16 Life’s Big Questions and Visual Essays

Everyone lives. Everyone dies.

We collectively understand this better than ever since a global pandemic swept us all away and turned society upside down, at least for a while. Not only do we share these universal truths with all living organisms, but philosophers also argue that this central fact helps explain nearly every other human experience. Our obsession with mortality has inspired love and hate, generated fear and courage, forged new religions, and caused world wars. Since all humans share the fate of inevitable mortality, we all have three basic choices in how to deal with it. We can live in fear of it, we can distract ourselves in an attempt to ignore it, or we can learn to live peaceably with it. You can guess which option is the healthiest.

Part four of this textbook challenges you to start making that peace. The readings focus on authors who have been through the Valley of Death and brought back wisdom for a life of peace. As you read, search for the answers these authors offer to life’s big questions: both the asked and unasked.

This section is larger than the first three. As you grow in your ability to use sources in your writing, you should start expanding your search, looking at multiple authors to find the right combinations of ideas and evidence that support your claims. Try browsing through the section, sampling what each author adds and considering the big questions they ask. Here’s a chart to help get you started:

Possible Big Questions to Ponder

• What is the meaning/purpose of life?
• Why do bad things happen to good people?
• What is death?
• Do humans have free will?
• What happens when we die?
• Should we avoid death or accept it?

More questions suggested by our readings:

• Can a city die? (“What Happened to Detroit?,” DetroitUrbanex)
• Is memory a sufficient afterlife? (“To My One Love,” Chimamanda Adichie)
• Do animals have souls? (“The Emotional Lives of Animals, Mark Bekoff)
• Can the earth grieve? (“Hope and Mourning in the Anthropocene,” Ashlee Cunsolo and Neville Ellis)
• Does abortion preserve life or cause death? (“Wrongful Birth,” Jenn Gann)
• Should death ever be viewed positively? (“How I Celebrate the Day of the Dead,” Linda Gonzalez)
• Can a disabled person still lead a good life? (“On Being a Cripple,” Nancy Mairs)
• How do we best remember lost loved ones? (“The Ghost in Our Machines,” Matthew Malady)
• Can an entire ethnicity suffer PTSD? (Yuuyaraq: the Way of the Human, Harold Napoleon)

The Visual Essay

Several of the readings in this section are visual essays, so genre also shares some of the spotlight. In the visual essay, authors add images to supplement the message of their words. Visual essays have no set rules for the balance between words and images. Urban historical group DetroitUrbanex uses sparse sentences and well-placed data visuals, letting the photos do most of the talking. On the other extreme, Jenn Gann richly describes her son’s medical condition, providing just a few large, clear photos of the boy to communicate to readers You should also note that visual essays usually use photographs but drawings or other illustrations will sometimes appear as well.

The visual essay works well with the theme of Life and Death because both action make excellent use of the past. Most people these days have a rather large library of photographs they or their family has collected. So if you are reading this section in preparation to write a visual essay, make sure to take the time to peruse some of your old photographs. Take in how they make you feel. I’ve compiled a very brief visual essay of my own that expresses thoughts sparked by old photos of my loved ones.