What does it feel like to die? Does it hurt the person or the loved ones left behind? Alexandra Kleeman’s short story ‘You, Disappearing’ gives the reader a sense of death and it’s possible outcomes while giving the tale of fear and love. While some are concerned of their own demise, others give no thoughts towards time and when it will end. Kleeman writes in a strong figurative language, for example, death is hard not be concerned about due to there being no way to fully understand the spiritual and physical aspects to why it happens and seemingly enough, those who know are already dead. The main character in this short story is strongly in love with her deceased partner, and represents herself through the story with a constant need of approval and appreciation of her own life. Portraying the fear of loss by an apocalyptic setting, Kleeman grants characterization to seemingly unrelated objects by tying them together from senses and memories in her short story, “You, Disappearing.”
The character in “You, Disappearing” evokes conflicts many would
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imagine to happen in a time of regrets and never ending pain as an apocalypse would be. She’s seen struggling with herself from a previous death of her significant other impacting life to feel miserable, and the memories she holds dearly begins to fade away as she desperately holds on to what’s left. Death can be defined as “extinction; destruction; total and permanent cessation of all vital functions”(Dictionary.com), and includes all physical or mental feelings following the main character portrays as her very own life, hence her figurative wording ‘apocalypse’. She sacrifices her life and energy for being able to obtain permanent memories to her and those around her. Kleeman directs the story through point of view during a dialogue scene that alludes from her pet ‘Cookie’s’ death to someone close to her as it gains feeling and characteristics developing like a human being. For a memory to become everlasting, it must psychologically be important to one and quite relatable towards a common reality, while scientifically memories are consolidated as short term and then continued on as long term or permanent if desired. Many diseases affect memories and mind processing capabilities, so it’s would be quite understandable on why someone would work hard and sacrifice energy just for a memorable event. Apocalypses are generally defined as dreadful, for example, full of death, grief, and even loss of objects.
Kleeman gives strong descriptive images on how life was seen by the main character and uses the apocalyptic setting as an advantage as she sees her memories slowly fading. In the short story, dialogue reveals that she would always call someone just to reassure herself that other didn’t forget as well as herself. The grief felt from the character evokes the reader to feel bad and begin to recall personal memories furthering the interest. If someone has gotten weak or starts to lose hope, their new reality sets in causing them to lean other humans or animals for mental and physical support. Toward the end the of the end of the short story “You, Disappearing,” the reader may see that things happen for a reason and individuals must assure themselves that events happen for the better and stronger tomorrow long
yearned. A conscious mind should be able to stand up against grief and regrets, rather than drowning from strenuous coping methods. Kleeman’s character can be “perceived in a correlation between material insecurity and blunted sensibility” (Julie-Marie Strange , 144), meaning that it questions a human accountability for a variance in responses. The reader can understand that at the lowest point, many things can not be controlled. Coping with something like people lacking existence leaves scars to be set in the long term memories of the brain causing the user to alter the route and repress it. Psychology also explains why our memories fade, why humans fear death more than nightmares, personality traits that affect how someone copes compared to others, and why it should be watched carefully. Paying close attention to scrutinous details grants one the ability to overcome and regain structure as it does in dealing with deaths. A very thought about spiritual question goes by “For Human beings, death is a proposition and a puzzle that must be understood and transcended….There is no peace for human beings until this matter is resolved” (Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Eleutherios) meaning death is inevitable, but does our morality mean anything? We deny that death exists and spend our entire lives with distractions from responsibilities, fulfillments, and a yearning passion to seek possessions or characteristics to take with to the other side just to feel whole and enables the other to seek hope and stronger relationships. The short story “You Disappearing” allows readers to personally feel connected to the main character who suffers from dragging herself into an apocalyptic event after her significant other suddenly died and left behind alone without the accomplishment of certain life events. Kleeman wrote “It was cute how the way the apocalypse zapped things out of existence, one by one. Is was so clean and easy” (Kleeman, para. 6), references to her sense of sarcasm and humor throughout the short fiction story when she often announced the bright aspects of seeing death in a new way. The woman is seen as strong but unwilling to put up a fight, labeling her life as if she’s the last who has to suffer. How would you cope? Would you put your head down and let the emotional beating engulf you, or would you see the brighter side to things. One isn’t ready to swim further unless they are ready to lose sight of the shore. You can’t proceed with your life if your time is spent making sure you never forget, just as the woman in the story struggles with by reassuring those around her that her significant other isn’t really gone but lives in memories. Personal thoughts gain insight to how someone deals with not only repression and reluctance, but allows the consciousness to perceive wrong pathways in life to overcome any thought of lack of importance for a memory.
