Ghost Town Term Paper

In Ghost Town, No One Lives Alone The phrase “no man is an island” is a well-known saying that can take on different forms and meanings depending on the context. An article by Nesbitt (2011) provides an explanation of its origin and what it was basically supposed to convey. He said that the phrase was first written by the English poet John Donne in his work the Meditation XVII. Post (2006) supplies additional information about the Meditation XVI by stating that it is a part of Devotions upon Emergent Occasions which was Donne’s prose work written in 1623 as he was recovering from what was an unknown yet deadly illness of his time. Going back to the article of Nesbitt (2011), he indicated that Donne had written “no man is an island” as he heard the ringing of a funeral bell which meant that someone had just died. According to him, this event led Donne to the idea that a person’s death is not an isolated case. He would continue his explanation by discussing that the poet’s writing implied that a death of one person affects other people. He would then make the point that those are the reasons why Donne used the words “no man is an island” and “the continent of men” in the Meditation XVI. He concluded by saying that Donne believed man was not supposed be an island, living or dying alone, because each one is a part of the continent of men that eventually becomes smaller as someone passes away (Nesbitt, 2011). Whether or not an actual coincidence; most, if not all, of John Donne’s principles in the Meditation XVI were embodied in a film released in 2008 which was entitled Ghost Town. An article in The Observer under its “Film of the Week” section written by French (2008) best describes the plot of the movie. To summarize; he writes that actor British Ricky Gervais plays the lead role of Dr. Bertram Pincus, a dentist, who is antisocial, reclusive and a loner. Dr. Pincus admitted himself that he chose the profession of being a dentist because the people he