AFTER WATCHING: La Morta Nera

            Many say - death is apart of life. It’s inevitable and yet humans are so terrified by it. The idea that death is a terrible scary event in ones life follows the theory that we are naturally afraid of anything that is unknown to us. As humans we are different then animals due to the fact that we have rational thinking- we are able to analyze and make sense of the world. However, death for as long as humans have been here is one thing many have had yet to see as anything other then a huge mystery.

            The movie La Morta Nera made me question society’s perspective on death, what it was like during this event it history, as opposed to what it is like today. In 1348 when the Black Death became prevalent the people of the middle ages took it as an apocalyptic disease. They believed God was mad at them; therefore we were not trying to kill the population off. Which the number of deaths reaching something like 75- 200 million people in Europe it very well would seem that way. I believe this rational makes sense in accordance to the time period. Due to the majority being Catholic and believing and studying the bible, punishment for sin was something that was not taken lightly.

            Today, although religion is still in strict practice, our generation today has transformed their thinking to become much more logarhymic. We believe that everything can be explained and made sense by using numbers and computers. The fact is that society is still scared of death. We spend infinite amounts of money on healthcare, trying to stretch our age as long as possible. Although being healthy is important and getting sick can be inevitable, death is not, yet most of us cant accept death and be comfortable with the fact that it could come up on us. I think that society sees death today as obstacle in their very logical way of thinking, it cannot be fixed with computers or math or graph paper. There is no scientific evidence that tells us what awaits us on the other side. Some choose to believe there is something beyond us, others do not. The fact of the matter is that because we cannot prove anything, we will always fear death and make up new excuses as to why it will come.  

-Claire Shumaker