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 been published in the New York Times and Newsweek.
The interpretations of what comes after death may vary greatly across literature, but one component remains constant: there will always be movement. In her collection Native Guard, Natasha Trethewey discusses the significance, permanence and meaning of death often. The topic is intimate and personal in her life, and inescapable in the general human experience. Part I of Native Guard hosts many of the most personal poems in the collection, and those very closely related to the death of Trethewey’s mother, and the exit of her mother’s presence from her life. In “Graveyard Blues”, Trethewey examines the definition of “home” as a place of lament, in contrast to the comforting meaning in the epitaph beginning Part I, and the significance
Death is sometimes considered unthinkable. People do not wish to think of loved ones dying. When someone close to us dies we are over come with sadness. We wish we had more time with them. Their death shows us the importance of that person’s role in our lives. We begin to think of how we will live our lives without them. We think of all the moments we shared with them, they live again in our memories. Perhaps death is considered unthinkable because we fe...
The very beginning of the article, Dr. Khullar appeals to the emotions of a reader, reminiscing about an interaction between himself and a dying patient. He explains how the patient had no one to call and would die alone, causing himself to think that “the sadness of his death was surpassed only by the sadness of his solitude” (Khullar). The feeling of sadness and loneliness is continued using other scenarios that one likely is familiar with, such as “a young man abandoned by friends as he struggles with opioid addiction” or “an older woman getting by on tea and toast, living in filth, no longer able to clean her cluttered apartment” (Khullar). Dr. Khullar also uses this strategy through the use of various phrases such as “barren rooms devoid of family or friends,” or a quote from a senior: “Your world dies before you do” (Khullar). These scenarios and terminology evoke a feeling within a reader that results in acknowledgement of the material and what is being
In this article “ The Old Man isn’t There Anymore” Kellie Schmitt writes about the people she lives with crying in the hallway and when she asks what happened she is told that the old man is gone. This starts the big ordeal of a Chinese funeral that Schmitt learns she knows nothing about. Schmitt confuses the reader in the beginning of the story, as well as pulling in the reader's emotions, and finishes with a twist.
Loss. Grief. Mourning. Anger. Disbelief. Emotions are in abundance when a loved one passes away. People need to find a way to cope with the situations and often need to express themselves by writing their feelings down in order to get them out. This is exactly what Paul Monette does in his book of poetry title “Love Alone” in remembrance of his companion Rog. Through writing his poetry Monette describes his emotions and the events that occurred during Rog’s battle with AIDS. By Monette’s transitioning through different emotions, the reader begins to understand the pain the author is dealt. Touching upon Kubler-Ross’ five stages of death including denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, Monette transitions to Rog’s decline in health. Using different fonts and no punctuation, the lines are interpreted by the reader using instincts to know when to begin and end a sentence. Evident in the poems “The Very Same”, “The Half-life”, and “Current Status”, Monette gives a description of loss that makes the reader tingle.
In Amy Hempels’ Short Story “Going,” our journey with the narrator travels through loss, coping, memory, experience, and the duality of life. Throughout the story is the narrator’s struggle to cope with the passing of his mother, and how he transitions from a mixture of depression, denial, and anger, into a kind of acceptance and revelation. The narrator has lost his mother in a fire three states away, and proceeds on a reckless journey through the desert, when he crashes his car and finds himself hospitalized. Only his thoughts and the occasional nurse to keep him company. The narrator soon gains a level of discovery and realizations that lead to a higher understanding of the duality of life and death, and all of the experiences that come with being alive.
