Analysis: The Beginning Of Grief

“The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief – But the pain of grief isonly, a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love (Hilary Stanton Zunin).” The short story called “The Beginning of Grief” written by L. Wiowode, is about a young family dealing with grief. The main character, Stanion recently lost his wife has five kids: three boys, and two girls. Stanion is now operating his own business called Wm. Stanion & Sons Plastering since his wife passed away. Running his own business while taking care of his five children can get very stressful, while he got stressed his grief conquered his thoughts. Stanion is sitting at the dinner table one night and he knows something happened so he asked Kevin; the oldest son. Kevin

Stanion feels a little bit of each, he was confused most of all. Most importantly after a year since his wife passed away, he was still learning to be a parent. Stanion says, “the torment was more than grief. It grew, linking one memory to another, linking networks of them together, and would not let her go” (Wiowode, 57). This quote is important because it shows that Stanion is going through a hard time. His memory was bringing back happy moments and clouding them with sad and gloomy moments. His memory would not allow Stanion to forget his wife nor her importance to the family. Later on, Wiowode writes, “when she was alive, she seems to favor Kevin, yet he was the only one she lost her temper with” (58). This gives us an inside view of of Stanion’s thoughts and how is wife was able to able to control the kids well and not lose her temper too often. Stanion wishes he could have a more organized life, Wiowode shortly briefs the way the kids got to ride to school; riding in the pickup box and how that was embarrassing for the boys. Stanion wishes, “He would have taken his life just to end the torment, just to be at peace, and maybe to be with her (who could say)” (58). This quote shows how much pain Stanion is in and how he wishes he could be dead with his wife. In order to want to leave your kids without parents signifies how much pain a person is truly in. Stanion plays an important role on the theme because he is feeling a “pain” which is the beginning of grief growing. Stanion has been raising his five kids for the last year and has not taken the time to grieve. Stanion is unable to move on and forget his wide because he never grieved over her passing. The them of this story is that grief can have power and effect people in different ways. Stanion is affected by having anger, guilt, and feeling worthless, similar to