Denial, the first stage of grief, this stage is where “the world becomes meaningless and overwhelming” according to the article on the five stages of grief by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. After the death of Conrad’s brother Jordan, Conrad had quickly passed this stage of grief and moved on to the next. Although he has not displayed much denying the importance of his denial should not be underrated. He has shown denial on page 12, where the author has written, “He still believes in the picture he carries in his wallet of a boy with longish, dark hair and laugh lines about the mouth and eyes; no weary look there. This gaunt, thin figure that sits across from him, hair eyes are choppy bluntly at the neck, still grins; still kids, but the eyes are different.”
