Death Avoidance and Proximity

Throughout From Here To Eternity, Caitlin Doughty highlights the negative consequences of death avoidance and advocates for increased death proximity in order to achieve more effective grieving. Death avoidance and proximity are presented as both emotional and physical issues. First, she contrasts a lack of comfort with discussing death in America to the realities in other countries. For example, she writes about how Luciano and his friends in Bolivia talk about death "all the time" and ask each other "Hey, what you want when you die?" (6). Luciano is surprised to learn that people in America don't usually discuss these things, particularly not when they, like Luciano, are not in old age. Doughty also uses the example of her friend Sarah Chavez who, after loosing her son, felt that society demanded that she hide her grief because others did not want to face that reality. As...