Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain

Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain, an excerpt by Jessica Mitford describes the process in which a body is embalmed. The embalming process happens every day to someone who has become deceased. The excerpt that Mitford describes about the embalming process goes into every little detail about how the corpus becomes embalmed. From the time a corpus should be embalmed for when a body becomes deceased, then onto the process of the fluids and other items to prepare the corpus, and lastly when the body is being placed in the coffin for the corpus to be view.

            When Mitford is describing the process where the body is getting prepared for the embalming stage, she lists all the tools that the embalmer is going to use in the morgue. Mitford mentions that a lot of the tools used are very similar to what a surgeon uses in a operating room. Mitford says that the first step in the embalming process is to drain the blood from the body. When she was describing this part of the process, I immediately thought of a vampire. I thought of a vampire draining the blood out of someone. Later on in the embalming process, Mitford describes how the mouth and eyes get sewed together. When this part was being described, a zombie popped in my head. Hocus Pocus, a Disney movie, does a great job at showing a zombie. When reading Mitford’s excerpt, I started think about different Halloween characters when she was describing the embalming process. But, when Mitford started talking about the corpus being put in a casket and people coming to view the body, I thought about my own experiences with going to funerals. I was think about those time when I had to say my finally good bye to the people I loved.    

The whole embalming process, in my opinion, is a gross and disturbing. How someone can do this to a body blows my mind. I know that I could not do this but I am glad that someone can. At least that someone can do this, so that family and friends can see their love ones. When the viewing is allowed, this is our time to say our last good bye to our love ones. If the embalming process was not around now, I do not think that we could have funerals. The embalming process is a very essential thing to have when someone becomes deceased.

By: Brittany B