Feltes- Beetlejuice Blog

Personally, I believe Americans refuse to incorporate the reality of death into their lives because the concept is too much for them to handle. However much religion may talk about life after death, I personally believe that when we die, we simply cease to exist. The horrible nothingness of this concept, the idea that one day you will not exist in any way, is something most Americans are too afraid to come to grips with. We all want to believe that we will exist forever, even after we die, which is why there is so much speculation about life after death. 

This film actually denies the reality of death in that it portrays death as merely a movement from one state of reality to another. As opposed to ceasing to exist, when the two characters died, they merely woke up in their house as if nothing had changed. They maintained the exact same level of consciousness and even performed the same tasks, such as sleeping and walking around and talking, as if they had not died at all. Actually in the movie, they incorporate a natural life task, sleeping, with a supernatural occurrence, when both of the characters are sleeping in the bed, and the wife turns out to be floating above the floor next to her husband while sleeping. 

Death is anathema in American culture because we are a culture that truly celebrates life; all of our lives, we are brought up to believe we should make as much money as we can so that we can live in material comfort, and should go to college so we can get money to provide for families of our own.  However, most kids are not raised to believe that something happens after death. Yes, some religions, such as Christianity, believe that there is a heaven or hell you go to after death, but even in that scenario, death is not a central theme. This is because Americans don't want to think about the inevitability of death, and I think that this is because there is such a hopelessness attached to death that no one wants to think about it. The thing is, if you truly think about it, death really isn't the end. Most people pass on their genetics to their kids and eventually grandkids, and even if not, they pass on part of themselves through the people they interacted with in their life. In my opinion, which is not popular, if you have ever had a conversation with another person, you have changed their life in some way. It may not be important, or noticeable, but you definitely changed his or her life in a way no one else could.