The Extrication and Scrutiny of Nadia’s Sorrows
In Nicole Krauss’ Great House, Nadia experiences the loss of lovers, a fellow poet, a desk, a father, the possibility children, and her youth. Nadia responds to loss by creating meaning out of physical reminders, being unable to continue writing poetry, reflecting on her life’s work, experiencing involuntary anxiety attacks, and writing overdramatized literary works. Her response to destruction and change is the resurfacing of her childhood trauma and clinging to the old habits of her youth, respectively.
Nadia’s response to the loss of her lovers is minor compared to her response to the loss of Daniel Varsky. Nadia lost R after the end of a long-term relationship, S after ten years of marriage and countless unnamed lovers throughout her youth. Despite their intimate connections to Nadia, she felt more affected by the kidnapping of the Chilean poet and the loss of the desk. She did not feel the lack of R in her life until his belongings disappeared from her apartment: “as long as the piano had been there, it was as if he hadn’t really left” …show more content…
Her ability to write was not hindered while these physical reminders of R stayed in her apartment because she did not assign them a deeper meaning. Nadia thought about Daniel after she found out he became Pinochet’s prisoner: “Sometimes I would look around at his furniture, the sofa, desk, coffee table, bookshelves, and chairs and be filled with a crushing despair, and sometimes just an oblique sadness, and sometimes I would look at it all and become convinced that it amounted to a riddle, a riddle he had left me that I was supposed to crack” (13). She created meaning out of Daniel’s furniture because she was unable to forget about him and swiftly move on from the loss. In the case of her lovers, Nadia forgot about her losses for long periods of time to avoid reliving them: “When I was in
In Nicole Krauss’ Great House, Nadia experiences the loss of lovers, a fellow poet, a desk, a father, the possibility children, and her youth. Nadia responds to loss by creating meaning out of physical reminders, being unable to continue writing poetry, reflecting on her life’s work, experiencing involuntary anxiety attacks, and writing overdramatized literary works. Her response to destruction and change is the resurfacing of her childhood trauma and clinging to the old habits of her youth, respectively.
Nadia’s response to the loss of her lovers is minor compared to her response to the loss of Daniel Varsky. Nadia lost R after the end of a long-term relationship, S after ten years of marriage and countless unnamed lovers throughout her youth. Despite their intimate connections to Nadia, she felt more affected by the kidnapping of the Chilean poet and the loss of the desk. She did not feel the lack of R in her life until his belongings disappeared from her apartment: “as long as the piano had been there, it was as if he hadn’t really left” …show more content…
Her ability to write was not hindered while these physical reminders of R stayed in her apartment because she did not assign them a deeper meaning. Nadia thought about Daniel after she found out he became Pinochet’s prisoner: “Sometimes I would look around at his furniture, the sofa, desk, coffee table, bookshelves, and chairs and be filled with a crushing despair, and sometimes just an oblique sadness, and sometimes I would look at it all and become convinced that it amounted to a riddle, a riddle he had left me that I was supposed to crack” (13). She created meaning out of Daniel’s furniture because she was unable to forget about him and swiftly move on from the loss. In the case of her lovers, Nadia forgot about her losses for long periods of time to avoid reliving them: “When I was in