Therese Rando's False Stages of Grief

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Therese Rando's False Stages of Grief

Every human being goes through some kind of tragedy in his or her life. In the article "Understanding the Experience of Grief" by Therese Rando states that there are several levels of grief that every one goes through. Most people are different in many ways and their grieving process is no different. Not everyone goes through the same levels of grief at the same time. There are however other views on how humans grieve.

Therese Rando presents 11 levels of grief experienced by human beings. These levels are, shock, anger, guilt, shame, Preoccupation, Suggestibility, dreams/nightmares, hallucinations, Behavior change, news media, and coping. These levels are found in the Novel "On The Beach" by Nevil Shute. The book takes place on earth after a massive nuclear war. Mankind is devastated and only a small number of people survived. The population left is faced with a huge radiation cloud that is on course to meet them in 6 months. The main characters of the book all face death and grief.

Two characters, which experienced the levels at different times and order, were Dwight Towers and Moira Davidson. Moira finds herself filled with anger at the open of the book. " Why should we have to die because other countries nine or ten thousand miles away from us wanted to have a war? It's bloody unfair." (36) Moira seems to feel anger before shock. Moira is an individual who's heritage and lifestyle affects the manner in which she grieves. Dwight Towers on the other hand experiences anger much later on in the book, "They paused before the prizewinner, the sorrowing Christ on a background of the destruction of a great city… he said, I hate it like hell" (150). Early on in the book Moira copes with news of their fate. " About six bottles, I should think for the weekend. You can drink a lot of brandy." (23) Moira deals with this tragedy in a negative way bye drinking. Later Dwight finds himself coping very differently with the loss. "I'd rather think of them the way they were… they're all alive to me, those places in the states just like they were. I'd like them to stay that way till next September." (56) Dwight and Moira experience the levels in a different sequence then Therese Rando suggested.

Dwight and Moira in many cases do not undergo the same levels at all.

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