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1-Page Summary of Mortality

Overview

Life is a great gift. It’s something we’re fortunate to enjoy, but it also has an end. We grow up and eventually die, which makes us realize how important life is.

We often forget how short life is. However, when we’re reminded of its transience, it makes us think about what’s important in our lives and appreciate the time we have left with loved ones. This happened to author Christopher Hitchens who was diagnosed with cancer and told he had less than a year to live. In this book, Hitchen explores his last year alive by discussing how living feels when you know your death is imminent.

In this essay, the author shares his experiences with cancer. He explains how he dealt with his illness and why it was important to him to live a full life despite knowing that death was imminent.

In this article, you will learn about the loss of voice and how religion hinders cancer research. You will also learn why Nietzsche’s glib phrase is wrong.

Big Idea #1: When he was diagnosed with cancer, Hitchens saw how uncomfortable people are with the idea of death.

In 2010, Christopher Hitchens was on a book tour when he collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed him with esophageal cancer, which forced him to confront his mortality.

Hitchens was overwhelmed by the idea of his death. He realized that he wouldn’t be able to experience many life milestones, such as his children getting married or having grandchildren.

Even though the concept of death was hard to grasp, Hitchens realized that he would die.

Hitchens also realized that people became awkward and uncomfortable when they met with a terminal patient. They told him stories about how other people had survived the disease, but this didn’t help Hitchens as he wanted to know what he could do to survive it himself.

Other friends told Hitchens to keep fighting his illness, but he felt like a failure if he were to die.

The author learned that most people are uncomfortable with the idea of death. He eventually came up with a set of rules to help his friends deal with this issue. If someone asked how he was doing, Hitchens tried to be honest and tell them the truth. If it wasn’t easy to answer honestly, he told jokes instead.

If a friend asked how he was feeling, for example, he might answer, “I’m not well.” Mortality forced Hitchens to change the way he related to other people.

Big Idea #2: The phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” doesn’t always apply to cancer patients.

There is a common saying that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. This may be true for some people, but not those who have terminal cancer. These patients fight the disease for a while, but in the end it still kills them. The same can be said about encouraging words from loved ones: they help at first, but eventually won’t save a patient from dying of cancer. For Hitchens this moment came when he realized that death wasn’t his biggest fear – instead it was living with cancer until he died naturally.

Hitchens was afraid that he would lose his convictions after being diagnosed with cancer. He also realized that chemotherapy didn’t help him get better but instead prolonged his life. Hitchens watched as painkillers took over more and more of his waking hours, which led to a decline in his health.

For cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, there’s the pain of losing their hair and gaining weight. For Hitchens, these were easy to handle compared to other challenges brought on by his treatment. He realized that physical suffering is accompanied by mental suffering as well.