Akxa Alex Alex 1

Stephen Topf
English 114 A
March 17, 2014
Postmortal Related to Modern Day Society
The book, The Postmortal by Drew Magary, has many controversial issues that make
people, myself included, think about the topics in details and make judgments regarding the
book. One of the main ideas that the book tells is about a cure for aging that makes people in this
world think that it is a cure for death instead. He does this to use the cure to cover up for what is
actually occurring in the modern world now. For example the book talks about issues with
marriages and divorce, social issues like trying to look young, and the government; this all ties
into the idea of chaos that happens in this planet currently and all these problems are hidden by
the cure. Making the cure a symbolism for all the problems. Some people would like to think that
the cure will resolve all the problems but it just makes it worse. Even though there is
overpopulation and resources running short for survival that plays a part in the whole chaos as
well. I believe the book is showing a process of dehumanization overall, which is an idea of
becoming less human. It starts to create evil ideas, violence, and conflict to escalate quickly.
Once this occurred in the book, it was more acceptable to do things that the people wouldnt do
before because they saw it as morally incorrect. As dehumanization brings chaos, it can be seen
in the issues of marriage, beauty, and the government, which is affecting our lives now and if we
do not realize it then it creates death and the world ending.
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Society talks about marriage and divorce being a chaotic issue which is critiqued in a
section of the book. We start to see less marriages and more divorces because nobody in the
book likes the idea of living with someone forever. This issue of marriage and divorce brings
about the idea of cycle marriage which is when, The couple agrees to be together for forty
years, with the marriage automatically dissolving at the end(Magary 80). This idea is
supposed to be the solution to making a false vow of till death do us apart. So the books stance
on this issue is showing that it is acceptable to make exceptions to the cure; as long as we have
fun and enjoy life then love shouldnt matter or last.
I think the book is right in stating this because with the cure there is not much need for
love. We need love and care mostly because we think about the future and desire someone to be
there with us when we are old. This factor is eliminated with the cure because no one ages. I
believe that even though love and aging doesnt show a direct connection, it still shows some
association that causes an impact. This issue of marriage and divorce rates are starting to show in
the current statuses. The New York Times talks about a psychological study that was done to
show the decline in marriages, which said, Americans now look to marriage increasingly for
self-discovery, self-esteem and personal growth( Finkel 1). If that is the only reason we get
married now, then it shows we have secretly got the cure already because it proves to have the
same mentality as an effect to the cure: we only care about ourselves and no one else. Arranged
marriage is another option, but I personally think it is not a good idea. My parents are married
through arrangement, and even though they are happy, there are times they want a divorce but
cant because of tradition and religion that they believe strongly. Religion has always been seen
as to create trouble if you look at history. People have different views when it comes to religion
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that makes it difficult to come to a settlement. And if there is no settlement then relationships
become difficult to hold on to. Overall I viewed this idea of marriage and divorce as a chaotic
issue because it decreased jobs, changed the ideas of commitment, and it also creates bigger
issues on the kids that are in the middle of these actions. For example, David, the son of John
Farrell was not able to get the fatherly advices or figure in his early life which makes him grow
up faster to be a man when he is still a child. If it affects others then it is not seen as a right act to
do. So I believe that if we are doing anything negative to the natural and normal human ways
then we are practicing to become dehumanized.
Another issue is the idea of youthfulness that creates chaos. The whole book depicts a
society that wants to look young forever. This is important because nobody wants to have
wrinkles or get weak. The idea is to stay young, healthy, and strong as long as possible. This is
seen in society today, because we are able to see most of the actors/actresses and singers value
their appearance more than anything else. This certain group is important because most people
look to them while buying products and, in general, doing anything in society. We usually want
to look like them due to the influences that we are under and the achievements they make. For
example we are starting to sell products like Meaningful Beauty by Cindy Crawford and
Proactive. Cindy Crawford seems to have defied the aging process for nearly 20 yearsat 45,
her skin still looks astonishingly youthful and radiant, this was seen on the official cite for the
product, which proves that if we can have scientific discoveries that last 20 years then forever is
not too far away (www.meaningfulbeauty .com). When the advertisements portray the product as
a great discovery, then we have a tendency to try it out for ourselves; it almost becomes an
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addiction at the end. With this we are trying to change the way we are naturally to be looking and
aging which is dehumanization to a small degree.
These items show that we are not satisfied by the way we look so we will be convinced
easily and are willing to pay any amount to get the right results. I think that is the reason that
most people in the postmortal world got the cure. They were not looking at the long term effects
or what the cure actually does, but instead focused on getting what they wanted fast with enough
money to achieve it as well. The books stance on this issue of youthfulness shows that it is a
positive idea because eventually most people get the cure and it is legal later on. The destruction
caused by this is mostly seen to the readers of the book and not really the people of the
postmortal world.
