Veronika Gillespie
2/16/15
English 1 CAS
On Borrowed Time Comparative Essay On Borrowed Time by Paul Osborn had taken an interesting approach on how both death and “Death” are viewed by society. This, of course, was not the first time that Death was portrayed in such a way. “Go Down, Death,” is a poem by James Weldon Johnson that represents Death in a more obscure, but overall homogenous way in the sense that there are many characteristics that appear to be synonymous with the personified version of Death itself, as well as death as a concept. There are many similarities, as well as there are differences between this Death and the Death from
On Borrowed Time
, going by the name of Mr. Brink.
One of the similarities between these two characters would be that both of them seem to view death (as in the act of it) as more of a peaceful upbringing rather than an abrupt end. God is mentioned quite a few times in the poem, and the idea of Christianity being tied to death is evident in the author’s beliefs reflected onto the piece. This isn’t exactly like
On Borrowed
Time
, though there are light mentions of it (‘it’ being Christianity.) This could give the poem more emotion. Even if the author of “Go Down, Death” wasn’t affiliated with religion, he may have peppered in all of those mentions of God for the purposes of reaching audiences beyond himself. Another type of similarity between these two pieces would include the fact that the characters in both pieces seem to have different mentalities about death. Both Death characters

have like­minded interests in the prospect of having mortals see death as something positive.
“Go Down, Death” it is viewed that the woman who has passed on is “only just gone home.”
This is not unlike how Death insisted in
On Borrowed Time that death was more positive than people originally thought. Whenever Pud and Gramps died in the play, it was said that Gramps felt “like a two year old.”
A final similarity would be that death is viewed as a necessary process. Without it, life would not progress as it should.
On Borrowed Time mentions that whenever Death is stuck up in