Conflict Management And Grief In The Movie, Ordinary People

Conflict Management and Grief
In the movie, Ordinary People, the Jarrett family struggles through the grieving process, only worsened through poor communication. The family lost their oldest son in a boating accident, and then, suffering with survivor’s guilt, the other son attempts suicide. Through all these horrific situations, the family struggles to grieve because of poor communication and refusal to process the feelings. If they had utilized conflict management skills their communication could have improved and the emotions could have been released in a healthy way. Conrad Jarrett began the movie in silence but grew over time to communicate more effectively and process his emotions with the help of his friends, dad, and doctor. Beth Jarrett experienced complete denial about what happened. Calvin Jarrett, though not perfectly, tries his best to create genuine dialogue and guide his family through this difficult time. Conrad Jarrett attempted suicide, so he was clearly struggling with

Every time Buck or the suicide is brought up she changes the subject, avoiding, or goes silent, withdrawing. She masks her emotions telling everyone the family is fine. In many instances Conrad tries to talk to his mom; one time he finds her in his brother’s room. He asks her questions and she keeps trying to walk away and eventually shuts her bedroom door, ending any sort of a conversation. Later, it appears she has matured and has a conversation with her son. She finds him outside on the lawn and they talk for a bit, until Conrad mentions Buck, and the conversation ends. Beth is even violent with her husband, yelling at him to control her son or ignore their issues. Her final act of violence was leaving, leaving the family, and hoping to leave her problems. If she had learned to communicate all these could have been avoided. She did not feel safe to speak and no one inquired deep enough to penetrate her hard