. He also turns out to be a cad and a blackmailer. He "helps" Joyboy to dispose of AimeƩ's body, for a consideration and, using the money extorted from Joyboy along with the Cricket Club's money, sails off, First Class, into a bright new future.

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APA Style:

Essay on The Loved One. 2024. In The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Retrieved 14 October 2024, from http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=911.

MLA Style:

"Essay on The Loved One." The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2024. Web. 14 October 2024. http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=911.

Chicago Style

The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech, s.v., "Essay on The Loved One," accessed 14 October 2024, http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=911.

If your style guide prefers a single bibliography entry for this resource, we recommend:

The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. 2024. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk.

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Information about Document 911

Essay on The Loved One

Text

Text audience

Adults (18+)
Specialists
Audience size 1
Writer knew intended audience

Text details

Method of composition Handwritten
Year of composition 1981
Word count 272
General description University assignment

Text medium

Other N/A

Text setting

Education

Text type

Essay

Author

Author details

Author id 866
Forenames Rosie
Surname Bell
Gender Female
Decade of birth 1940
Educational attainment University
Age left school 15
Upbringing/religious beliefs Catholicism/Atheism
Occupation Travel agent
Place of birth Glasgow
Region of birth Glasgow
Birthplace CSD dialect area Gsw
Country of birth Scotland
Place of residence Glasgow
Region of residence Glasgow
Residence CSD dialect area Gsw
Country of residence Scotland
Father's occupation Bus Driver
Father's place of birth Glasgow
Father's region of birth Glasgow
Father's birthplace CSD dialect area Gsw
Father's country of birth Scotland
Mother's occupation Cleaner
Mother's place of birth Glasgow
Mother's region of birth Glasgow
Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area Gsw
Mother's country of birth Scotland

Languages

Language Speak Read Write Understand Circumstances
English Yes Yes Yes Yes All circumstances
Italian Yes Yes Yes Yes
Scots Yes Yes Yes Yes

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