...own way. In the written “Lament for a Son” we will go through the journey of a father’s loss of his son and how he goes through the stages of grief (Wolterstorff, 1987). Denial and isolation is the first stage of grief, in lament for a son it does not specifically discuss that he goes through specific denial. Denial is the first reaction most people have when learning of the death of a loved one (Axelrod, 2014). A person will just hear part of what the person is saying when they are being informed that a loved one as died, especially in an untimely death such as the one we read about a 25 year old dying while mountain climbing. This is usually the most temporary stage. Anger is the second stage and this when reality usually sets in and the pain and intense emotions arise (Grand Canyon University, 2015). Sometimes the anger is directed and the one who died sometimes it is at us for not spending enough time with the person who passed away. Some of the anger that was discussed was with how people try to console you, when they say “it’s really not so bad” or “I know how you are feeling (Wolterstorff, 1987).” Death is really that bad and there is no way anyone could know how another person is feeling in their own grief. Bargaining is the third stage of grief; this is the need to gain control of your feelings. Making deals with God if he would just bring your loved one back. In our story the father was wishing he would have paid more attention to his son; spend more time with him...
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...Elizabeth KüblerRoss. In conjunction with this review of grief we will consider the work of Nicholas Wollsterstorff in his epic Lament for a Son, written to express his still lingering grief at the loss of his son Eric, who tragically fell to his death while mountainclimbing at the age of 25. As we study the process of grief, one must bear in mind that for people suffering grief a range of emotions will come to the forefront"disbelief, sadness, anger, guilt, and selfreproach, panic, anxiety, loneliness, listlessness, and apathy, shock, yearning, numbness, depersonalization" (Bruce 2007) . Also, one must remember that grief is a natural response to losing a loved one. While looking at grief’s lingering effects, we will also discover how Wolsterstorff managed to find meaning, even joy, after the loss of his son. Stages of the Grieving Process All people experience grief and mourn at the loss of a loved oneit is a universal experience. To understand the grieving process better, it helps to focus on the five stages of grief as proposed by KüblerRoss in response to one’s “own terminal illness, the loss of a close relationship, or the death of a valued human being” (Axelrod, 2016). KüblerRoss ' A prominent doctor, Elizabeth KüblerRoss, took death out of the shadows with her seminal book On Death and Dying, published in 1969. Here she focused on what she called "the 3 HEALTHY GRIEVING: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS...
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...August 22, 2015 In this essay I will be completing my report from the book “Lament for a Son” not only written but also lived by Nicholas WolterstorffIn. In this book the author/character talks about his painful recollection and how his life has changed since his son that was 25 year old has pass away from a climbing accident in Austria. While reading the book I was able to transcribe how the author exhibited the different stages of grief which he is was experiencing. Toward the end of the book and where author was able to find peace through the faith he had in God. Nicholas the author account of the occurrence and grief-stricken is upright and stunningly written. I feel that he had written the book true character and stories to motivate others who is experiencing loss. There is five stages of grief that is expressed in telling his life story, they signify how the stages help lead the author to find joy after his loss. The author was able to explain the allusion and connivance of death in light of the Christian description and how the hope of the reappearance/ return to life, played a role in consoling Wolterstorff. This story started off with the author receiving a phone call, in regards to his son Erick falling to his death. He immediately heads to where his son resided so that he can claim Eric's his sons body, after arriving where his sons body laid the author was advised not to see his son, because it was scrawled and mangled by the accident. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross...
