Brent has a Ph.D. in American Culture, specializing in film studies, from the University of Michigan. She is a freelance writer and teaches courses in the history of American cinema. In the following essay, Brent discusses the theme of death in Sontag's story.

Sontag's short story "The Way We Live Now" is about a man who is dying of AIDS. Although AIDS and HIV are not specifically mentioned in the story, it quickly becomes clear to the reader that this is the dreadful illness the man has contracted. In fact, the disease is mentioned only in terms which assume that AIDS is such an ubiquitous and dreaded presence at this point that all one need say is: ". . . what makes you think the worst, he could be just run down, people still do get ordinary illnesses, awful ones, why are you assuming it has to be that...