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Theme of loss in poetry love
Theme of loss in poetry love
Theme of loss in poetry love
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When a loved one passes away I experience a mixture of emotions. I feel sad because they are gone, and I also feel angry because I feel that their death was wrong and unfair. At the same time I feel happy, and privileged to have known them and had the relationship that I had with them. Most of all, I miss them everyday. There is no right way to respond to the death of a loved one, and no matter how much grief and loss one has gone through it never feels routine nor the same. Although our loved ones may be physically gone, they can still live on through our memories of them. There are certain objects, places, and people that remind me of those who have passed away. My loved ones that have died live on through my memory of them. Some days my …show more content…
memory of them is so real, I feel as if they are still here with me and will come walking through my door to greet me. Other days, I do not really remember their way of being, their scent, and their laugh, and I feel as if I am forgetting who they are and were. Overall, there can be some objects, places, and people that can help you remember vividly the life of your loved one. In the novel Locomotion, by Jacqueline Woodson, she writes a story from the perspective of a little boy named Lonnie who recently lost his parents in a fire.
Through his poetry he describes how he feels about the loss of his parents, and his little sister Lili, who is still alive yet not present with him because they live with different guardians. In his poem titled “Mama,” he describes the smell of his mother's perfume, honeysuckle talc powder, which reminds him of her. When he misses her he goes to the drugstore and asks the cosmetics lady if he can smell it to see if it is the right one. In reality they know he is not going to purchase it and just wants to smell it, because he often goes there to do just that. As he smells the perfume bottle “for those few seconds, Mama’s alive again.” He begins to remember many of her qualities like the way she laughed at his jokes, how she hugged him, the way she sang in the shower, and how she always had candy in her red pocketbook for him and Lili. Simply through the smell of her perfume he is able to remember his mother so vividly that he feels as if she were still alive and present with him. This perfume which was an ordinary everyday object for his mother, became significant to Lonnie. After his mother's death this object, this smell, connects him to his mother and reminds him of the way she was when she was alive (Woodson, 7-8). Ultimately, objects are a very powerful way of connecting yourself with the memory of someone, and …show more content…
the past. Objects help tell stories.
They help us connect with the past and remind us of events that took place and the people who were there (Fein and Danitz, 2008). The objects help us “find our way forward” to be able to move on with our lives, but never forget those we lost (Fein and Danitz, 2008). In the documentary “Objects and Memory,” they discuss how ordinary things during the 9/11 terrorist attacks became a“connective device to the past” (Fein and Danitz, 2008). The helmet of a firefighter, a piece of paper with the signature of someone’s dead husband, a two dollar bill, all of these ordinary objects held meaning to the survivors of loved ones who passed away during the terrorist attack in New York. The object “freezes time and holds your connection” to that person and that event. The objects help us to remember that the past is real and is something that did in fact happen (Fein and Danitz, 2008). Despite cultural differences, holding onto “objects from the past speak towards the future,” and we preserve them because they preserve our memory of what once was (Lecture, May
12). No matter how much time passes after the death of a loved one, we will always remember them. “Time heals all; and yet time makes no difference” (Lecture, May 19). Time does heal because we learn that life goes on, yet time makes no difference because our wound can be opened again in seconds (Lecture, May 19). Objects can be powerful in helping us remember more vividly the person, and the event. Lonnie is able to remember his mother with the scent of the perfume bottle. He holds on to his memories of her through the smell of the perfume. He is nostalgic. He misses her. He is sad. Yet, this perfume bottle helps him feel connected to her. Similarly, I hold on to the bracelet that my cousin gave me because it reminds me of him. It has been two months since he passed away. Some days I feel okay and then other times I will look at my bracelet and be brought back to the realization that he will never turn twenty years old. This stands true to the statement that “time heals, yet it can also make no difference” (Lecture, May 19). The ordinary object, a twentyfive cent bracelet, holds a lot of significance to me now because it reminds me of him. I remember when he gave it to and had a matching one for himself. I remember where we were, and who was with us. It reminds me of the time we spent together. It reminds me of the time we had as real. It reminds me of the bond that we had and it reminds me of my family in Guatemala. Everyday ordinary objects become significant to us, as they hold meaning to us of the past and the person, with the power to bring us to a certain moment.
"I can 't define what it is but I know it when I see it," (Loco Parentis"). In today 's society, parental neglect and abuse is covered on the news every single day across the globe. Recently a plethora of new cases are being defined as "Loco Parentis". Loco Parentis is a phrase in Latin meaning for in place of a parent and in court usually refers to a specific person or organization to take on some of the responsibility for the crime that has taken place. This is the conflict brought up in the case of John Telford and the murder of Chris Skinner , and the role of John 's father in this whole epidemic. While charging someone with "Loco Parentis" is not an easy task to accomplish in any case, Robert Telford 's actions of neglect and emotional
In the chapter "The Lives of the Dead" in The Things They Carried, author Tim O'Brian suggests that reminiscing about the deceased in our stories and dreams enables us to ignore our inevitable mortality. He shows this when the soldiers tell each other stories after Lavender's death and when O'Brian himself dreams of Linda following her death.