She explains how feeling vulnerable is exactly what people seek when going through hardships. How being recognized and desired after going through grief is homologous to what it means to be human. Butler points out that majority of society has troubles locking emotions up in their heads, and explains how hard it is for them to unlock their emotions in the fear of being unrecognized. That to be vulnerable, means to let others into our emotions while obtaining the ability to communicate in order to understand their emotions as well. Butler clarifies this by confessing that grief itself, and vulnerability, are the underlying examples of how we are substantially affected by other’s recognition. Though, with the capacity of vulnerability, we also create dimensions of negative connectedness as well, Butler
At some point in everybody’s life they feel the sorrow and anguish of losing somebody. The the stories “Nashville Gone to Ashes” and “When It’s Human Instead of When It’s Dog”, both a widow and widower are not able to move on with their life after the loss of their loved one. In both cases the mister and the widow both come to the conclusion that their significant other is not coming back leading them to find ways to cope with their deaths, move on and function the best they can with their lives.
Death has feelings as much as any human, imagining, getting bored, distracted, and especially wondering (350, 243, 1, 375 respectively). Odd, one could say for an eternal metaphysical being. But then again, not that queer once having considered how Death spends his time. He is there at the dying of every light, that moment that the soul departs its physical shell, and sees the beauty or horror of that moment. Where to a human witnessing a death first hand (even on a much more detached level than our narrator) can easily be a life changing event, Death is forced to witness these passings for nearly every moment of his eternal life. Emotional overload or philosophical catalyst? Death gains his unique perspective on life through his many experiences with the slowly closing eyelids and muttered last words. Yet in this...
People move in and out of our lives for a specific reason. Everyone serves a purpose in the journey of life. We are constantly evolving, choosing new paths, and forming new bonds. As we evolve there is the possibility that our friend, spouse, or acquaintance will not evolve with us. Therefore, the next time we encounter them in our life they will never seem the same again. The fear and changes the speaker in “Feared Drowned” felt when she finally found her husband, after presuming him dead, evoke everyday experiences.
In Amy Hempel’s Short Story “Going,” we take part in a journey with the narrator through loss, coping, memory, experience, and the duality of life. Throughout the story we see the narrator’s struggle through coping with the loss of his mother, and how he moves from a mixture of depression, denial, and anger, to a form of acceptance and revelation. The narrator has lost his mother to a fire three states away, and goes on a reckless journey through the desert, when he crashes his car and ends up hospitalized. Only his thoughts and the occasional nurse to keep him company. He then reaches a point of discovery and realizations that lead to a higher understanding of mortality, and all of the experiences that come with being alive.
“Every part of my body hurts. Except my heart. I saw no one, but, strange as it was, I missed no one” (Strayed 70). This takes a turn of events. “Every part of my body hurts, except my heart,” gives new meaning and how Strayed manages to gain emotional stability in the wake of her mothers’ death, and illness. This shows great strength in regards that she rises above the obstacles thrown in her path--the feeling of what it means to be alive. This work invites and informs the reader of the many ways one can cope with loss; moreover, Strayed demonstrates what what may work for everyone--the method of sublimation.
The idea behind this short story is not the fact that everyone dies, but the eventful memories that can make the life worthwhile. The author says, “So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun! True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it’s the hardest to do anything with. That’s about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what.
Often when a person suffers through a tragic loss of a loved one in his or her life they never fully recover to move on. Death is one of hardest experiences a person in life ever goes through. Only the strong minded people are the ones that are able to move on from it whereas the weak ones never recover from the loss of a loved one. In the novel The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks, character Billy Ansel – having lost his family serves as the best example of brokenness after experiencing death. Whether it is turning to substance abuse, using his memory to escape reality or using Risa Walker as a sexual escape, Billy Ansel never fully recovers from the death of his twins and his wife. This close analysis of Billy’s struggle with death becomes an important lesson for all readers. When dealing with tragedies humans believe they have the moral strength to handle them and move on by themselves but, what they do not realize is that they need someone by their side to help them overcome death. Using unhealthy coping mechanism only leads to life full of grief and depression.