HW 49 - Comments on Best of Our Break HW

Comments I made:


To Sam:


Your post is very well organized. It is clear who you interviewed and what questions you asked. You present your parents' statements and connect them to your own opinions.
In a way, I think I would have a similar attitude to your father's - I don't want to think about what happens to me after I die, because I am scared of the idea itself, therefore I understand why your dad was not completely serious about it. 
I like that you included your hypothesis at the end. This shows that not only did you ask questions and listen to the answers, but you also made your own conclusions based on what you found out from your interviewees.
There were a few parts where I got a bit confused by the wording (especially in the first sentence), but I managed to make sense of everything at the end. Thank you for sharing your interviews :)
Martyna


To Amber:


You described interviews with three teenagers of diverse religious backgrounds. This allowed you to make comparisons between different points of view.
I was particularly interested in the interview with your cousin. It included a brief description of a traditional Islamic funeral, which gave me new insight on the subject. Even though I lived in an Arabic country I never came in contact with the culture's attitude toward death (that is - until I read your post).
The the end, you connected what you found out in your interviews to your own opinions. This shows that you thought through and analyzed the information you obtained from your interviewees.
I agree - we don't usually talk about death. I appreciate that you had the courage to ask some of your questions despite them being rather unusual.
Your post was clear and interesting to read. Thank you,
Martyna


To Kevin:


You talked to three peers about the care of the dead and summarized their answers.
Danny had a slightly different opinion to what we usually come across. To me, it seems almost wrong to say it doesn't matter what happens to a dead person's body. His opinion was very interesting and could be quite controversial.
I have to disagree with your thought in the last paragraph; I think the body physically is quite important- you might get a different experience when standing over a grave knowing that you are actually close to the body of the person (or its ashes/remains), than when you are simply looking at a gravestone.
My suggestion would be to, at least briefly, plan what questions you are going to ask, or maybe think out in which direction you would like to steer your discussion when interviewing.
Overall, you included some good thoughts and quotes.
Thanks for your interviews,
Martyna


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Comments I recieved:


From Sam:


Martyna,
I can't help but say i was impressed by reading your blog. I think that the amount of work that you put in to this post is very well reflected to the readers. I really like how you were able to understand that you have a somewhat biased point of view because of the way you were raised and how you were able to post the answers to your questions seemingly without bias. I particularly liked how well spoken your parents seem, they seem very down to earth about their answers. They understand the traditions set by their religion such as the church ceremonies and mourning the dead, and they also understand how weird these traditions can be. I don't really have any suggestions for you because i really did enjoy this post.
Sam


From mom:

The topic of “caring for the dead” is one of the most difficult to discuss. The interview provoked my consideration of some issues connected with the subject. You included many good questions, think it would be interesting to compare and research them in more depth. A subject worth exploring might be the growing number of cremations. Before your interview, I did not realize that the numbers have been growing . It would be interesting to know more about that. Did you know that, in Poland, it is forbidden by law to scatter human ashes? Also, cremations in Poland started only 20 years ago. This is related to the traumatic period of World War II, when cremation was connected to the biggest crime in Aushwitz.

Your 6th paragraph is connected to the atmosphere at the reception after a funeral. The psychologists say that mourning has its stages. The first is shock and apathy. It appears shortly after death. Usually we do not want to believe that the person is dead. The second stage is sorrow and longing. People are overcome with grief and might even feel physical pain. Then comes the third stage – reorganizing a life without the beloved person. It is necessary to go through all these stages in order to start a normal life once again. That is why, after doing some thinking, I think the reception (which we have a special word for in Polish) should not be happy. People would only try to cover up their real feelings but the sorrow would come later, making the mourning process even longer.
Katarzyna