Reading/Study Workshop Questions on Simone de Beauvoir's A Very Easy Death

1. Simone de Beauvoir, French feminist, essayist, and novelist defined hereslf as an "existentialist" which (to grossly oversimplify) emphasizes that "existence precedes essence," i.e. that humans create themselves and are responsible for themselves. Such a philosophy rejects divine or supernatural design and the notion of absolute truths, etc. How does de Beauvoir's philosophy shape her experience with her mother's dying and death and her own grief and bereavement. That is -- how does existentialism guide de Beauvoir's thinking about this and her actions in response to it. How does it inform the way that she writers her account of it. Consider especially the quote at the end of A Very Easy Death:

"There is no such thing as a natural death: nothing that happens to a man is ever natural, since his presence calls the world into question. All men must die: but for every man his death is an accident and, even if he knows it and consents to it, an unjustifiable violation." (106)

2. Compare and contrast the philosophical dimensions to de Beauvoir's narrative with the Christian/humanist philosophy underlying Tolstoy's narrative in "The Death of Ivan Illych."

3. ≥It is old age, rather than death, that is to be contrasted with life. Old age is lifeπs parody, whereas death transforms life into a destiny: in a way it preserves it by giving it the absolute dimension. . . . Death does away with time." ( )

Consider the dying process that de Beauvoir describes here -- how does it support the quotation above. Be specific and detailed in your analysis referring to places throughout the text of A Very Easy Death. Feel free to connect in the other readings for today's class to your discussion.

4. Discuss the way that doctors interact with Maman and with Simone and Poupette. How does Simone judge their treatment both of their patient and the family? If you were using this text in a medical school class, how would you use it to suggest to the doctors in the room how they should best interact with the dying and their families and friends. Use specific examples from the text. See, for example, Dr. J. (p. 11), Dr. D (p. 12), Professor B (p. 15), Dr. P and Dr. N (p. 28) and so on. Feel free to connect in the other readings for today's class to your discussion.

5. In The Death of Ivan Ilych, Ivan, himself a judge, suddenly sees the doctor who is diagnosing him as sentencing him ≥The doctor looked at him seternly over his spectacles with one eye, as if to say: åPrisoner, if you will not keep to the questions put to youk, I shall be obliged to have you removed from the court.≤ (Tolstoy 119) In A Very Easy Death, Simone makes the same analogy for the doctors who are treating her mother ≥Dr. J., Professor B, Dr. T: neat, trim, shining, well-groomed, bending over this ill-kempt, rather wild-looking old woman from an immense height: great men; bigwigs. I recognized that piddling self-importance: it was that of the judges on the bench when they have a man whose life is at stake before them.≤ (DeBeauvoir 21)

5. Discuss the way that nurses interact with Maman and with Simone and Poupette. How does Simone judge their treatment both of their patient and the family? If you were using this text in a nursing school class, how would you use it to suggest to the nurses in the room how they should best interact with the dying and their families and friends. Use specific examples from the text. See, for example Mme. Gontrand (p. 284), the night nurse (p. 56), Mme. LeBlon and the other nurse (p. 63) and so on. Feel free to connect in the other readings for today's class to your discussion.

6. 6. De Beauvoir wrestles with two key ethical questions in A Very Easy Death (among others): How much truth should Maman be told and when -- and should Simone have permitted the surgery which prolonged Maman's life. Argue these two cases with specific references to the text. Pick up quotes to defend your position. Feel free to connect with the other readings for today's class to your discussion especially the Jerome Groopman article.

7. Unfinished business looms large in A Very Easy Death. Look at the question of unfinished business in terms of Simone and her mother, in terms of Poupette (and her mother -- and Simone); in terms of her mother and the rest of her life, etc. Consider, for instance, Simone's struggles with dealing with her mother's very different value system without denying her mother the compassion she needs in her current circumstances. See, for example, the quote:

"The contrast between the truth of her suffering body and the nonsense that her head was stuffed with saddened me." (p. 19) Discuss the issue of unfinished business both in terms of the dying person and in terms of those losing the dying person.