Journal #11

In the “Story of Service”, Jessica Mitford makes several claims to educate the reader about the process of embalming. First, she noted that people would not want to undergo embalming for themselves or for their relatives if they knew what was involved in the process. Mitford says that the ‘secrecy surrounding embalming cannot be attributed to the inherent gruesomeness of the subject…” and rather that funeral directors “fear that public information about embalming might lead patrons to wonder if they really want the service…” (Mitford 44-45). I disagree to a certain extent with this argument. It’s true that some people might feel that the process was to bizarre to partake in, but the funeral directors would still gain business from people who want to have deceased loved ones taken care of easily. Another argument Mitford made was that the process overcharges customers, citing that the funeral homes charge for strange things, like “keeping of records” (Mitford 42). I agree with this argument, they seek to take advantage of grieving people by guilting them into buying more expensive services. These businesses seek to make the most profit, and they do this by charging the customer at every step. Lastly, Mitford claims that embalming does not need to be done, in any religious or governmental laws, and that it is a strange cultural custom. I agree the most with this assertion. People go through this practice for the aesthetic reasons. Because we find it unsettling to confront death, people want their last memory of their loved one to be them looking as if they were alive. This is a custom unique to America, and reflects our value of industrialization of all aspects of life, as well as the societal pressure for all things to be beautiful.