What stylistic devices does Claire Zorn use to explore the impact of grief on a family, and the nature of healing after a traumatic event? The Protected written by Claire Zorn is an inspiring teen novel is about the life of an adolescent girl, Hannah, dealing with the grief of losing a sister, Katie, and enduring her own issues like bullying and homophobia. Zorn explores the theme of grief and how it affects a family and the nature of healing after a disturbing event. Various stylistic devices are used by Zorn to explore the effect of grief on a family and the nature of healing after a dreadful event using lists as a narrative structure to reflect on morning and comparing the difference in life before suffering with grief and after being impacted …show more content…
Zorn explores the relationship between Hannah’s family after Katie’s death through a very broken relationship between everyone. The first chapter clearly displays the relationship by having broken conversations between the two. Hannah’s mother asks, “How are you?” (p.6) to Hannah and Hannah answers with a one-word answer where she answers “Okay” (p.6) which shows how their relationship is depreciating quickly. Zorn accomplished demonstrating the idea of sorrow to the audience by showing the bonds between a family after a daunting event. Hannah and her dad’s relationship is also explored by Zorn in a way to display to the audience how masked grief looks on a person. The fourth chapter has an indicative conversation between Hannah and her father that demonstrates masked grief. Hannah asks her father “Why are you sleeping out here?” (p.36) in context to her dad sleeping on the couch and her dad answers with “oh, ah couldn’t sleep” (p.36), this is a clear indication of masked grief and losing sleep over the anguish. Zorn explored the relationships between a family after a traumatic event using dialogue to connect the audience into the story and make them feel the emotions the characters felt and for the audience to reminisce to a time, when they felt like