Mitford: The Curtain is Pulled

A detailed Summary of Mitford: The Curtain is Pulled

Jessica Mitford brings many interesting questions to the table in her essay "Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain." She raises questions of the legality behind the process of embalming, the moral rights and wrongs, and goes into gory detail expressing what goes on in the backroom of funeral parlors nationwide. She talks about how the families of the deceased do not know that their loved ones are being embalmed, how to make the body look life-like, and what goes on at the burial site. Jessica Mitford writes a weak article which is shown through her tendency to over elaborate, her lack of credible sources, and her one sided view of embalming.

Over elaborating a subject often leads to the reader being bored, which causes an essay to become quite weak. Although all of the author's knowledge is appreciated, she often says things that make the reader feel like she is just saying that for emotional appeal. Some things like, "he is covered with a sheet and left unmolested for a while" is an example of one of the many exaggerations Mitford uses in her essay (184). Using terms, like unmolested, leads us to believe that the body has been touched or prodded in ways that it should not be. This exaggerati

Using facts is an important part of any essay, and along with those facts, an author must present credible sources, which Mitford does not. All of the information and facts that she presents is necessary for us to understand the topic that she is writing about, but we do not know if the information is reliable because she does not always reveal her source. "If Mr. Jones has died of jaundice, the embalming fluid will very likely turn him green" is a great bit of information, but how does she know that (185)? Stating a powerful piece of information like that is great, but she needs to tell the reader where she got the information. If she would have stated that the information came from a professor at an accredited school of Mortuary Science, or that the information came from a funeral director, then we, the readers would be more likely to believe this. However, because she did not tell us what the source was, we are led to believe that this is knowledge that Mitford has previously known. With her background, or lack there of, of the whole embalming process, we would be just as likely to believe her is she said Mr. Jones would be turned purple. However, she does use a lot of quotes in her essay but she often forgets to tell us where they are coming from. At one point she says, "Another textbook discusses the all-important time element: 'The earlier this is done, the better, for every hour that elapses between death and embalming will add to the problems and complications encountered..."(183). Although this is very important and need to know information, she does not state the textbook from which she got the information, leaving us to wonder what kind of textbook it is.

When writing an essay, the author must argue for both sides of the topic, which in

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jessica Mitford, Mortuary Science, Formaldehyde Curtain, funeral director, funeral home, essay author, jessica mitford, mitford essay, process embalming, credible sources, own research, left unmolested, formaldehyde curtain,

Approximate Word count = 1196
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English