Stories of Grief: The Emotional Journey of Two Characters

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Grief is pain of the mind often on account of something someone have experienced in the past or something someone are presently experiencing. The message and feelings of grief are often conveyed through poems, books and films. The novel ‘Two weeks with the Queen’ written by Morris Gleitzman displays the emotional journey that Colin takes coming to terms with his younger brother’s terminal illness. Robert Redford’s Film ‘The Horse Whisperer’ shows the break up in a family when grace the only child experiences great sadness and loss after losing her best friend in a tragic horse riding accident. The poem ‘Mid Term Break’ written by Seamus Heaney shows how a young boy’s life is turned upside down with the death of his younger brother.

In Morris Gleitzman’s novel ‘Two Weeks with the Queen’ young Colin Mudford Christmas was ruined as he learnt that he was eventually going to be an only child. 12 year old Colin travels through a series of emotions trying to understand why his brother is being taken away from him. His parents send him over to England to stay with his aunty and uncle because they need time to spend with their youngest child Luke. While in England Colin makes plans to save his brother denying the fact that his brother is eventually going to die. Colin writes a letter to the Queen of England saying “I need to talk to you urgently about my brother Luke. He’s got cancer and the doctors in Australia are being really slack…”( p 59) Colin sets out to find that best doctor in the world, but eventually he realizes that there is nothing he can do. Colin travels through all five stages of grief and eventually comes to accept his brother’s illness. Colin sees that ‘The sick people who had their families and loved ones around their ...

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...e and Pilgrim begin to deal with the aftermath of the accident. Annie, meanwhile, begins to reevaluate the choices she has made in life as she becomes captivated with both Booker and life on a Montana ranch.

Grief and loss is something that all the characters in these three texts experience. They all grieve in different ways. Colin in ‘two weeks with the queen’ is in denial after being in shock and numbness. In the poem ‘Mid term break’ Seamus is in shock and has gone numb with the news of his younger brother’s death. In the film the ‘horse whisperer’ grace is in depression, bottling everything up inside and eventually her mother has to get her help because she will not let anyone in. grief is an emotional response to loss and sadness which is often hard to talk about. Grief is not a bad thing it is a way of dealing with problems, it is just another stage in life.

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