I-Search Paper
Introduction: The writing assignment is wrote in the first semester of the year. And it's related to Tuesday With Morrie. The main purpose of the assignment is to do research about a topic and make connection with the Tuesday With Morries.
Reflection: The hardest part of the assignment is to find questions about the topic because people seldom talk about death. I think I did well in quoting views about death of different religions. If I have to do this assignment again, I think I will interview my grandparents about how they feel about getting older everyday. I learnt how different culture views on death in this assignment.
Death & Dying
Harry
English II
Mr. Ward
Oct/26/2013
Part I: Introduction
Death and Dying is something that everyone has to experience and face. Death is a serious topic to talk about, or, at most of the time, people don’t even talk about death. But we have to face death someday, and sometimes, in a way, death made us think of how to live.
Part II: What I want to Learn
I hope I can learn how people of different age’s belief differ from each other, and also how death help us learning about the meaning of life. I know that in our culture, people who have already been dead will be judged by God to decide whether he/she can go to paradise or not. Death and Dying is often related to religion belief at most of the time, I think I’m also going to find something about religion belief.
Here are my questions:
1. What’s the different people’s view of death?
2. How does death affect our life?
3. What are the different views of religions about death?
Part III: The Story of My Search
First, I interviewed my dad, my grandpa and some of my friends. My grandpa was a solider during a Chinese Civil War and he was 20 years old at that point. He felt guilty even now. But he had no choice at that point because in his word, “ If you don’t fire your enemy, the dead man will be you on the battlefield.” And also, he told me that he doesn’t afraid of death now. After my grandma, his wife’s death, he thought death is just the end of life but nothing to afraid, that’s part of nature. My dad thought my grandma’s death changed his whole life. Most of my friends don’t think about death a lot because they think death is too far away. But one of my friends, Leon, who lost his grandpa last year, told me that now he cherishes his family more.
I read a book called Tuesday with Morrie recently. It’s a book about a student’s interview to his dying professor. The professor is Morrie, he taught the author, Mitch quite a lot about life. There is a chapter about death. Now let’s see how Morrie thinks about death. This smart professor thought in some way death makes people know the meaning of life and tells people how to have a meaningful life. He said“Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” Death makes people think about life, as well as make people cherish time. In the book, we can see that how Morrie’s uncle’s death affected his whole life and how the death of Morrie’s mum made him a good listener and a good teacher. Death also made Morrie start to think about the life he’s having. Death of families makes people sad and tear, but it also let people to reflect the meaning of life.
In the “Cultural Views on Death” document which Mr. Ward gave us, I found something interesting.
Here are some quotes from this document:
1. “When a person dies, the body is separated from the soul, and the soul must be judged to be in a state of grace or a state of sin.” (Christian)
2. “Buddhists believe in reincarnation and karma, as well as the notion that the ultimate goal of the religious life is to escape the cycle of death and rebirth.”
3. “Now all the souls must cross the Bridge of Sirat, which spans the distance from Earth to Paradise, passing directly over Hell. Although this bridge is hair-thin and razor-sharp, it will broaden out beneath the steps of the faithful. Infidels will lose their balance and topple into the abyss.” (Islamic)
Although all the religions have quite different views on death, they all believe that people would pay for their guilty after they’re dead. All the culture believed that people shouldn’t do bad things during life time or they’re going to get punished. And some of the religions believe that people will rebirth someday, like Buddhists.
Part IV: Reflections on My Search
I learnt a lot in this research paper. I learnt people’s different way of considering death. Most of my friends don’t have a very deep understand about death, but my dad told me that my grandma’s death affected his whole life. I also learnt that many different religions all think that people will pay for what they did during life time after death. And Morrie had an idea of knowing how death will make us know how to live.
What surprised me a lot is, all the religions believe that people with guilty will be punished after death. I don’t even know before. Maybe all the religions want to make people nice and kind during life time. In the future I think I felt that I might be more unperturbed when I got older and face others’ or my own death.