In her story, The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold illustrates the idea of dealing with grief by forcing the reader to suffer with Susie and her broken family. The death of a loved one can sometimes cause a person to experience the five stages of grief, and as a result, the person accepts loss and moves on. As Susie remains in the “in-between”, the five stages of grief are shown through each member of Susie’s family throughout the story as they try to cope with the tragedy of her death. Jack Salmon, Susie’s father is a major character who suffers a lot of pain after the disappearance of Susie. When Susie goes missing Jack has hope, he thinks she is still alive.…
Young children are exceptionally impressionable. They copy their peers, parents, and siblings to learn everything they do. They have overreactions to simple challenges because they have not yet learned how to behave. For a child who experiences a tragedy, the influence can be devastating, and something they can carry with them for their whole lives. Steven Church’s narrative essay “I’m Just Getting to the Disturbing Part” demonstrates human reactions toward a disaster, while expressing the author’s firsthand experience to a tragedy he witnessed as a child by using an ominous text throughout his story.…
Seth Holmes’ methodology as described in his book, Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, was that of embodiment and participant observation. With this methodology, Holmes used his own body as an ethnographic tool to understand the situations into which he entered, including picking berries with the Triqui pickers on the Tanaka Farm in the Skagit Valley of Washington state. This gave him a distinct advantage, given that one of his goals was to understand the way farm labor affects the health of the Triqui people: it altered his perspective. This is evident in the way he wrote the ethnography; Holmes’ book included his own experiences in addition to those he witnessed and discussed with his companions. Having his own perspective on these experiences allowed…
When faced with extreme poverty and hunger, people adapt and develop new traits to survive. Whether it be drinking to escape reality or stealing food, destitute living conditions force kids to mature and develop unorthodox solutions to the struggles they face. In Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, young Frank does not understand the concept of death. It is not until his sister dies that he is exposed to it, and from then on death is an overlaying presence in his life.…
Despite incredible loss, and sadness, characters like Doc Gibbs, George, and the boy have found a way to make the best of their lives. In Sounder,by William H. Armstrong, characters suffered the loss of the dog and the father. Alongside the loss of many minor characters, the people from Our Town were faced with the deaths of Wally, Emily, Mrs. Gibbs, Simon, and Mrs. Soames. “Do human beings ever realize life while they live it,” pondered Emily. This quote from Our Town represents remorse of the dead, and how no one really appreciates life when they are alive.…
Understanding Death Death is something most people have to deal with, but no one really knows how to cope with it. Olive Ann Burns writes a novel about a young boy who tries to cope with multiple deaths throughout his life. This novel is named Cold Sassy Tree, based off of some of the stories Burns father told her when she was a child. Cold Sassy Tree is placed in the early 1900s in a small town called Cold Sassy.…
the adults involved. Some may consider such “loyalty” to be misguided, but the journalists’ refusal to make a bad situation worse was the very essence of the second type of courage. The film also exhibits the first type of courage. It would have been easy for Sarah Polley to keep quiet about the situation and simply live her life, but instead, she came forward and shared her story in spite of the difficulty.…
THEY-CAN’T-DIE! Such devotion that a seventeen year old has in order to keep the last of his family alive, his sisters. In fact that same devotion which a twelve year old has to keep what is truly left of humankind in his world of script, an infant. So young that unable to eat, but so strong to understand and live in reality. Life in a world designed every inch by inch, word for word,and Life for Life!…
Regret is the feeling of disappointment or sorrow over a lost or missed opportunity. Often people get too caught up in their own lives to realise the bigger picture and they miss these opportunities. Once their eyes are opened, by an event or person, they are filled with regret for not paying attention to the other important parts of their lives. This feeling of regret from missed opportunities is what Tom Benecke felt as he clung to the window sill. The short story, “Contents of the Dead Man’s Pockets”, by Jack Finney is about regret and reveals to the readers that getting too caught up in one’s own life causes regret.…
The body, while seemingly clearly definable and understandable, is a concept that humans have struggled to define and understand for much of history. Social conceptions of the mind of spirit shaped philosophers’ understandings of the relationship between the mind and body, as well as attitudes toward the body. In his essay “The Concept of the Body,” Eliot Deutsch presents readers with four popular modes of conceiving of the body. These models, popularized at different points throughout history, are the prison, the temple, the machine, and the instrument. Through reading Plato’s dialogue Phaedo, one gains perspective on Socrates’ conception of the body, as a prison.…
Reymundo Sanchez, the author of My Bloody Life gives us a first hand, real life account of his troubled adolescence and neglected upbringing that ultimately led him into a life of crime and into the throes of the Latin Kings, one of Chicago’s most feared Spanish gangs. Reymundo grew up in a tumultuous home; his mother was an immigrant who ended up in Chicago following her third husband Emilio, whom she married for money and security. Emilio disliked Reymundo and eventually turned his mother against him. Regular beatings and psychotic outbursts became a daily occurrence for Reymundo from both his parental figures; this led him to seek escape in any way possible. Demographically, due to the rapid urbanization from immigrants in Chicago, Reymundo…
Death always comes full-circle. Everyone will die at some point, and that moment is not predestined. Life is never guaranteed, and it could be taken from a person abruptly. Surprisingly, almost no one lives in constant fear of death, even though it’s presence is always lurking. The effects of death on people are obvious, and can be seen in their emotions.…
Stephen King, in his piece “What Writing Is”, claims that “it’s writing, damn it, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business”. Not only is writing an intellectual and reflective activity, it is a vital skill in all fields of work and academia, and can be learned through abundant reading and practice. Effective and engaging writing can bring about change. Claim:…
The children seemed so emerged in the aspect of finding the dead body that they did not consider the consequences that they can suffer once discovering it. Death, or a near-death experience, or in this case, finding a dead body can have play a major role in the development of children. During the age of twelve, children are fully aware of death. They realize that it is irreversible, that all living things die, and they too will die some day. Death is a concept that most refuse to talk about, however, it is helpful in the developing mind of a child.…
Analysis of “Head, Heart” Lydia Davis’s poem “Head, Heart” chronicles a short, yet meaningful interaction between the entities Head and Heart. Head and Heart have recently suffered an immense loss and feel great distress. In this time of great sorrow, it is Head’s duty to act as consoler to Heart, to comfort Heart in its moment of despair.…