What Is The Theme Of The Last Leaf

Grief is a key theme throughout Herrick’s novel “By the River” highlighting the suffering and distress from losing a loved one. Herrick explores this theme through the death of Harry Hodby’s mother and his close friend Linda. The

In “Whoever We Are, Loss Finds us and Defines Us”, by Anna Quindlen, she brings forth the discussion grief's grip on the lives of the living. Wounds of death can heal with the passing of time, but in this instance, the hurt lives on. Published in New York, New York on June 5, 1994, this is one of many Quindlen published in the New York Times, centered on death's aftermath. This article, written in response to the death of Quindlen’s sister-in-law, and is focused on an audience who has, currently is, or will experience death. Quindlen-a columnist for the New York Times and Newsweek, Pulitzer Prize winner and author-has written six bestselling novels (Every Last One, Rise and Shine, Object Lessons, One True Thing, and Black and Blue) and has

The characters in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones are faced with the difficult task of overcoming the loss of Susie, their daughter and sister. Jack, Abigail, Buckley, and Lindsey each deal with the loss differently. However, it is Susie who has the most difficulty accepting the loss of her own life. Several psychologists separate the grieving process into two main categories: intuitive and instrumental grievers. Intuitive grievers communicate their emotional distress and “experience, express, and adapt to grief on a very affective level” (Doka, par. 27). Instrumental grievers focus their attention towards an activity, whether it is into work or into a hobby, usually relating to the loss (Doka par. 28). Although each character deals with

Many people define their lives by the relationships within their family. They are someone’s daughter, someone’s wife, or someone’s mother or father. The loss of a family member, especially due to death, creates a radical readjustment to people’s day to day lives and how they see and feel about themselves. Sometimes the process of grief can last over several years and how it is mentally processed and dealt with is different for everyone. “Mud” by Geoffrey Forsyth, shows an insightful view of a grieving man who had already lost his father and grandmother and is now just coming to terms with the loss of his wife two years prior. The entire story is written in first person point of view which allows for the reader to fully engage themselves in the grief and strife of the narrator’s life. Geoffrey’s story “Mud” begins in the home of the narrator where he encounters these dead family members and has to decide if he is ready to move on from his grief and say goodbye or stay behind and be consumed by it.

Gwen Harwood’s poetry endures to engage readers through its poetic treatment of loss and consolation. Gwen Harwood’s seemingly ironic simultaneous examination of the personal and the universal is regarded as holding sufficient textual integrity that it has come to resonate with a broad audience and a number of critical perspectives. This is clearly evident within her poems ‘At Mornington’ and ‘A Valediction’, these specific texts have a main focus on motif that once innocence is lost it cannot be reclaimed, and it is only through appreciating the value of what we have lost that we can experience comfort and achieve growth.

In the short story “Sea Oak,” George Saunders presents a family that is struggling with life in the poor neighborhood of Sea Oak. The narrator works as a male stripper in Joysticks, run by Mr. Frendt. The story also revolves around Auntie Bernie, who dies, resurrects, and dies again after advising the narrator, his sister Min, and their cousin Jade to adopt unorthodox and immoral means of making it in life. Two main themes that emerge in Saunders’ work are grief and loss that people suffer in life, and how the society teaches to deal with them, including the loss of a fruitful life, lack of wealth and success, as well as death.

Grief is defined as keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss, and through the various ways both these characters coped with grief, each character’s thoughts and actions reveal aspects of his personality. In life “Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life's search for love and wisdom”

