Catherine Mundy

27 February 2014
Ms. Hinnant
English 1102
The Effects of Death on the Living

After contemplating many different interesting subjects, I chose to write my
ethnography on the employees of the Bass-Smith funeral home in Hickory, North
Carolina. This type of work requires its workers to deal with families of departed loved
ones. People who work around death interest me because of their unusual profession.
After picking my subject, I wanted to dig deeper into the lives of these people to find out
the effects their profession has on their day-to-day lives. More specifically, I would like
to see the effects (if any) of death on the living. In my mind, I concluded that being
around grieving families and even sometimes the deceased bodies would lead to a
strained lifestyle. Knowing that death is associated with heartbreak and tragedy, I have
always seen the absence of life as an extremely emotional and delicate situation. From
homicides to suicides, there are uncontainable amounts of grief in every type of death.
Throughout my examination, I would like to find out if being around death
constantly affects the way workers at this funeral home think or act toward other people. I
also began to wonder if it makes them more paranoid about death. On the other hand,
their profession could have the opposite affect and result in them being desensitized
about dying. Another question that came to my mind deals with religion. I would like to
see if being around death everyday has brought Bass-Smith workers closer to their
religion or has seeing tragic bodies lead to question the presence of a higher being. It
would also be interesting to see if the workers are more affected by seeing young and
healthy bodies whose lives were suddenly cut short come through their funeral home.
Beth 2/2/14 1:11 PM
Comment [1]: uoou! Nice intio!
Beth 2/2/14 1:12 PM
Comment [2]: While I think these inteiests aie
stiong, I'm wonueiing how you'ie going to come
to any conclusions baseu on obseivation iathei
than inteiview.
Beth 2/2/14 1:13 PM
Comment [3]: Bow aie you going to obseive
this. By facial expiessions anu bouy language.
After I research and observe this group of people, I hope to be able to get the full effect
that dealing with death on a daily bases has on the living.

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