Grief

Through Annie, Frieda, Sarah, and Lucas's varied responses to Graham's shocking death, the author explores the ways in which grief manifests differently for each individual. Though each of the four family members are mourning the loss of the same individual, none of their sorrow looks the same. Upon discovering Graham's cold body, Annie does not know how to react, fearing her response is a stilted imitation of some television representation. While closing Graham's dead eyes in Chapter 8, she realizes the gesture is merely a ritualized "acknowledgement of death" (88). When she is able to emote she knows she is "weeping mostly for herself, for the life that she could already feel stretching out in front of her, without him" (89). In contrast, the other characters feel immediate and overwhelming despair at the loss of Graham. Lucas's grief is complicated by his father's death would have to be, for...