The Ambiguity of Death Since the creation of man, certain primal urges have been imprinted into the human being’s psyche. Out of many of those the instinct of death is included, probably stemming from the necessity of killing to obtain one’s food. The instinct of death remains today and has been changed, adapted, suppressed and exemplified. In "A Formal Application" the ironic theory of applying death as a way of life is portrayed through a man’s act of killing a bird. The poem flows through the practice, planning and execution of a common bird. The climax of the poem comes when he refers to his act of violence as an