Critical Essay on Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

Introduction

Mortality is a book by an Anglo-American writer Christopher Hitchens which was published in the year 2012. The book comprises seven complete chapters which for the first time had an appearance in a famous magazine Vanity Fair. The article was about the struggle in fighting the cancer of the esophagus, which Hitchens was diagnosed with cancer in 2010. This disease later killed him in December 2011 (Hitchens, 2013).

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Just by the mention of cancer, fear gets into people. Cancer is one of the most dreaded illnesses that are known to be a dark path to travel. It becomes unbearable to the majority of the people who get diagnosed with it (Hitchens, 2013). The life of a person who gets diagnosed with cancer gets dark for them to walk, but with some sarcasm and realism, the book, Mortality by Chris Hitchens provides the reader and many other people a comfortable read insight on the killer disease. Hitchens is a renowned writer and author of many types of literary work. Mortality one of his books paints a picture of his work in Vanity Fair. A majority of the people respects him and keeps following him and his work as a writer (Hitchens, 2013). For this reason, Christopher Hitchens considers the audience that values him a lot whenever he is writing. Nevertheless, his literary work is not only for his typical followers but for all who can take his action and follow easily.

It is imminent to note the reason why he wrote this book and to whom he was writing. Chris Hitchens was writing this book to educate the people about the killer disease of cancer and to show the audience the need to accept it and live positively. From the book, he provides massive information about the deterioration of his body, health, and the psychological aspect due to the disease (Hitchens, 2013). The publication targets all the people, those who are ailing from cancer as well as those that are healthy to know more about the disease and how to survive with the condition. Throughout the book, as he talks about cancer, Christopher Hitchens uses persuasive techniques to ensure that he persuades his audience. The components of these topics altogether give an idea of the book and what is entailed in the book and how he presents it.

Hitchens uses a voice so easy to understand in this book. He uses sarcasm between his plays on words. He also brings reality to the disease. Throughout the book, his personality glimpses through his voice. He writes the book to his ordinary followers as well as any other person. He says that no person in the world knows whether they will one day be victims of the deadly disease, but all people know is about those who were previously and currently diagnosed with the disease (Hitchens, 2013). Therefore the book provides the perception about the journey of a cancer patient to his/her death bed. Realism is one of the critical aspects that he uses in the book. The character attracts his audience and makes them want to read and acquire knowledge about cancer more and more. It also makes them want to follow the story to know how it comes to an end. The aspect of humor is also seen when he points out that "Lost fourteen pound without even trying. Thin at its best."

The book contains seven complete chapters that are authentically from a series of articles that Christopher Hitchens had done for Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair was a magazine that he was a frequent contributor (Hitchens, 2013). There was an eighth chapter that was not complete. It was constituted by a variety of broken sentences that Christopher Hitchens was working on and died before completing. In the attempt to finish the book, Graydon Carter, an editor of Vanity Fair put a foreword as a memoir and afterword were done by Carol Blue who was the widow of Christopher Hitchens to ensure completeness of her husband's work (Hitchens, 2013).

In the memoir, Christopher Hitchens declares that the absorbing truth about being sick and only death is waiting. He says that the only good thing is that the patient will have a reasonable amount of time to prepare themselves to die peacefully with some modest of stoicism. From the book, we can find out that Christopher Hitchens was willing to continue living (Hitchens, 2013). We see this as he continued to write the book until the very end when he died having not completed writing. The memoir is a further indicator of the immense will to keep writing and think. This fact makes the memoir to be of massive value to the readers as it reveals much information that the writer wanted to convey to his audience. Christopher Hitchens was a passionate writer. He confesses more than once in this book that there would not be life for him without writing. The memoir was easy to read for the followers of Hitchens literary work. The biography was serving as a mediation that he was going through in his deathbed, and this was an essential reward for the audience who immensely followed the work of Christopher for many years (Hitchens, 2013).

The book has several touching chapters that capture the pains that Christopher Hitchens was undergoing in his battle with cancer (Hitchens, 2013). He recalls that he had deteriorated to a point where he even lost his voice. Hitchens had a special connection with his voice as he confesses that he was viewing his voice as a particular type of a weapon. From one of the most touching chapters, Hitchens acknowledges that after he learned that he was losing his voice. He found himself not able to argue and think appropriately. Imagery has been used by Christopher Hitchens literary work when he talks about how differently people listens and thinks about music. He uses music to show how people may get comfort, and others feel discouraged when they are diagnosed with a chronic and deadly disease. He recounts that a friend of his who had come to see him gave him a music CD by Leonard Cohen to listen to a song "If It Is Your Will." He said that it was possibly not a good idea to listen to the song late night (Hitchens, 2013).

Another instance of imagery is the struggle. In the book, Hitchens says how much he loved the representation of struggle. The whole story about his life after the diagnosis was full of struggles. Some of the struggles he went through include the struggle to look for every available type of treatment. He struggles with the disbelief that he would not survive (Hitchens, 2013). The bitter part of it was the knowledge that he would lose his voice even before the disease takes him.

The book vividly indicates the fears and disbelief that Christopher Hitchens had as he was writing about his health. He could not imagine dying and ending his distinguishable writing skills. His disbelief is seen when he says, "Will I not really see my children getting married and having families of their own?" Will I also not experience the trade of the world flourishing again?" Will I not be able to read again if not to write death announcements of the old people?" All these are sentiments that Christopher Hitchens was asking which were indicators of his disbelief (Hitchens, 2013).

Additionally, from these words, it is vivid that the writer has lost hope of living. This shows that Hitchens was no longer hopeful of life. He paints a picture of a death sentence when one is diagnosed with cancer.

His passion for writing comes out well when we find from the book that he had attempted seeking all available treatment interventions available. He attributes all these attempts to get the treatment to his love for writing. While reading Mortality a clear indicator that he was aware that his end was at the doorstep (Hitchens, 2013). He underwent an untold experience of irrational disbelief in the fact about death. The fact that he had a diagnosis of cancer of the esophagus was disheartening. The worst part was that he knew that he would suffer the worst insult of losing his voice before the disease killed him.

The book also brings out several themes which the readers learn about from the book. The first theme is hope. In the analysis of this book, we find out that there was a time when Christopher Hitchens lost confidence as a result of the illness he was suffering from. He says that he would not imagine not seeing his children get married. He also wouldn't imagine losing his interest and expertise in writing when he finally dies (Hitchens, 2013). The sentiments were good indicators that he had finally lost hope about living. He perceived cancer as a death sentence and never saw any chance of living again. The second theme is the terminal illnesses. Cancer is one of the terminal diseases that affect people both mentally, physically, and economically. The cost of treating cancer is overwhelming (Hitchens, 2013). Additionally, cancer is the type of a disease that when it gets into a person, curing it becomes an uphill task.

While in his deathbed, Christopher allowed his shaken confidence, his weakening breath as well as living in the pages writing in a shocking aspect. All these aspects are indicators of how passion can drive a person to a level higher than their current problems (Hitchens, 2013). The book teaches us about being passionate about what we do even though situations may not be friendly.

Conclusion

Christopher Hitchens was a great writer who took to educate the readers of his book about the dreaded disease of cancer. He also reveals the truth sarcastically to equip his followers with the knowledge required about cancer. He teaches about passion when he proceeds to do his writing while in his deathbed. We find it when he even fails to complete the last chapter as he died before completing the work. He leaves a legacy and a strong example of how people should be passionate about what they do.

References

Hitchens, C. (2013). The Christopher Hitchens 4-Book Collection: God is Not Great; Hitch-22; Arguably; Mortality. Signal.