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Ylime Blair

Prof. Graves

Lang 120

15 October, 2018

The Language of Death

From Grandma’s 150 word obituary in the local newspaper to Pope John Paul II’s 13,000

New York Times memorial, the language of death is spoken across many cultures, religions, and

time periods. The memorialization of a loved one can take long and short forms as well as vary

in medium (newspaper, speech, stories, and more modernly, social memorial walls). Death

announcements have a long history; dating as far back to Ancient Rome where in the Acta

Diurna (“Daily Acts” in English) prominent deaths were given space in the daily papyrus

newsletter. Technology has extended the human life span by decades over the course of

existence, but every person will eventually pass away and it’s clear to see that our ancestors

obituaries were very different from how our own will be.

The term “obituary” can take a couple different meanings. The root “-obit” comes from

the Latin language and can either beautifully mean, “to go down” like a lovely summer sunset, or

rather disturbingly mean, “fall, ruin or death” (Terranova). Similarly, obituaries have taken on a

few names over time such as “Bill of Mortality” and “Memorial Advertisements”. And like the

name has changed, the content has altered form throughout history as well. Through such a

powerful change in writing, I see a problem with the way we look at literature in that we perhaps

view the power of language more narrowly than it deserves.

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To fully understand the power of language, I looked at 61 obituaries from the 100 year

period of 1800-1900 and 156 obituaries from the ten year period of 2008-2018. Eighteen of these

obituaries are cited in my research as being the most critical examples of the ideas I present,

however all of the obituaries I looked at were crucial in discovering the patterns I noticed while

examining post-mortem literature. Throughout this essay it is my desire that the multitude of

tools language provides will be shown through the use of a genre that is easily accessible and

relatable to the masses.

To begin, we will look at a rhetorical comparison of an obituary from roughly 100 years

ago and compare it to a modern obituary to examine the differences in language and structure as

a way of taking a look at how the culture has changed over this period of time. In older

obituaries, the trend tends to be towards longer pieces, highlighting the deceased individual with

opinion-based adjectives more so than in more modern versions. The articles tend to include

more anecdotal information about the person, such as in an obituary I read about a deceased civil

war soldier, where the author mentioned some of the individual’s notable war stories.

“...he was taken prisoner at the later battle and had a six months experience in rebel prisons.
His intelligence, and soldierly merit was recognized by his superior officers, so that he was
commissioned as a lieutenant of a regiment of colored volunteers, leaving the service at the close
of the war, with a most honorable record for courage and faithfulness.”

​ xcerpt from the obituary of Thomas H. Childs, Civil War Casualty

-E

Also noteworthy is that to be found in older obituaries is the rather blunt term of “died” (Bathke,

Brandl, Fahl, Gessert) when referring to their passing.

In more modern obituaries you will notice that adjectives are not so much included in

describing the passed individual, most likely due to the fact that pictures are often included
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nowadays, whereas that otherwise wouldn’t have been as feasible before. In place of adjectives,

modern obituaries often include information about the interests and hobbies of the deceased,

perhaps to allow the reader to remember the individual in a way that is subjective to their own

personal truth about them. Unlike older obituaries, the modern version can often be found using

words like “passed away” and “departed” which is more euphemistic in today’s world.

Some contingencies among the two varieties of obituary would be, quite obviously, the

use of past tense throughout the writing as the deceased is no longer doing much of anything in

the present tense. There are also a lot of commonalities in the types of basic information that is

included. Such would be where the person was born, where they died, what relatives are left

behind as well as who their family was, their religion (if any), and where they might be buried.

This type of information is sometimes ​all​ that can be found in some modern obituaries, seeming

very blunt and to the point.

Included in the seemingly very different forms of obituary between two time periods, the

language of obituaries also differs from region to region. In the south, a region known as the

“bible belt”, the language used to refer to the deceased is very religion-oriented. While it is

generally common in all regions to use “passed away” or “died”, in obituaries I read from

southern states, it was distinct in some writings that the author would use “gone to be with our

Lord” ( Smith), “went to be with our Lord” ( Howard, Lemmon Jr), “Returned to [their] creator”

(Prentice) or something of the variety. Not to say that these phrases couldn’t be found in other

highly religious regions of the United States, but rather it’s much more frequent in the

southernmost areas.
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In the Northeast, however, things tend to be a little more frank as far as the rhetoric the

author uses. In the Northeast, you will find bigger cities like Boston, Philly, New York City, and

Baltimore where life moves faster and the landscape is much more industrial compared to other

regions of the United States. This fact may be a reason why the obituaries in the Northeast use

less euphemistic language, like “died” ( Cronan, Hosking, Leonard) as opposed to sugarcoating.

The South is more known for its charm and hospitality whereas in the North, people are more

aggressive due to their regional culture.

In the West, the language seems to be a mixture of the atheistic rhetoric of the North with

the charm of the South. There is a trend out West to see “scattered to the wind” (Fetler, Kline)

and “returned to nature” (Van Vlissingen) more frequently than in any other region. When first

seeing this trend, I found it very peculiar and wasn’t entirely sure as to why these words might be

used at more frequency than in other regions. The answer is found in that the West is the region

of the United States where cremation is most common, thus the use of words referring to that

method of burial.

While the rhetoric of obituaries has changed over time, the location of obituaries has also

changed in parallel with the changing language. From the beginning, as mentioned earlier,

memorial advertisements have been found in newspapers, usually a small section dedicated to

the prominent deaths that had happened in the recent past. From ancient times to the early

2000’s, obituaries were entirely in print form, delivered to your front door every Sunday

morning. However, in the 2010’s, as online journalism became more popular among large news

sites as a way of expanding their audiences, obituaries found their way into the virtual world as

well. Websites such as Ancestry.com and Legacy.com welcomed a new kind of archive of family
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history- virtual databases of our ancestors. And, as we go further into the late 2010’s we begin to

see a new kind of memorialization trend of “social memorial walls”. The seemingly foreign term

refers to the idea that the social media platforms that deceased people leave behind become not

only a time capsule of who the person was, but also a place for loved ones to visit a sort of

virtual grave and leave kind words of remembrance. While printed obituaries are still around,

newer versions of the age-old memorial are becoming more and more prevalent.