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...Lament for a Son: Stages of Grieving When a family loses one of them, the issue presents a period of difficulty for every person especially when they lose the hope that they will ever meet again. Grief presents various challenges to the individual that loses a person and can lead them to difficult situations that include depression (Brown, 2010). Different circumstances result in the death of the loved ones, and their variations also present differing ways that their family and friends will react to the issues. Nicholas Wolterstorff reflects on the periods and events that ensued in his life after the loss of his son Eric in the book Lament for a Son. The narrative is an important reflection of the steps that a person undergoes as a part of the grief process and their path to acceptance. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross reflects on the five stages of grief that people experience, and it is essential to determine how they appear in Nicholas Wolterstorff’s text. Wolterstorff publishes this book to honor the death of his son Eric that occurred during a mountain climbing expedition. The first parts of the book provide a connection with the first stage of grief that is denial. The author narrates on how he had to travel across the ocean to see and collect the body of his Son in disbelief of the event (Wolterstorff, 1987). The author shows his denial when explaining how he touched his son's body in doubt if it was Eric himself or someone else. That reflects the common characteristics of individuals...
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...Sometimes we do not realize that negative emotions can also guide us towards positive event in life. In Lament for a son authors replications are similar with this theory. These great thinker studies the death of Eric by indirectly explaining the five stages of grief. Wolterstorff experiences the pain and finds that no one can take his son place, but it is up to living family members how they can agree on death reality. His argument shows journey of suffering father changed to acquiescent person who accepts that endless knowledge and thinks that almighty does everything for a reason and individual must accept to understand life in better way. Before understanding dilemma of Wolterstorff and his idea about anguish, it is significant to analyzed and recognize five stages of grief which are described by Ross in a book of Death and Dying. Every individual passes through thru grieving stages during their life time but it is might not happened in same order of stages as describe by Ross. In the beginning, death of close loved one creates misbelief from reality, which is considered as denial and isolation stage according author Ross. Knowing the truth that the reality will give them pain, people tries to denies the reality of death and remains in their isolated zone. Anger generated by isolation is second stage of grief. In fact, helplessness of living members to stop occurring death results in anger. So, they show their frustration with anger on other people. It might go on dead person...
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...grieves differently and at different times. A person has his or her own way of grieving and dealing with loss. Its important to understand the process of grieving. It will help understand what one is going through emotionally so that one can help someone going through this process. The five stages of grief are identified in this paper by analyzing the book “Lament for a Son” and how the author found joy after his loss (Wolterstorff, 1987). The author of this paper will also identify and explore the meaning and significance of death in the light of the Christian narrative, and how the hope of resurrection plays a role in comforting the author. Five Stages of Grief Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, the five stages of grief that one goes through after a loss significant to them are identified by Dr. Kubler-Ross. Every individual grief’s in his or her own way. There is no particular other to follow in the stages. One will experience one or the other, or may start all over again and repeat a stage. To grief is to come to terms with the loss of a loved one, a relationship or someone’s or our own dying process. It is how we come to terms with loss. Denial In the model of grieving the first stage is Denial. When there is loss, one may experience a trance like state. When one is given the news of that someone had died, and end to a relationship or news of forthcoming terminal illness. They go through a denial process and...
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...Stages of Grief Paper Grand Canyon University Death, Dying, and Grief HLT-310V Gary Shields August 22, 2015 Stages of Grief Paper Grief is explained as a response to a loss. This loss is connected to the attachment to someone or something that bonded to an individual in an emotional way. In a book called Lament for a Son, the author is the father who suffered and experienced tremendous grief after the loss of his son Eric. He explains and expresses his frustrations with death, the sorrow he felt, the yearning he had for his son, and many other emotions felt in grief. There are many references to God and His plan for salvation and death. The author published his experiences to help others with the loss of their child. He says that he tries to puts words to what they are feeling, even though there are no words that can truly explain the grief that is felt. (Wolterstorff, 1987) There are five stages of grief that individuals go through after a loss. The first stage that is experienced is denial. Kubler-Ross explains this stage as able to endure the loss. Shock and denial overcome the person. There is a feeling of numbness and ponder of how they can move forward, and why would they go on. Denial helps with coping through these thought processes and make survival possible. The denial stage paces the feelings that occur with grief. This is considered nature’s way of allowing only as much as one can handle. When an individual begins to accept the reality of their loss, the...
