The idea of death preoccupies Dickinson's poems, indicating her fixation with death. She not only discusses other people's deaths, but also her own dying and afterlife experience. Isolation from society was one of the reasons that led to Dickinson's fascination with death. Another reason was the belief shared by many Americans at the time--namely, that death was a necessary part of life. A third reason may be found in Dickinson's own experience: as a young woman, she lost two brothers to tuberculosis; as she grew older, she saw several friends and acquaintances die. Finally, Dickinson may have felt compelled to write about death because it was such a common subject in her society. Although today we may think of death as an individual matter, for most people at the time it was a community concern that required a public response. Dickinson first became aware of death when she was a little girl. One of her neighbors died, and this caused her great sadness. As she got older, she would hear about more and more people dying, so death must have been very common at that time. Also, because there were no antibiotics, everyone feared that tuberculosis would kill them. Two of Dickinson's brothers died from this disease, so she was well acquainted with its effects. Last, but not least, people didn't know how to live beyond their years, so they had to speak about these things. In "I heard a Fly buzz-zuzz...