Sorry for the Loss * by Bridget Keehan

The novel “Sorry for the Loss” by Bridget Keehan is about a woman called Evie who is prison chaplain. In the text she is about to tell an inmate that a relative of his died. This is the first time she is going to do this. The text is about the expectations she has towards telling him the grim news and how people can surprise you. She had her expectations and maybe even prejudices going into that cell. By analyzing symbols and reactions in the novel, this essay will look deeper on the reaction of the inmate Victor. This essay will also look at Evie’s workplace and how she feels about her work. Last, it will look at some of the symbols in the text and how they are used to make us understand certain points in the text.

Victor reacts differently than Evie expected because he understand his situation. Victor seems to care very little about his grandmother’s death. At least compared to what you would expect but there is one thing you need to understand. Victor is in for murder and has done 5 years. He will be doing a lot more years and there is no point in becoming soft now. He knows the rules in the prison. “Is there anything you’d like me to do? I can find out the time of the funeral if you like?” “I won’t be able to go though will I, Miss?” (p. 4 l. 140-141). He would like to go if he could but he knows that he cannot so he does not want to seem like he cares. Prison is tough and when you are behind bars for as long as a man with a murder sentence is, your hard surface is very important. He is not trying to be intimidating or frightening but I he is trying to come across careless about the world outside the prison. He asks Evie as she enters his cell if he got a spot on the SORRY-course. That sounds like some kind of course where you talk about why you are in prison and you work with being sorry for what you have done. That shows us that he has emotions and he feels but his circumstances and his situation makes it unwise for him to show emotion. “She is relieved to discover that Victor Zamora is not the angry man from the computer room but a slight, good-looking boy who appears barely old enough to be in an adult jail. She can almost imagine him as her son” (p. 2 l.74-76). He is a good-looking young kid. Sounds like he could be quite the target in a prison facility. He has to be tough to get by.
Evie is unsecure in her work. Evie has been working as a prison chaplain for over a year but she is still quite insecure. She does not feel comfortable in her work place and is easily startled. “After she has been in post for over a year she still finds the environment of prison abrasive and intimidating.” (p. 1 l. 19-20). Prison is not the coziest workplace so it is not weird that she is not super comfortable with it but she has work there for over a year and she is still very easily startled. She has a problem with the noises in the prison. She wants to walk through the wing she will work on that day so that she can feel safe in her surroundings. She notices many noises, which you only would pay that much attention to if it bothered you. Keys jangling, keys in locks, food trays being piled up, guards eating and names being called out. These are not things that would make enough noise to overwhelm anybody but it overwhelms her. “The mix of sounds creates such a cacophonous din that Evie considers it a wonder the thick stone walls that separate this world from the one outside contain the noise. But they do” (p. 1 l. 28-29).
The animals mentioned in the text are used as symbols to the story. When Evie delivers the news of Victor’s Nan being dead, he looks at a pigeon in his cell window. Pigeons are a symbol of freedom and it is very relevant to have a pigeon outside his cell-window when Evie comes to tell him something from the outside world. Victor also tells a story of his cell-neighbor and how he makes the pigeons trust him and then he kills them. This is a symbol of how people in prison betray their freedom and for that, they are locked up. Another animal mentioned is the butterfly and how Victor is in for killing a bully with a butterfly knife. The butterfly is a symbol of metamorphism, which is change. It could be a symbol of the change he made when I committed the crime. Butterflies are also a symbol for life and death, which goes hand in hand with the crime he has committed. Therefore, it is quite symbolic to kill someone with a butterfly-knife.
In conclusion, the text is about freedom and how you need to act if you do not have freedom. Victor is putting up a façade when he hears the news because he has to if he is going to make it in prison. He cannot let himself feel the pain of the loss. He has to be discrete. Evie is surprised by this. Evie feels quite insecure as she tells Victor about his grandmothers death and that is caused by her not being comfortable with her work in the prison. The text uses a lot of symbols to give the text more meaning. Animals are used as symbols of freedom and life/death which is very relevant to the story.