Corr, C. A. (2016) Four Lessons From “The Horse on the Dining-Room Table”. OMEGA: Journal of Death & Dying, 73, (3), 250-262. Available at: http://content.ebscohost.com/ContentServer.asp?EbscoContent=dGJyMMTo50SeprU4zdnyOLCmr06ep7NSs6%2B4S66WxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGqtk63rrJMuePfgeyx43zx1d%2BI5wAA&T=P&P=AN&S=R&D=sih&K=116490342 [Accessed 25 September 2016].

 

The article features a critical analysis of the short, allegorical work of fiction The Horse on the Dining-Room Table by Richard A. Kalish (1981). Corr separates the story into three parts, highlighting the three points addressed by Kalish regarding a lack of open communication about death. Corr reflects upon the general gap in understanding between the healthy and the dying, the empirical problem of acknowledging death in the presence of a dying individual, and Kalish’s proposed alternative to avoidance. Comparing Kalish’s text to the poem There’s an Elephant in the Room by Terry Kettering (2006), Corr (2016: 259) states that ‘the Kalish story is superior’, due to its relative constructiveness.