This made everyday a little bit better as I have kept this in the back of my mind. The National Hospice Organization says “In a sense, you are never finished grieving”. This is true, one will always feel sadness when remembering an individual that used to be in your life and is no longer here with you. Although, you can remind yourself the good days that you had with them. Remember their smile and what they did when they seen you. Always remembering that they’re with you everyday just not there
The Things They Carried (O'Brien, The Things They Carried) is a story written about the Vietnam experiences shared by Tim O’Brien. The emotional burdens carried by the soldiers are tremendous. Each soldier carried special items to remind them of who they are, where they came from and the people they cared about. I think the goal of these tokens was to help keep the soldier’s minds off the terrible war. The special items represent; their responsibility for protecting their home and loved ones. It is common and understandable when a current event or trinket triggers a memory. The memory allows them to escape...
It is not easy to cope after a loved one dies. There will be lots of mourning and grieving. Mourning is the natural process you go through to accept a major loss. Mourning may include religious traditions honoring the dead or gathering with friends and family to share your loss. (Mallon, 2008) Mourning is personal and may last months or years.
Death and Grieving Imagine that the person you love most in the world dies. How would you cope with the loss? Death and grieving is an agonizing and inevitable part of life. No one is immune from death’s insidious and frigid grip. Individuals vary in their emotional reactions to loss.
A moment in time that I hold close to myself is the funeral of my grandmother. It occurred a couple of weeks ago on the Friday of the blood drive. The funeral itself was well done and the homily offered by the priest enlightened us with hope and truth. But when the anti-climatic end of the funeral came my family members and relatives were somberly shedding tears. A sense of disapproval began creeping into my mind. I was completely shocked that I did not feel any sense of sadness or remorse. I wanted to feel the pain. I wanted to mourn, but there was no source of grief for me to mourn. My grandma had lived a great life and left her imprint on the world. After further contemplation, I realized why I felt the way I felt. My grandmother still
I figured someone had passed away, but I didn't think much of it. My father spoke to me in a very calm and soft voice with tears in his eyes. In between his words you could hear the hurt. He told me that my godmother had passed away. I sat there not knowing what to say, but could feel the hurt overwhelm me.
The emotion that wells up is sorrow, grief that cannot be measured, that a person would be so disconnected emotionally. You grieve their loss of humanity. Emotions that are experience are what make us human and not animals.
People cope with the loss of a loved one in many ways. For some, the experience may lead to personal growth, even though it is a difficult and trying time. There is no right way of coping with death. The way a person grieves depends on the personality of that person and the relationship with the person who has died. How a person copes with grief is affected by the person's cultural and religious background, coping skills, mental history, support systems, and the person's social and financial status.
These doubts appear through the assumption that objects can replace mental memory. The first of the three is ephemeral monuments, which suggests that “collective memory doesn’t dwell on material objects,” and we get rid of what we don’t want to remember (Forty 5). Then there is Freud with his theory of mental process stating that repression of the ego is similar to forgetting, which is often intentional and desired (Forty 5). The third doubt is the Holocaust memorials, as they both desire to simultaneously remember and forget, challenged by the commemoration of the event without lessoning its severity (Forty 6). These problems illustrate how Western thought assumes forgetting to be more straightforward than it actually is.
In the future I will probably react in a similar manner to death as I have in the past. It will depend on the circumstances of the death and my relationship to the victim. When I do experience the death of a closer relative or a friend I will talk about it more with other people who knew them well since the grief will be more intense since I have closer ties to the deceased. I will probably have a period of mourning and adapting to life without them.
Dealing with the grief of a loved one is not an easy task. Only time can heal the pain of someone you’re used to be around is suddenly gone. When my uncle passed it was the first experience with death in which I was old enough to understand. Nobody really close to my family had passed away before, so I was unprepared with the pain and sadness that came with it. I also thought about it but I never really thought of something like this happening to me. I wish I had spent more time with my uncle, but I never thought about it because I never thought he would passing away so quickly. This is always why it is good for every day to show your family how much you love and appreciate them because you never know when their last day on earth is.
In my life time, I have experienced many deaths. I have never had anyone that was very close to me die, but I have shed tears over many deaths that I knew traumatically impacted the people that I love. The first death that influenced me was the death of my grandfather. My grandfather passed away when I was very young, so I never really got the chance to know him. My papaw Tom was my mothers dad, and she was very upset after his passing. Seeing my mom get upset caused me to be sad. The second death that influenced my life was the death of my great grandmother. My great grandmother was a very healthy women her whole life. When she was ninety three she had
A few months after she passed away I also moved from Guatemala to the US. Dealing with my mother’s sudden death (stroke) and adjusting to a new life away from my family was very difficult for me. My mother’s sudden death impacted my life. After trying so hard to overcome the sadness of not having my mother with me, I had to distort reality. I changed the images of her inert body laying at the hospital, (she had brain death) with one of her beautiful pictures in which she is smiling. Every time I think about her I see her happy and smiling. I still distort reality because, in my heart, I think that my mother is with me and she’s always watching over me. Sometimes, speak with her (in my mind) whenever I’m feeling sad. I unconsciously distort reality because by doing so I feel better about adverse circumstances (I fool myself), and this distorting mechanism really helps me deal with