Loss and Healing in The River Warren
Each of us, in time, will experience a heart-stopping reality - the death or loss of someone or something we love. Maybe it will be of a family member or just a pet we dearly cherished, but the feelings we have are all too real and all too painful. This loss is probably by far the greatest and most severe emotional trauma we can encounter, and the sense of loss and grief that follows is a healthy, natural, and important part of healing ("Death"). In The River Warren by Kent Meyers Jeff Gruber learns to deal with the grief associated with the loss of his younger brother, Chris. This grief is perhaps the strongest of all emotions that bind families together, but it can also be the hardest to overcome. We never really get over these feelings; we just absorb them into our lives and move on. According to Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, there are five basic stages of grief. They are denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. It is not unusual for people to be lost in one of the first four stages, and until they move on to acceptance
their lives may be difficult and even painful ("Stages"). In The River Warren Jeff Gruber deals with these five stages of grief and finds peace in his life and with his father.
The first stage of grief is denial and isolation. After Chris's death, life went on, but it went
on in silence when it came to picking up rocks. Chris had loved to hear about the glacier that
brought the rocks up, and it was difficult for Jeff and Leo to speak of it. Despite wanting to
scream at Leo for working and pretending Chris was dead, Jeff could not. Instead he confides in
his wife saying, "He never really stopped working, Becca. Just kept on working. Things kept on
growing, and he kept on working." When Becca asked him, "What should he have done, though?
The world didn't end." his reply was, "Didn't it?" (Meyers 76)
His father's capacity for work bothered Jeff. To him it seemed as though nothing had
Grief is a various response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone that has died. People have a bond or affection formed over time making it hard to lose someone. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss-born psychiatrist, presented a theory of the five stages of grief that is recognized by society. In the book, Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick, the main character Steven Alper lives a normal life. He plays drums and hates his little brother, Jeffrey. Steven is constantly being annoyed by him which, bugs Steven. When Jeffrey is diagnosed with Leukemia, Steven’s life is flipped right upside down. He is hit hard with the five stages of grief. The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Throughout the story, Sonnenblick explains the five stages of grief very well with Steven Alper.
Elisabeth Kubler and David Kessler have a hypothesis in which they have discovered the five stages of grief. Many people experiences grief in many different ways, but they usually follow the 5 stages of grief. In the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly close they discuss the recent events of 9/11. Jonathan Safran Foer talks about grief through a nine year old's point of view about grief and the loss of his father. This novel was very real and personal it shows that type of human emotions you go through when you lose a family member, in this novel many people are able to go through the five stages of grief and it also shows how these characters are able to get through each death individually. Grief is one of the most powerful emotional forces
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the economy was booming, new technology flourished. The rapid industrialization brought achievement to the United States, however, it also caused several social problems. Wealth and power were concentrated in the hands of a few, and poverty and political corruption were widespread. As people became aware of these problems, a new reform group was created. Unlike populism, which had been a group of farmers grown desperate as the economy submerged into depression, the new reform movement arose from the educated middle class. These people were known as the progressives. The Progressive Movement was a movement that aimed at solving political, economic, and social problems. The Progressives were people from the middle class who had confidence that they could achieve social progress through political reform. The Progressives sought after changes and improvements in the society through laws and other federal actions.
Clara Barton was born on December 25th 1821 in Massachussetts and is most widely known for founding the American Red Cross and supporting Union soldiers in the field during the American Civil War. Clara learned the arts of nursing at a young age when assigned the task of nursing her brother after he fell and received a severe injury.
The anguish that follows a loved ones death is always venomous, especially if it’s the first time experiencing death. It may be hard to accept what has happened, but it is a crucial step in moving forward in life. Brooke, being the closest to Branson, was the one who was affected the most by his death. She felt the agony after Branson died, “my soul broke into
Clara Barton was born on December 25, 1821 (Cobb, 2014). Her full name is Clarissa Harlowe Barton and she grew up in North Oxford, Massachusetts (Cobb, 2014). When she was young she was constantly found helping and taking care of others, whether it be her brothers and sisters or neighbors according to the article Barton, Clara. She was taught to read by her sisters and taught mat by her brother (Cobb, 2014). Clara also for a time was a teacher. She taught in a town called Bordentown, New Jersey and raised enrollment from six students to six hundred students by offering to teach for free so that parents did not have to pay in order to send their children to school. She probably would have continued to teach except for the fact that when the town chose a principal they passed over her and chose a male. She then resign from the school (“Clara Barton Biography,” 2014). She then for a time worked the as a clerk in Washington, D.C. in the Patent Office until harassment and new presidency left her without a job ("Blood facts and,”).
