ABSTRACT
The shelves of the library are filled with psychology and sociology books that describe how humans, in general, and Americans, in particular, try to cope with the idea of death by denying its reality. The Denial of Death by psychologist Ernest Becker is one of the classic and definitive texts on the subject. Proper etiquette requires to speak in hushed and euphemistic tones when the subject of death comes up. In fact, death has a language all its own: Examples of referring to death without actually saying the word are legion and well known. The media might seem to present something of a contradiction to thesis that Americans tend to deny their own mortality. Unlike the greeting cards and personal conversations that skirt the idea of death, television, movies, and newspapers focus on death regularly in all its graphic and violent detail.
