"Due Preparations for the Plague"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how "Due Preparations for the Plague" by Janette Turner Hospital explores the life a young women, Samantha, who was orphaned at a young age by the hijacking and subsequent destruction of Air France Flight 64. In particular, the paper examines how Samantha was raised by her loving Aunt Lou but still was never able to let go of her parents' death, as she became obsessed with the possibility that American intelligence was involved in the planning of the attack. The paper then explains that once Samantha discovered some of the classified details behind the hijacking and was able to hear the last words of her parents and eight other hostages, she was able let go of the past and began to move forward into the present. The paper further explains that Samantha's ability to let go of her parents' death comes from an understanding that due preparation for death is living a life free from regret.

From the Paper:

"Samantha does not immediately rid her self completely of her past but after a few months away, she is able to let go. When Samantha returns to New York after being gone on a fellowship in France, she is overwhelmed and runs into a cemetery where Lou comforts her. After talking about their pasts, Samantha "could feel a wave rising up within her, not happiness, she could not call it that, but something rich and mellow that she could call a state of being at peace."(401) This state of being at peace is Samantha no longer being haunted by the ghosts of her past. She has finally both consciously and unconsciously moved away from her parents' deaths and forward towards her own life. Samantha does not arrive at this feeling by chance but through the understanding that "the dead are always with us; they are close; but we must cling to the living."(401) "

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