In an idealistic world, mourning is regularly the first reaction to the loss of a loved one. Every griever has to go through the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However, it is possible that one may get stuck at a stage, thus being unable to move on to the next stage. Consequently, some people may develop “the tendency to cling obsessively to the memories of the past, while ignoring the complexities of the present” (Branach-Kallas, 60), meaning to cling on the memories of the past while ignoring their present state. Repressing grief is harmful to the human mind, and ultimately leads to deep feelings of sorrow and misery for oneself. This is portrayed in Jane Urquhart’s The Stone Carvers, between the
…show more content…
Ever since his departure, the whole family still refuse to accept the fact that he left, and pretend that he is still here. They leave everything the same in his room, for example, “the book about Saint Brendan’s voyage, which Father Gallagher had never had the heart to reclaim, still lay on the table” (Urquhart,112), and in his room “[stands] a pair of good black Sunday boots, as if the boy had just taken off after mass” (Urquhart,112). This explains how the book and the boots in his room still lay exactly where it was before he left and is untouched. The whole family suppresses their loss for him and this ultimately leads to depression and sadness in the family. The first victim is Klara’s mother, Helga. “After the disappearance of Klara’s brother Tilman, who runs away from the farm as a teenage boy choosing the existence of a vagrant, the heroine’s mother plunges into the memories of her beloved son, trying to retain his presence by constantly recollecting him” (Branach-Kallas, 60), meaning that after Tilman’s departure, his mother desperately plunges back into her past when her son was still here, and engulfs herself with the memories of Tilman, and cannot get over the fact that he has left. Due to the suppression of her son, after Tilman leaves, she keeps “weeping and [having] formidable tantrums (Urquhart,33), meaning how she is still crying and …show more content…
After Tillman leaves, Joseph loses hope of him coming back. At first, he has high hopes of him coming back, but then he progressively loses hope. This is shown in the scenes in the reliefs; “[Tilman] could still be found in each piece, but Joseph [makes] him smaller than before and [places] him farther back in the picture plane” (Urquhart,160) meaning how he portrays him smaller and smaller in each scene because the possibility of him coming back is dramatically decreasing and his existence is fading away. He becomes depressed because “if he lets the idea of Tilman go, [he] would most certainly die, and quite soon”( Urquhart,166), meaning how he will die if he loses hope of Tilman coming back. The last character that Tilman influences when he leaves is his father Dieter. There is “nothing that could induce him to enter Tilman’s vacant room” (Urquhart,112), meaning how he is unable to go to his son’s room because it reminds him of the loss of him, and the torture that he did to him before he left- changing him up. “Tilman will never be forgotten but forever present in the family’s life” (Branach-Kallas,60) meaning that even though Tilman is not physically at home, he is mentally at home in the family’s
Ever since his departure, the whole family still refuse to accept the fact that he left, and pretend that he is still here. They leave everything the same in his room, for example, “the book about Saint Brendan’s voyage, which Father Gallagher had never had the heart to reclaim, still lay on the table” (Urquhart,112), and in his room “[stands] a pair of good black Sunday boots, as if the boy had just taken off after mass” (Urquhart,112). This explains how the book and the boots in his room still lay exactly where it was before he left and is untouched. The whole family suppresses their loss for him and this ultimately leads to depression and sadness in the family. The first victim is Klara’s mother, Helga. “After the disappearance of Klara’s brother Tilman, who runs away from the farm as a teenage boy choosing the existence of a vagrant, the heroine’s mother plunges into the memories of her beloved son, trying to retain his presence by constantly recollecting him” (Branach-Kallas, 60), meaning that after Tilman’s departure, his mother desperately plunges back into her past when her son was still here, and engulfs herself with the memories of Tilman, and cannot get over the fact that he has left. Due to the suppression of her son, after Tilman leaves, she keeps “weeping and [having] formidable tantrums (Urquhart,33), meaning how she is still crying and …show more content…
After Tillman leaves, Joseph loses hope of him coming back. At first, he has high hopes of him coming back, but then he progressively loses hope. This is shown in the scenes in the reliefs; “[Tilman] could still be found in each piece, but Joseph [makes] him smaller than before and [places] him farther back in the picture plane” (Urquhart,160) meaning how he portrays him smaller and smaller in each scene because the possibility of him coming back is dramatically decreasing and his existence is fading away. He becomes depressed because “if he lets the idea of Tilman go, [he] would most certainly die, and quite soon”( Urquhart,166), meaning how he will die if he loses hope of Tilman coming back. The last character that Tilman influences when he leaves is his father Dieter. There is “nothing that could induce him to enter Tilman’s vacant room” (Urquhart,112), meaning how he is unable to go to his son’s room because it reminds him of the loss of him, and the torture that he did to him before he left- changing him up. “Tilman will never be forgotten but forever present in the family’s life” (Branach-Kallas,60) meaning that even though Tilman is not physically at home, he is mentally at home in the family’s