“In Louisiana, one of the first stages of grief is eating your weight in Popeyes fried chicken. The second stage is doing the same with boudin. People have been known to swap the order. Or to do both at the same time”- Ken Wheaton. In the book Drums, Girls, And Dangerous Pie, the character Steven goes through the five stages of grief, but not the Louisiana way. He is going through these stages because he finds out that his younger brother, Jeffery, is diagnosed with a malignant sickness, cancer. Elisabeth Kubler Ross identified these five stages of grief in her book Death and Dying in 1969.The five stages he goes through are denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and acceptance.
Steven’s first stage of grief was denial. Denial is the action to be claiming something is false or untrue. He denied the fact that his brother had cancer multiple times throughout the novel. For example, Steven keeps telling himself that doctors are wrong all the time and that Jeffery does not have cancer (Sonnenblick 42). Steven …show more content…
In this stage, Steven is very angry at the little things. Even during English class, Steven rants about Annette in a journal response (Sonnenblick 57). He points out everything she does that angers him because he is not happy with her. By ranting about what she is doing wrong you could tell that she is frustrating him. He is also angry at himself and his parents for not knowing about Jeffery sooner and stopping it. All this built up anger is being targeted toward Annette. Steven also admits that he is angry all the time later in the chapter (Sonnenblick 132). He knows he is angry but does not stop himself because he feels he is accomplishing something by picking out what is wrong with people. By doing this, he can have someone to blame for Jeffrey’s cancer. He wants to blame someone because there really no one to blame. He is mad because he could not protect Jeffery, so he wants someone to feel pain for “what they did” to
Steven’s first stage of grief was denial. Denial is the action to be claiming something is false or untrue. He denied the fact that his brother had cancer multiple times throughout the novel. For example, Steven keeps telling himself that doctors are wrong all the time and that Jeffery does not have cancer (Sonnenblick 42). Steven …show more content…
In this stage, Steven is very angry at the little things. Even during English class, Steven rants about Annette in a journal response (Sonnenblick 57). He points out everything she does that angers him because he is not happy with her. By ranting about what she is doing wrong you could tell that she is frustrating him. He is also angry at himself and his parents for not knowing about Jeffery sooner and stopping it. All this built up anger is being targeted toward Annette. Steven also admits that he is angry all the time later in the chapter (Sonnenblick 132). He knows he is angry but does not stop himself because he feels he is accomplishing something by picking out what is wrong with people. By doing this, he can have someone to blame for Jeffrey’s cancer. He wants to blame someone because there really no one to blame. He is mad because he could not protect Jeffery, so he wants someone to feel pain for “what they did” to