The Affirmation of Love in
Jim Crace's novel Being Dead is not a story about the end to two lives. Rather, this provocative and haunting novel is an affirmation for the love of life as seen through three prisms: First, Joseph and Celice, the married zoologists who at the outset of the novel are found dead on a beach, their lifeless bodies decomposing were rekindling the love they first shared when they met on the same spot thirty years earlier. Second, this is also the story of what happened during the six days between their discovery, a time when their daughter and friends searched for them. And, finally, it is also the tale of the slow disintegration of their bodies on the beach, and how the elements found in nature embrace them. It is a three-part love story. Crace writes: "Syl had to allow them this at least: her parents had surprised her this one time. Not just their murder. Not their nakedness. But that they had the power on their deaths, to flush her heart - too late-with love." (Crace 157) Yes, Syl's discovery of her "father's hand wrapped round her mother's leg" (156) had thrilled her. Her heart changed. More importantly, Being Dead is an affirmation of the love of life an unassuming couple, their estranged daughter and nature find together w
"They were the oddest pair, these dead, spreadeagled lovers on the coast: Joseph and Celice" (3). Moreover, Celice is a year and a few months older than Joseph. In fact, Joseph and Celice's death doesn't symbolize a story of death and sorrow, but a story of love and how it is stronger than death. The narrator implies that there is nothing beyond death. Prepare for death and violence"(41). They died a slow horrid death side by side. Time travels slowly as their bodies wait to be discovered amongst the dunes at Baritone Bay, where they had once made love for the first time. Syl even goes to the extreme of sleeping with a taxi driver in order to pay for a fare. A sign of love took hold of Celice by her ankle. Joseph and Celice make an odd couple. Syl's discovery of her parents makes a great impact in her life. Her parents were dead and there was nothing that could bring them back. Moreover, she is portrayed as a bit whorish. The novel starts from the end to the beginning of it all.
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Acceptance Essays