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...Unseen Analysis on the poem ‘Lament’ The poem ‘Lament’ can be seen as a series of things, which the poet is grieving for as a result of the destruction of war. The poem begins every stanza with the word “For” in order to suggest all the things, which the poet thinks the reader should feel sorrowful towards. The poem has a regular structure and comprises seven stanzas, all of which are three lines long. This regular structure allows the poet to explore specific things, in each stanza, which he believes are being impact upon by the destruction of war and the pollution it causes. Each line of the poem is end stopped and this disciplined form can be seen as paradoxical with the almost dystopian level of destruction, which is being described. The first stanza of the poem begins with the word “For,” in order to suggest the things, which the poet believes the reader should be lamenting for. The use of the present participle of the word “pulsing,” conveys to the reader a sense of the desperation of the turtle, by suggesting the energy with which it searches for a breeding ground. The personification of the word “burden,” suggests the distressing reality of the experience for the turtle, as she searches for a breading ground. The visual image of eggs laid in their “nest of sickness,” conveys a juxtaposition in the vitality and life fullness suggested by “eggs,” in contrast with the word “sickness,” which alludes to the unhealthiness of the turtle’s environment. Structurally...
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...a secret. Even though there are twists in these two scenes there is ethics that plays a part in them; in the time of need and despair when it comes down to family some are not concern about what the consequences of their decisions are; some of their choices may not be the right ones; some will go to different lengths to protect those they love. First, in the time of need and despair because, when it comes to family some aren’t concern about the consequences of their actions all they know is that they are protecting the one that they love. In “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good night”, this poem is in the elegy form, a lyric poem that expresses the poet thoughts about death, it is usually initiated by the death of someone highly regarded by the poet, the tone in this elegy is somber, the poem laments the loss of the person being remembered (Clugston, 2010). Additionally, some of the choices may not be the right ones to make in “A...
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...Pamela Bone, an American author, once said, “I’m not afraid of being dead. I’m just afraid of what you have to go through to get there”. Pamela Bone is a pro-euthanasia activist in addition to being an author. She like many others who support euthanasia ended her life by using drugs to allow her to have a peaceful, euthanasia death. Pamela was experiencing pain and prolonged suffering as a result of a brain tumor. Pamela ‘s death is quite similar to Lennie’s in Of Mice and Men. Like Pamela, Lennie was suffering greatly and was relieved of this suffering by their death. There was a plethora of hurt that lied ahead of Lennie. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George killing Lennie was a euthanasia act that was an attempt to protect him from...
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...,July 21st 2009 ENC 1102 M,W, 7:45am Term Paper “The Theme of Human Struggle in the Works of Ernest Hemingway” In my research paper I will show how elements of life and death, folklore/fables, myths, and rites of passage support the theme of human struggle against nature in the stories "The Old Man and the Sea," "Indian Camp," "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway. Through comparative analysis of these stories' underlying themes I will address the initiation experiences of his heroes. Human dignity, morality, and the formation of human individuality through mental strife and the struggle against nature are often themes of Hemingway. Humans cope with the complexity of the world by developing simple mental models based on opposite parts. Life and death are together, two extremes of one energy. Life is the active force and death is the inactive force, but they cannot be separated. Thus, they are two aspects of one reality. When people are reading about living beings and mythological beings or those who are dead, they view the word of the dead as a living world. The dead eat, sleep and move. In the book “The Hero in Hemingway's short stories”, J. DeFalco points out that: " in the Myth there are usually three dominant movements which are cyclic in pattern. They are the departure of the hero, the initiation, and the return from heroic adventure." (17). The movements of the hero to the world where...
