Week 8 Journal

What does Morris and tombstones contribute to our understanding of everyday writing?

All throughout the piece, Morris mentions the impact that location, purpose and audience have on the effect that a death display has. For example, he described three different types of cemeteries: the garden display, the lawn cemetery, and the memento mori gravescapes. Each one of these very diverse burying sites have different impacts because of the design and nature of the tombstones that are placed within the confines of them. While the garden display graves focus on nature and beauty, the lawn cemeteries focus on efficiency and homogeneous graves, and the memento mori present short reminders of death along with a decaying appearance and gloomy feel. If tombstones from these sites were to be switched in regards to location, they would not seem to belong and would hold a different meaning. We have come to know this in class because of our knowledge of locations' influence on conveying a message. In addition, Morris also mentioned that in some cases, the designers of the death displays would incorporate eye-catching structures, large displays or gates to differentiate themselves from the graves that surround the specific deceased individual whom these displays are built for. However, because of their sometimes ostentatious displays, one can infer that the audience intended for this everyday text differs from the audience of a simple plaque that is level to the ground and is not meant to attract attention. Perhaps in this case the audience would depend upon the way that the death display is made and how much attention it is expected to get. This is closely associated with purpose in that what is written and displayed, and where it is placed depending upon this content, gives the audience insight into the message that was intended to be conveyed to others, and also whom the message was meant for. If there is a short and ambiguous phrase printed on a tombstone, the message is most likely for the general audience who need not know anything about this person, and therefore the purpose is not so much centered around the person but on death itself. If there is an explanation of death or a noted  accomplishment made in the deceased honor, then most likely the purpose is to bring attention away from the idea of death and instead back to the moments when that person was alive.

In these ways, Morris and tombstones contributes to our understanding of everyday writing because it gives us further confirmation as to what we have continuously been exposed to through the readings and discussions that we have for class; the impact of things such as location, audience and purpose on the effect of an everyday text, in this case, tombstones.