Jennifer Smart

Journal #6
2/5/07

“The Last Stop”, by Brian Cable, is an essay about death. Through out this essay

I felt as if he thoroughly described his feelings towards death and gave an overview the

Mortuary business. In the first paragraph he talked about death, and how it is such a

touchy and sensitive topic among the living. This allowed for a good opening paragraph

to catch my attention. In the second paragraph he first mentioned the main profile,

Goodbody Mortuaries. He did an incredible job at describing the setting. He referred to

it as churchlike, and tall, with gothic arches and stained glass. This provided a solid idea

of what this place looked like.

Within the content of this essay Cable also provided the setting on the inside,

along with the setting of every room he visited. This allows the reader to see what he is

talking about and connect through visual imagery. He also showed how the people

working in the building were not counselors to comfort the dead; they did their job, and

made business transactions with the living, for the dead. I thought that it was a very good

idea to add this in because it gave a feel of the whole home as a real life interesting

business.

I also enjoyed the discussion on the coffins in this essay. He described how the

show room was set up with the lights and the coffins on display like a car dealership. It

was very interesting to hear about that. The idea of coffin sales is something that the

living doesn’t think about until the time comes when it is necessary to think about it. It

was amazing to me how there are so many different types of coffins, with different

materials. This essay was very detailed and enjoyable.