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...Another example of the sudden reversal of Creon’s circumstances is when the Queen Eurdice goes into her chambers, and one of the messengers reports later that she’s killed herself. The messenger tells Creon about her death, stating, “...her heart/Welcome the knife her own hand guided... and her last breath/Was a curse for their father, the murder of her sons.”(I.Exodus.1013). This quote from the play shows how Tieresias was correct in his prophecy of ‘sorrow coming to the palace’. Because of this peripeteia and sudden reversal, she kills herself due to the loss of her son. Loss and sorrow cause this reversal, which continues its “butterfly effect” with all of his family members killing themselves. My final quote of Creon’s sudden reversal in his life is when Choragus tells Creon what he has to do to fix his mistake of imprisoning Antigone. Choragus says to Creon, “You must go yourself, you cannot leave it to others.”(I.V.874). In this quote, the irony of the situation unfolds by showing how Creon has to now go himself and fix his own mistakes, not give the responsibility to...
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... Every Greek sought him for battle so his skills would tip the balance to their favor. No myth exemplified this more than that of the ten-year Trojan War. An excerpt from a translation written by Apollodorus that accounts this time state, “He also took Lesbos and Phocaea, then Colophon, and Smyrna, and Clazomenae, and Cyme; and afterwards Aegialus and Tenos, the so-called Hundred Cities; then, in order, Adramytium and Side; then Endium, and Linaeum, and Colone. He took also Hypoplacian Thebes and Lyrnessus, and further Antandrus, and many other cities.” (Frazer) By many accounts, you could argue that Achilles was the dealer of death and that he relished in every moment of his adventures. By his own words, this was not the case. For example, in the textbook the Classical Mythology it states, “The now dead Achilles laments, I should prefer as a slave to serve another man, even if he had no property and little to live on, than to rule all those dead who have done with life" (Morford,...
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...Beowulf: A Historical Masterpiece Written in approximately 750 A.D., Beowulf is the only remaining transcript of the 10th century. Even before it was written though, it had been circulated though it’s original oral narrative. Many of the events and characters tie to battles and actual figures in history that pre-date the Anglo-Saxon invasion in 450 A.D. Though originally pagan in nature, due to the Anglo-Saxon conversion to Christianity Beowulf was told through a Christian poet. The poet does reference to biblical thoughts and ideas, it’s mixed within the basic Anglo-Saxon principle. Which is pretty impressive. The fact that one can use Beowulf as a way to look at and understand the Anglo-Saxon culture, which may have been lost without it, is an historical feet all on its own. The values shown in the characters in Beowulf are the same values the Anglo-Saxon had. When it came to the values of the warrior class, it’s especially similar. Beowulf is in a sense the quintessential Anglo-Saxon warrior. Warriors at that time were first and foremost loyal to his people and his thane. A warrior was also brave and valorous. Without these what kind of warrior would one be? The warrior had to be courageous to go out to battle without certainty of coming home. Along with courage, a warrior also had to be proud. Not too proud as to offend the thane or his lady, just enough to make him seem worthwhile. Strength was a very sought after trait in a warrior. Strength was so highly viewed in...
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...Master Guides Summaries Desire of Ages Summary – Christopher Pennerman The book The Desire of Ages was a book about the life and death of Jesus Christ written by Ellen G. White. It contains 87 chapters in total. Chapter 1 “God With Us”, talks about The Father and Son covenanted‖ together to save fallen mankind, and answers the question was their plan conceived before or after the fall of man. It then goes on to talk about the importance that Christ had in becoming human. Next in chapter 2 “The Chosen People”, is based on Genesis 12:1-3, where it talks about Israel failing to be a blessing to the nations. It then goes on to explain about how you can be a blessing to your community. Chapters 10-12 go on to talk about Christ Baptism straight to his Temptations. Two chapters that caught my attention were Chapter 7 “As a child” and Chapter 8 “Passover Visit”. Chapter 7 talks about the growth of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not have the privilege of going to school but his mother was his first teacher, he also studied the law of God. He had powers and he never abused the power to ease his work as a carpenter. He glorified God in all circumstances; Jesus lived a holy life even though he dwelt in Nazareth a place filled with temptation and other vices. He learnt from nature. He acknowledge God as his father, he also knew that they was time was everything “he said, "I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”. He is the perfect...
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