Sixth ISU Blog Post

           Elsewhere is a book all about the death of a girl named Lizzie and the adventure that comes afterwards. Lizzie is in an alternative universe called Elsewhere, filled with every other dead person. As the story progresses we learn that there is a sort of exception or condition to this alternative universe. You age in reverse and when you become the age of seven again, you are simply reincarnated. So, now in this book we have the aspect of an after life and Reincarnation. These are two things that a lot of people in today's society believe in, because it brings them comfort and relief.

             Since I believe that there is not life after death or reincarnation I found this picture to be very funny. It made me think about whether someone who believe in a life after death would actually knowingly want to die. If they are not ready to die in order to go live another life, then do they actually believe in it? If they are not ready to die in order to live this other life they think that will be given to them, then I think it is fair to say that it is just a comfort tactic.

Fifth ISU Blog Post

Video: http://wgntv.com/2015/02/05/ohio-family-convinced-son-lived-another-life-as-a-chicago-woman/

          The link I have posted above is to a video showing a boy whose family that believe he was once a female who died in a house fire. He seemed to recall who the female was, how she died, and even how she looked. In the book Elsewhere, the author writes that when people hit the age of 7 they will be reincarnated
and live another life. Personally I believe that this is not true and that the video of the child is simply a hoax. The book is based on common beliefs that our society has and you can really see the influence it had on the author. There is not a lot of originality, the author is just taking unproven ideas and creating a story out of it. This is fine considering it is just a book that is not meant to be taken literally, but when we do take it literally we can see the flaws it has. You may be thinking about who would be willing to go through all the trouble of creating a hoax like that video, but I think we've all heard of crazier lies. This ties into my belief that you should not make assumptions on things like life after death or reincarnation, until you have facts that prove it.
           

Fourth ISU Blog Post

            Coping with death and grief can often times be very difficult. It can cause the strongest of people to break down. People can blame themselves, develop bad habits, convince themselves that their loved ones are in a better place, and etc. In my book, we can see these ways of coping with the death of a loved one. First we have Lizzie's parents who find comfort in thinking that Lizzie's death was a quick and painless one. They don't know this for a fact, but they are really convincing each other and portraying it as a fact. Lucy, who is Lizzie's dog, doesn't realizes that this is just a way of finding comfort for the parents, chooses to deal with the death in her own way. Lucy chooses to act as if Liz has just gone off to college and doesn't want to come back to visit. She knows that this is not the case but it is just another way of coping with the death.

               This picture is showing the five stages of grieving, which was created by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss psychiatrist. These 5 stages are shown as hurdles that we must get over in order to be okay with the death of a loved one. From reading the book, I believe that Lizzie's loved ones are still in the denial stage. They are not thinking clearly and are blocking out the facts. This is true especially with her dog Lucy who knows that she is death but chooses to convince herself that Lizzie is alive.