Spoon River Anthology

The Hill is an excerpt from the "Spoon River Anthology" and it is an interesting piece of writing, which shows a side of the afterlife and the true end of death. It explores the realism of death and what really happens to your body that is actually fact instead of exploring what people believe might be true in the afterlife. The Hill is the end of the line and is the place where everyone eventually ends up in a box under the ground. “The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter? All, all are sleeping on the hill”(Masters). This analyzes of the end of life is a more practical approach compared to the theories of Romanticism and Puritan writers. No matter who you are you will eventually end up in the hill with everyone else. Money, wealth, and power no matter how much it will never save you from the eventual end of life that will put a person on an equal level with everyone else. “ One died in a jail, One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife- All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill” (Masters). These men died differently one a heroic death and the other a not so great one. Emerson and Thoreau were Realist in ideas and they would like the truth that Edgar Lee Masters writes about the hill. The nature element of the hill is a great idea and gives the people a sense that death is not such a bad thing they get to become a part of the beautiful hill. The hill is something beautiful and therefore we can assume that the author also believes that there is beauty in death. Emerson and Thoreau were big into nature and the peaceful qualities it has which is something else that people believe comes with death that peaceful tranquil environment. The “Spoon River Anthology” are the stories of real people and how they make it though the real world.

"Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee MastersHypertext Meanings and Commentaries from the Encyclopedia of the Self by Mark Zimmerman." Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. Web. 25 Feb. 2012.