"Whether of not a corpse is torn apart by coyotes may seem only a sentimental consideration, but of course it is more: one of the promises we make to one another is that we will try to retrieve our casualties, try not to abandon our dead to the coyotes. If we have been taught to keep our promise-if, in the simplest terms, our upbringing is good enough-we stay with the body, of have bad dreams" (Didion 158)
I really enjoyed the way that the author wrote, it inspires me to want to write a definition essay of similar caliber. The stories/examples that were used in the essay to reinforce the authors definition of morality were surprising, the kind of examples that come to mind are the engrained rules about not murdering people, being nice, not stealing candy from children and those sort of things. I really liked this little example about not leaving a corpse and the way the morality about it was approached. When it first talked about how the man stayed with the body all night I assumed it would go on talking like 'it's a human life blah blah' and describe it in superfluous way. But I was shown wrong, the author instead used the argument of not wanting to leave our casualties to be a feast for the coyotes, which essentially has the same message of the importance of human life and our duty to other humans, but this uses a much more real approach. I think that is what I liked about this essay, the whole thing feels really real.
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