Elsewhere presents several characters who are emotionally tied to the lives that they have left behind on Earth. These characters may believe that to remain attached to the living is helping them find closure, but it is torturing them and their living family. “‘[...] Being sad takes a lot of work. It’s exhausting’”(107). Liz takes this advice with a grain of salt. As she continues to refrain from longing to come in contact with her family, Liz finds herself in a better state of mind. Overtime, Liz strays away from the living and focuses on her afterlife. Even though she is at first conflicted with her life, she realizes that there is another purpose for her. “‘[...] dying is just another part of living[...] Just think of it as Elizabeth Hall: The Sequel’”(78-79). As Liz copes with her death, she ponders the positive in order to pass her grief. If there is an unhealthy obsession with the living, there is no true closure, rather it is near impossible to move on to the finer things ahead in this life and the next. If Liz had not become disinterested with her grief, nor evolved from a lowly standpoint on life, a climax would be

In the play “Wit,” by Margaret Edson, the reader is challenged with the complex ideas of character development following the imminent shadow of death. Edson focuses this concept amongst the character Vivian bearing; the disciplined, witty, and quite frankly cold hearted protagonist. The play starts with us seeing Vivian receiving her diagnosis; stage IV ovarian cancer, with her being in the final stage. The persistent and impending idea of death encourages Vivian to reconsider what is truly critical in obtaining happiness, while influencing her to reconsider her past unfavorable actions. As human beings we are attuned to resolve conflicts, so when an inevitable circumstances arise an individual will often consider their past actions and attempt to find what is of true importance in the quest to find happiness in their present life, allowing them to be content.

The characters in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones are faced with the difficult task of overcoming the loss of Susie, their daughter and sister. Jack, Abigail, Buckley, and Lindsey each deal with the loss differently. However, it is Susie who has the most difficulty accepting the loss of her own life. Several psychologists separate the grieving process into two main categories: intuitive and instrumental grievers. Intuitive grievers communicate their emotional distress and “experience, express, and adapt to grief on a very affective level” (Doka, par. 27). Instrumental grievers focus their attention towards an activity, whether it is into work or into a hobby, usually relating to the loss (Doka par. 28). Although each character deals with

Heartache, misery and sorrow; the death of a loved one can be expressed using these three simple terms. But, can the death of a loved one really be described? Alice W. Terry writes the exceptional journal about the stages of grief, how to cope and how it truly feels to lose a loved one, a daughter to be exact. Not having experienced the physical loss of someone as close to me as a daughter is to her mother, this journal gave me a personal perspective of the anguish experienced by those who are grieving.

Published in 1997, Marie Howe’s anthology of poems, What the Living Do was written as an elegy to her brother, John, who passed away due to AIDS. Howe’s anthology is written without metaphor to document the loss she felt after her brother’s death. Although What the Living Do is written as an anthology, this collection allows for individual poems to stand alone but also to work together to tell an overarching story. Using the poetic devices of alliteration, enjambment, repetition and couplets, Howe furthers her themes of gender and loss throughout her poems in her anthology.

It Doesn’t matter if the short story was based on true events or not. When its written about death or losing loved ones, it always reminds you of the people that were so close at once and then gone forever. Many people all over the world deal with their feelings of losing someone. So people cry, and some keep the emotions in and let it burn inside. “A Few Things Wrong with Me” by Lydia Davis and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and “Harvey’s Dream” by Stephen King are three examples of how character’s have lost their loved ones in a different way. Some were killed and some were faded away. It also shows unhappy & happy relationships. Two of the three books also have a comparison of people that have problems in their life or forced to be in a problem. These three short stories are written from different authors perspective and have difficult plots but there is one thing that gathers them together, it is the despair that was left in their souls by the loved ones. In these three short stories a person dies or has left someone forever, but all in different aspects. Loosing a person that had a spot in your life isn’t an easy thing to forget but also leaves a mark in your heart forever. Two the three books also have a comparison of people that have problems in life or forced to be in a problem

In the novels Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the theme of loss can be viewed as an umbrella that encompasses the absence of independence, society or community, love, and order in the lives of the two protagonists. They deal with their hardships in diverse ways. However, they both find ways to triumph over their losses and regain their independence.

In the poems you have studied a recurring theme is that of ‘loss’. This can take many forms: death; identity; hope or loss of innocence