The Loved One...America and Death denial (a view from Europe)

 The Loved One was written in 1948 by Evelyn Waugh, and acts as a mirror for America Culture to look at itself and its attitudes toward death and meaningful living from the perspective of European Culture.

• Grim, funny and darkly satirical, it tells the story of Dennis Barlow’s experiences in Hollywood, amidst an expatriate community of ageing British writers. It contrasts the absurdities of two funeral businesses, one for pets, ‘The Happier Hunting Ground’ and the rather more deluxe surroundings of the ‘Whispering Glades Memorial Park’ (based on the Forest Lawn Memorial Parks) which serve the ‘Loved Ones’ of the novel’s title.

• The satire of the novel might not be as immediately cutting today as it was when the book was published, due to the increasing influence of American culture on Britain over the years. 
• The manner in which Waugh describes American women (HOW)
• The depiction of the utterly callous ‘machine’ of Hollywood (HOW)

The following passages sum up Waugh’s impression of American women:

 "A young lady rose from a group of her fellows to welcome him, one of that new race of exquisite,amiable, efficient young ladies whom he had met everywhere in the United States.

She was the standard product. A man could leave such a girl in a delicatessen shop in New York, fly three thousand miles and find her again in the cigar stall at San Francisco."

There is one exception in the novel however, in the character of Aimée Thanatogenos:

 "the girl who now entered was unique. Not indefinably; the appropriate distinguishing epithet leapt to Dennis’s mind the moment he saw her: sole Eve in a bustling hygienic Eden, this girl was a decadent."

• That Dennis is so drawn to this character (to the point of proposing marriage), and find her so unique in comparison to the other women he meets, before treating her so callously at the end of the novel, is interesting. 
• The details of Aimée's history and family are lacking and it is perhaps this blankness which makes her eventual death so easy to cover up by Mr. Joyboy and Dennis, two men who both claimed to have loved her. 
• Dennis’ whole attitude appears to change as the novel develops. (WHY)
• One possibility was that the general atmosphere of the film “factory” of Hollywood may have disillusioned the young British writer in the way it had been experienced by so many of his predecessors, both real and literary. 
• The image of the factory is also pertinent to the funeral business. 
• Waugh depicts in the novel – endless ‘Loved Ones’ churned out as if on a production line, passing through different areas of the funeral home before their final presentation to the ‘Waiting Ones’ in the ‘Slumber Room’.

Why Hollywood?

• Land of happy endings?
• Death in films and tv is mostly handled in one of two ways: 
• Spectacular, impersonal violence
• or intense simple-minded sentimentality
• One reason American Culture is so shallow, is because we ignore death?
• Death Care industry takes care of it all and sanitizes it.

Arnold Toynbee (historian) once said,  "Death is un-American, an affront to every citizen's inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

Why is Death an even more taboo subject than sex in american culture?

• Modern America appears to be preoccupied with the preservation of youth and beauty, which is catered to by the plastic surgeon. Society seems content to cling to the illusion that youth--and life--can last forever.
• However, the millions of dollars people spend to stay young (youth culture industry) will not delay the inevitable. The fact is that life will end, and how Americans choose to cope with this reality gives us an overall picture of our society's position on death; generally speaking, the American attitude is one of avoidance (or even defiance).

1. Death Accepting Cultures: see death as part of life and deal directly with  death in quotidian contexts
2. Death Denying Cultures: Avoid death and focus on living life while relegating death to private, ritual and impersonal contexts
3. Death Defying Cultures: Deny that death is an inevitable threat and try to actively avoid interacting with it. Believe in the potential for conquering death through science and "success"

Elvis lives?

• Perhaps the greatest example of Americans' view of death can be seen in how they cope with the passing of major celebrities--people whom they idolize to the point of assigning them a godlike status. To say that Elvis's (Michael Jackson's, Prince's, etc.) 1977 death affected Americans would be an understatement. "His death was a challenge to American popular culture and to its self-confidence...." (King 166). The shocked reaction to Presley's demise was not unlike that caused by President Kennedy's assassination (Ibid.).
• Presley's body was displayed in an open casket at his home, dubbed "Graceland." Approximately 100,000 mourners gathered for his funeral and the committal service at Forest Hills Cemetery was bombarded with devastated fans. After the burial people continued to disturb the grave site, searching for whatever "relics" they could find. Presley and his mother were later disinterred and reburied at Graceland.
• CONSPIRACY THEORIES: It was not long before people began questioning whether Elvis had actually died. Fans wanted to know the intimate details of his final days--they also asked "questions ... about his post mortem and death certificate".
• Presley's appearance had changed over the years due to his addiction to prescription drugs--he had gotten chubby. The body in the coffin did not look like the Elvis so many remembered. 
• Speculation ensued that the dead "Elvis" on display had been either another person or a wax dummy. Fans theorized that Elvis had planned to fake his death in order "to escape the pressures of his daily life ..." . 
• People claimed to have had sightings of Elvis, the earlier ones being in Kalamazoo, Michigan...he has also been sighted "kneeling at the grave site of Jackie Kennedy...." It has even been claimed that Presley phoned Bill Clinton, "promising a comeback".
• Elvis was not the first star to have been suspected of cheating death. "'... Glenn Miller, James Dean and Buddy Holly are also said to be lying comatose and horribly disfigured in remote sanatoriums.
• This is all a prime example of denial of--and discomfort with--death that people would endeavor to immortalize a celebrity as they did Elvis. As King points out:

If Elvis is dead, then his supporters had themselves to confront the fact of death and to accept the transitory nature of their youth and its hopes and dreams. The denial of the facts of his death might negate the threat of transitory nature.

The responses to Elvis's passing "offer prime insights into contemporary American attitudes of death". "The King" has been dead for almost thirty years, yet fans still cling to the hope that a would-be seventy-year-old Elvis is alive and well, although in hiding.

Hospital and Medical Technology?

• In the last hundred years, death was stripped of its place in everyday life and forced into the realm of terror. 
• As the medical profession advanced and people went to die in hospitals, families were denied the full participation in the care of their loved ones which previous generations had, throughout the dying process and in the funeral rites. As a result, death became "invisible" to the average American.
• The result of death's invisibility has been ignorance, fear, and denial.