Language and Death

Throughout the text death is expressed through language. I suppose that's rather obvious because its a text, however how it is expressed is interesting. When someone is dying or has passed away Edwidge's family expresses it without using excess words. "Brother I am dying." "My wife is dead." This then led me to think about whether or not our society uses and over abundance of words to discuss death, as though somehow to make it easier?
Perhaps this is a bit of rambling..but I was certainly struck with the almost abruptness the topic of death is brought up.

New Beginnings

"As my head bobbed up and down, I felt my old life quickly slipping away. I was surrendering myself, not just to a country and a flag, but to a family I'd never really been a part of...'You're now free to be with your parents. For better or for worse'...I wondered if he (the consul) knew something we didn't."

I can't imagine how hard this would have to be, to leave everything that you've ever known, your home, family, country, to go and live with people that are your parents only in the biological sense. All this at eleven years old would be too much for some to handle. It does remind me of Mary McCarthy, when she had to move in with grandparents that she didn't know because her previous life as she knew it, had ended.
At the same time that it was the ending of Edwidge's old life, it was the beginning of something totally new. Even though neither she, nor her brother, really knew what life was going to be, they went ahead with the change anyway.