I think that it is a bad idea for people to jump into getting the cure; the doctor even says,
They want to live forever, but they dont think about what theyre going to have to live
with(Magary 8). Even looking young forever has flaws of its own. Some of the flaws and
problems would include: people wanting their babies to be young forever making it impossible
for the baby to have a life, people not maturing with the actual age and the cure age, and also
people killing each other to get this youthfulness look. These all create a chaotic outcome. But in
our life now the products for youth have not showed a greater side effect yet; I believe it is a
warning for us to stay away from it if it occurs in the future. This is bound to happen with all the
experiments and technological advances occurring at a fast rate.
The government is one of the major issues that is seen throughout the book that is viewed
as chaotic. The Chinese government has over taken its people by branding their actual birth date
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in order to avoid the use of the cure; they are able to see who got the cure and who did not get
the cure. This is their way to stand out from the other countries so they will not be followers but
leaders instead. And a way to stop from having too many people in their country; another reason
is before it gets too late to control the population. Their tactic for dominance over other countries
is mainly focused on the need to maintain supplies. To do so, there must be an avoidance of
overpopulation which is something that the U.S. government has lost control of. Today, we hear
about the strict laws set upon the citizens of China by the one-child only regulation. They are
trying to stop overpopulation already. The reason for this is, after World War II, the
communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring
China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of
millions of people (www.cia.gov). War, like with any country, has impacted China. With the
impact, China had experienced significant success in increasing the use of birth control and
reducing fertility rates to keep the population in check (Banister 1). Most couples did not like
this at first because they wanted to create a family, and to have somebody take over their name
after the parents passed away. But as usual, they become used to the idea over time. Yes people
have tried to overturn this law because they want a bigger family throughout the past years, and
the improvements we saw from the beginning to now have changed slightly to the rule. It went
from one child to no children then back to one child to the rule. This shows some power that
people can do and change.
It is quite hard to understand whether it would be better for the U.S to have a government
that has control of the cure like China or whether to continue on with such chaos caused by over
population. Compared to China, the United States continues to be depicted as a very nonchalant
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and helpless government. On the other hand, Russia has taken the initiative to give the cure to
the soldiers allowing them an advantage. This way Russia can create a powerful army and still
maintain control over its citizen. The cure continues to be symbolized as humanities selfish
needs and desires. With the cure China has more reason to return to isolationism from the
rest of the world(Magary 272). Russians now have more reason to maintain such dictation over
its people through the use of an army. As for the United States, it is given more of that
unnecessary freedom to be reckless and chaotic. As we gain a better understanding of the
actions each country has taken, we realize there is no humane manner in which to approach the
effects the cure has had on the world. The mere idea of such a cure cannot be permitted, for the
consequences are worldwide.
The book has made it clear that the government is seen as corrupt and difficult to
manage. I agree upon this matter that the book takes a stance in, because even through past
history we can see that the government has a difficult time with the people even when it is run by
the people too. Being human and having different views makes it chaotic to come up with
something that is agreeable for most people. We tend to look at only our ways, and that is the
biggest issue in creating chaos.
We have seen that most of the factors in this book cover the main theme of chaos, which
is all around us in society today too. They are modern topics that we talk about like
marriage/divorce, youthfulness, and the government. These topics can be very argumentative and
put us in a position that is difficult to agree upon. So the author of The Postmortal did an
extraordinary job in writing this book to make us more educated and aware of the issues in an
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interesting way. We were able to see that the topics were also being critiqued in a certain way in
society. The connections of the topics to society all share the common factor of being chaotic to
the world now and to the postmortal world. Basically saying that the dehumanization process
mentioned throughout these topics in the book has already been undergoing to create death in
humans which is death in this world we know now.












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Works Cited
Banister, Judith. "China's One Child Policy History." The Interactive Media Lab at the
University of Florida. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. <http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/>.
"East & Southeast Asia :: China." Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook, n.d. Web.
16 Mar. 2014. <https://www.cia.gov>.
Finkel, Eli J. "The All-or-Nothing Marriage." New York Times 16 Feb. 2014: SR1. Print.
Magary, Drew. The Postmortal: A Novel. New York: Penguin, 2011. Print.
Meaningful Beauty by Cindy Crawford 21 Feb. 2014: n. pag. Print.
<https://www.meaningfulbeauty.com>.