It is common for those experiencing grief to deny the death altogether. Many people do this by avoiding situations and places that remind them of the deceased (Leming & Dickinson, 2016). However, by simply avoiding the topic of death and pain, the mourner only achieves temporary relief while in turn creating more permanent lasting agony (Rich, 2005). In this stage, mourners will begin to feel the full weight of the circumstance. Whether the death of a loved one was sudden or long-term, survivors will feel a full range of emotions, such as sadness, guilt, anger, frustration, hopelessness, or grief. While many of these emotions can cause serious suffering, it is important for the survivor to feel whatever emotions come up and deal with those feelings, rather than trying to suppress any
This article provided a brief biography of Clara Barton, to include, her experiences on the battlefield as a nurse during the Civil War and a brief outline of her accomplishments after the war.
In 1969 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a psychiatrist, published the Pioneering book On Death and Dying. The work acquainted the world with the grieving process, called the five stages of grief. Kübler-Ross gathered her research from studying individuals with terminal cancer (Johnson, 2007). The first stage of the grieving process is denial. In this stage the person refuses to believe that their loved one is deceased, a common thought during this period is, “This can’t be happening to me” (Johnson, 2007).The second stage of the grieving process is anger. In this level the person becomes frustrated with their circumstances, a customary complaint is “Why is this happening to me?” (Johnson, 2007). The third stage of the grieving process is bargaining. At this point the individual hopes that they can prevent their grief, this typically involves bartering with a higher power, and an ordinary observance during this time is “I will do anything to have them back” (Johnson, 2007). The fourth and most identifiable stage of grief is depression. This phase is habitually the lengthiest as...
Hayes, William. "The Progressive Education Movement." The Progressive Education Movement: Is It Still a Factor in Today's Schools? N.p., Nov. 2006. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. .
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross developed a theory based on what she perceived to be the stages of acceptance of death. Her theory has been taken further by psychologists and therapists to explain the stages of grief in general. Kubler-Ross identified five stages: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, as happening in that order. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet exhibits all five stages of grief, we can assume in relation to the recent death of his father, but not necessarily in this order, and in fact the five seem to overlap in many parts of the play.
Clarissa Harlowe Barton, born on December 25, 1821, in North Oxford, Massachusetts. Carissa (Clara) was born the youngest of five children to Sarah and Steven Barton. Clara received all of her schooling and life training from her parents, brothers and sisters. Her father who was a once a captain in a war, taught Clara all he knew about the battlefield. Her mother taught her to sew and cook. Her two older sisters Sally and Dorothy taught her to read before she was four years old. Her brother Stephen taught her arithmetic and David her eldest brother taught her everything else; for instance, how to ride anything on anything with four legs, how to shoot a revolver, how to balance and how to take care of and nurse animals. (OTQEF, 1999, p.1) When Clara was 11 years old her favorite brother David, fell from the roof of the barn while trying to fix it, he was seriously injured and was not expected to live. Clara offered to help him and stayed by his side for three years. Her brother recovered thanks to Clara’s help. These learning experiences gave Clara the drive and determination to achieve anything she set out...
Born on December 25, 1921, Clara grew up in a family of four children, all at least 11 years older than her (Pryor, 3). Clara’s childhood was more of one that had several babysitters than siblings, each taking part of her education. Clara excelled at the academic part of life, but was very timid among strangers. School was not a particularly happy point in her life, being unable to fit in with her rambunctious classmates after having such a quiet childhood. The idea of being a burden to the family was in Clara’s head and felt that the way to win the affection of her family was to do extremely well in her classes to find the love that she felt was needed to be earned. She was extremely proud of the positive attention that her achievement of an academic scholarship (Pryor, 12). This praise for her accomplishment in the field of academics enriched her “taste for masculine accomplishments”. Her mother however, began to take notice of this and began to teach her to “be more feminine” by cooking dinners and building fires (Pryor, 15). The 1830’s was a time when the women of the United States really began to take a stand for the rights that they deserved (Duiker, 552). Growing up in the mist of this most likely helped Barton become the woman she turned out to be.
same content over and over again. Being in the vocational school, helped him learn about his
Clara Barton was born during 1821 in Massachusetts. As a young child, Barton learned a great deal of schooling from her older siblings; she learned a wide variety of different subjects. She seized every educational opportunity that she was given and she worked hard to receive a well rounded-education. Clara Barton would later use her education to create her own school and eventually help start an organization that is still used today. As a young child, Clara was extremely shy; nevertheless, after many years she was able to overcome this. Even as a young child Clara thrived helping others. She tended to her sick brother who was severely injured by a roofing accident on a regular basis. The skills she learned from helping her brother proved to be used again when she was on the front-line of the Civil War helping wounded soldiers.