What does a social memorial message look like and how is the rhetoric different from

printed, published pieces? To answer this question, I looked at the Instagram of recently

deceased rap artist, Mac Miller. On his last few days, Miller posted a picture of himself that was

to be featured in New York Magazine. The comments, all 399000, are flooded with messages to

the late Miller. The common trend is “RIP Mac” followed by heart emoticons, crying emoticons,

or for the very troubled, both. You will also find your fair share of “u will be missed” and “love

and miss u”. The types of messages left for Miller tend to take less consideration for the

formality of the text and rather pay more attention to simple, straight to the point messages. A lot

of comments mention some of Miller’s work and discuss moments in Miller’s career that the

commenter was most personally attached to. In most printed obituaries, there tends to be a more

personalized approach to the writing in that it mentions the deceased’s family and their hobbies

and personal quirks but in the digital memorial walls, there’s a deeper connection in the words as

they tend to be addressed ​to​ the individual rather than to the public. The social memorial walls

serve as a sort of ongoing funeral, where commenters come and go as they feel is appropriate and

pay their respects to the person who passed.

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Although we run into obituaries commonly along our lives, the research presented goes

far beyond simple printed newspaper. In this research, you can see how something as simple as

the language of an obituary can show the cultural shifts from time period to time period, region

to region, and medium to medium. In the language used to talk about the deaths of different

generations, you are offered the opportunity to see how people lived. The power of language is

typically shown in the context of its power to incite change and influence the masses, but in this

research, the fruitful power of language to expose the lives of the same masses is presented

through the use of an obituary, a small tool used to communicate the death of a citizen to the

public. Language is seen as a communicative device at its core, but in actuality, it is more

purposeful and can serve as an archival means of digging up parts of history that we may not

have thought to ever look for otherwise.

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Works Cited

​ ugust 4th, 1908.

Allen, Eli W. ​Grinnell, Indiana. A
http://iagenweb.org/civilwar/obituaries/civil_war_obituaries.htm

Bathke, August. ​Pierce, Wisconsin.​ January 13th, 1922.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69526446/august-bathke

Beinor, Martha Jane Wild. obituary, ​Greenville, South Carolina. ​October 15th, 2018.
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenvilleonline/obituary.aspx?n=martha-jane-
wild-beinor&pid=190526199&fhid=14054

Brandl, Alois. ​Blenker, Wisconsin. J​ anuary 27th, 1897.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88279035/alois-brandl

Childs, Thomas H. ​Adrian, Michigan. O ​ ctober 16th, 1891.

http://iagenweb.org/civilwar/obituaries/civil_war_obituaries.htm

Cronan, Henry. ​New York City, New York. ​ October 12th, 2018.
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=thomas-leonard&pid=19052
9430&fhid=2574

Fahl, Wilhelmine “Minnie”. ​Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. ​July 28th, 1890.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148145986/wilhelmine-fahl

Fetler, Andrew. ​Hadley, Massachusetts. ​March 5th, 2017.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/gazettenet/obituary.aspx?n=andrew-fetler&pid=18440
9857

Gessert, Ablonia. ​Wood County, Wisconsin.​ October 10th, 1896.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86081583/ablonia-gessert

Harrison, Charles E. “Chot” “Charlie”. ​Phillipsburg, New Jersey.​ Dec 2. 2017.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/charles-harrison-obituary?pid=187424618

Hosking, Robert L. ​Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ​October 11th, 2018.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/philly/obituary.aspx?n=robert-l-hosking&pid=190532
990

Howard, Roger. ​Birmingham, Alabama. O​ ctober 18th, 2018.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/roger-howard-obituary?pid=190528866

Kline, Annemarie V. ​Casper, Wyoming. ​February 11th, 2018.

https://www.morrissett.com/obituary/Annemarie-Kline/_/1781653
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Lemmon Jr., John ​Birmingham, Alabama. ​October 12th, 2018.

http://obits.al.com/obituaries/birmingham/obituary.aspx?n=john-lemmon&pid=19052869
4

​ ctober 18th, 2018.

Leonard, Thomas. ​New York City, New York. O
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=thomas-leonard&pid=19052
9430&fhid=2574

Miller, Mac. “Mac on Instagram: ‘New York Mag. Link in Bio. Words by @craig_sj and Photos
by @Christaanfelber.’” ​Instagram​,
www.instagram.com/p/BnZW8nWhtd5/?hl=en&taken-by=macmiller.

Patrickis, Marilyn. ​Birmingham, Alabama. O ​ ctober 8th, 2018.

http://obits.al.com/obituaries/birmingham/obituary.aspx?n=marilyn-patrickis&pid=19047
9226

Prentice, Thomas E. “Skip”. ​Tupelo, Mississippi. ​September 25th, 2018.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/starkvilledailynews/obituary.aspx?n=thomas-e-prenti
ce-skip&pid=190334670&fhid=25983

Smith, Annette Brent. ​Starkville, Mississippi. ​October 15th, 2018.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/starkvilledailynews/obituary.aspx?n=annette-brent-s
mith&pid=190490964&fhid=4540

Terranova, Jacob. “The History of the Obituary.” ​Frazer Consultants​, 10 June 2018,
www.frazerconsultants.com/2017/02/the-history-of-the-obituary/.