Roz Chast

Travis Ruhland’s book, Caring for Kait, ties into the discussion of adult development and aging that we have been having in this course well. Though this book’s focus, Kaitlyn, did not get the chance to live life into old age, there are still relevant themes that can be found in the narration of her battle with cancer. I will examine themes related to aging that I found in her husband’s narration of her battle with cancer: memory changes, feelings of control and lack thereof, and spirituality.

The author is sometimes sad, sometimes hysterical, sometimes heartbroken, but always without self-pity, her writing style is full of understanding, love and acceptance, so that readers feel the tolerance and greatness of family.

Throughout the essay “New Perspective” by: Janice E. Fein, she explores in immense detail how she suffered as a child who grew up with a mother that was very ill. She explains the hardships she underwent and expressed how she felt “cheated in life”. As a small child she could only remember her mother walking her to kindergarten once, as she describes in the essay, but after that she could only remember her mother laying in a “massive” and “ugly” hospital bed. As a child, its difficult sometimes to understand and grasp complicated situations like this. Most of the time children only hold one perspective of things, their own. Fein discusses the impact her mother’s illness had on her childhood and how it taught her later on in life when she became

Words like “brutal,” “brave,” and “looming loss” generate the depressing feeling and generosity the friend was when he was thinking of the daughter when his own son has chemo. The phrase “Your son so ill, the brutal chemo, his looming loss owning you now” gives personification by giving chemo human qualities in saying it “owns you” and how the idea of the nearing of death of his son is consuming him. The phrases don’t just emphasize the tone, but also show the emotional aspect of chemo and how such a small gift can make a big difference. The emotional aspect is also influenced with a creative use of syntax. By using multiple commas and hyphens to split up the phrases, the author creates natural pauses to create a more emotional feel for the

Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, documents the author's discovery of her own and her father's homosexuality. The book touches upon many themes, including, but not limited to, the following: sexual orientation, family relationships, and suicide. Unlike most autobiographical works, Bechdel uses the comics graphic medium to tell her story. By close-reading or carefully analyzing pages fourteen through seventeen in Fun Home one can get a better understanding of how a Bechdel employs words and graphic devices to render specific events. One can also see how the specific content of the pages thematically connects to the book as a whole. As we will see, this portion of the book echoes the strained relationship

All kids ever want to feel the complete love and affection from their parents. In the first chapter of Fun Home, a graphic memoir written by Alison Bechdel, the author uses examples from her childhood to reveal her compassion for her father. Bechdel builds ethos, to entice to pathos and logos to unveil her father’s shame and to foreshadow the extent of his denial.

“Cancer,” is a word that punctures the heart, chills the bones, and boggles the mind. People Like That Are the Only People Here,” by Lorrie Moore is a heart-wrenching short story depicting the emotional struggles and hardships of a mother who must grapple the fact that her baby has cancer. Moore’s use of fanciful, dark paradoxes and metaphors, a whimsical and haunting tone, and a unique symbolism immerses readers into the ghastly environment of observing the impending death that waits before a loved one, conveying the notion that when one is in danger of losing their loved one, they must enter the fantasy realm to maintain their sanity.

“That Ray was not unhappy, he knew nothing of what was to come and so he did not suffer…he was happy in his lifetime, he loved his work, his domestic life, loved to garden…he did not suffer the loss of meaning that his survivor feels. Ray’s death was no tragedy but a completion” (Oates 241). This revelation was very powerful to me, as much as she is suffering depressed and having suicidal thoughts; she is able to start having moments of clarity. I saw this as a positive step in her healing. As she states “the widow must remember, her husband death did not happen to her but to her husband. I must stop dwelling upon the past, which can’t be altered” (Oates 228). She reminds herself that “you have your writing, your friends and your students” (Oates 264) and this gives me a sense of hope for her. I am eager to proceed with reading the last section of this book and knowing the outcome of this memoir; that I have enjoyed

It was between 1969 and 1970 her parents, Marie and George, decided their relationship was no longer working due to “unreconcilable differences” and got a divorce. She said that at the time the idea of divorce was becoming familiar and there was not much of a stigmatism. She said it was mainly her mother that wanted the divorce because she wanted more excitement in her life. She explained that her father worked a lot and when he did have free time he wanted to go hunting and fishing, while her mother wanted to go out and go dancing. Her father ended up buying a trailer and moving to Pittsburg California, which was only about 15 minutes away from where they lived. When she thinks back to when her parents split up, she expresses how “lost” she felt and how “unexpected” it was.

Reading this book has been interesting and heartbreaking experience. A Year of Magical Thinking, a journey through the grieving process. While dealing with the death of her husband, she is confronted with the sickness of her only child. This book touches me, and it makes me think of what would happen if my loved one died. This paper is a reflection of my thoughts and feelings about this woman’s journey that has been explored by book and video. I will also explore the author’s adjustment process, and how she views her changed self.

Chast describes herself to the reader as an only child who took her first chance to move away from her home in New York City to Connecticut. The relationship between Chast and her parents is shown to be distant, which becomes more

Jai Pausch shares her story for the first time: her emotional journey from wife and mother to full-time caregiver, shuttling between her three young children and Randy’s bedside as he sought treatment far from home; and then to widow and single parent, fighting to preserve a sense of stability for her family, while coping with her own grief and the challenges of running a household without a partner. Jai paints vivid, honest portrait of a vital, challenging relationship between two strong people who faced a grim prognosis and the self-sacrificing decisions it often required. She faced life without her husband she called her 'magic man,' Jai learned to make herself a priority to create a new life of hope and happiness - as she puts it, to 'feel

I vividly remember that chilly night in March as I walked out of Fifer, the building my father now calls home, for the first time. I had goosebumps, but they were not from the cold I felt hit my skin. Instead, they were from the sickness in my stomach. As I got in the car, I began to cry and had to stop myself from running back inside. My entire world had turned upside-down. How could I go home without my father? How could I leave him in a nursing home, a place where he was too young and mentally fit to be confined? I had to fight the feeling that he didn’t belong. I had to remind myself of why he chose to be there, and I hated it.

Our family’s life is completely different than others due to my mom’s disease, but I have known no other way of living. My mother has had M.S. since she was in college, so I was born into a world with motorized scooters and walkers and extra precautions. This is my norm. And while other people may pity my mother and our family, I see no reason to be down. I could spend all my time harping on the drawbacks and my ”missed opportunities,“ but what fun would that be? I will always find the silver lining.

When you think of losing a grandparent in your life, you think of them passing away. You dread the day you will get the call that they are sick. You then begin to cherish all the moments you have with them leading up to their passing. You have time to except their sickness, and come to terms with the outcome that is to come. My PopPop is not here anymore, but do not get confused, for he is alive. I did not have warning. I did not have time to cherish him. I did not have time to say goodbye. My PopPop was on no medication, which was almost uncanny for a 75-year-old. Trying to encompass everything he was boils down to a few things that may not seem like much to someone who didn’t know him. He went on a walk every night after dinner, and would whistle the same tune when he was happy. He played the same little ditty on the piano every time we were all in the living room. He was a simple man who could not harm a fly, and a good man. Unlike the grandchild warned when they are going to lose a grandparent, I did not have this notice. I did not have time to go on one last walk with him, and I did not have time to record him on the piano. I did not have time to replicate his whistling song, or to spend time with the man I knew. My PopPop was the heathiest man I knew, but then he got depression. First slowly, then all at once. The man I knew had slipped from my fingers without any chance to hold on tighter.