Grief In 'Always A Motive And Tears In Heaven'

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The response to the loss of someone can be described as grief, where one can express his or her feelings about the depressing event. In the short story, “Always a Motive” and the poem “Tears in Heaven” the authors write about the tragedy of losing a young son which is handled in different ways. Dan Ross, the author of “Always a Motive” draws up the story to show how the protagonist, Joe Manetti, handles his situation with not much hope. Conversely, Eric Clapton writes the hopeful song of maybe one day to see his son again in heaven. Through the analysis of this short story and song, it becomes clear that the authors write grief in which can be handled in more than one way.
Joe Manetti and Eric Clapton experience the same theme of grief as they both lose their sons at a young age, showing the main similarity between the pieces. Eric writes an indirect poem on his son without mentioning the death of him and through the quote “cause I know I don’t belong here in heaven” it shows that he is grieving over his son and doesn’t feel worthy enough to see his son in heaven. At the same time, Joe Manetti in the short story “Always a Motive” explains to the inspector stating, “I drive a lot. I like to …show more content…

As Eric sings “I’ll find my way through night and day” he is explaining that no matter how emotional the situation is, there’s always hope. In fact, he also mentions “I must be strong and carry on” going on to show how when he grieves, he still has hope and tries to look on the bright side. Although Eric still has hope when grieving, some part of him still wonders if his son would forgive him in addition to the verse “Would you hold my hand If I saw you in heaven?” This grieving overall is better as when comparing to Joe Manetti’s grieving, he is stuck in life where he can’t move on to live with the proper state of mind, unlike Eric where he was able to move

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