Grieving In Faulkner's Five Stages Of Grief

Grief is Universal Whether it is a child experiencing the death of his or her favorite pet or a middle-aged man experiencing the death of his parents, everyone experiences grief. Grief is defined as keen mental suffering or distress over affliction of loss. Most commonly, periods of grief follow death, but grief can occur due to many different things. Although people experience grief in many different ways, they all follow the same general pattern. This pattern is called the grief cycle which consists of five distinct steps including denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Denial. In this stage, the person experiencing the traumatic event does not want to accept the fact that the incident actually occurred. One does everything he or she can to convince one’s self and others …show more content…
In the case of a man losing his wife to cancer, he first experiences the stage of denial. He attempts to discredit reality and to convince others and himself that his wife never died. Next, he becomes overwhelmed with anger, and he begins to release this anger on innocent victims unrelated to the death. This step is followed by the bargaining stage; furthermore, the husband puts the blame on himself for the events that happened and begins to have thoughts like “if only we would’ve tried a different medicine or another doctor.” The widow then attempts to make deals with God in hopes that He will bring his deceased wife back to life. Then the husband falls into the lonely stage of depression which many people can not overcome. For those that do overcome the depression phase, the final stage is acceptance. The five stages of the grieving cycle that are experienced by everyone are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance; and if one can make it through the process, he or she will be able to move on from what