Five Stages Of Grief In Raymond Carver's A Small, Good Thing

Grief is something that all people experience in their lives at one point or another. In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross broke down grief into five stages. The cycle goes as such: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Ultimately these stages “are our attempts to process change and protect ourselves while we adapt to a new reality,” (Stanaway). Raymond Carver’s “A Small, Good Thing” tells the story of a couple grieving the loss of their son. Through the pyschoanalytic and formalist lenses, we can gain deeper insight into the characters' psychological states and the literary devices used to convey their journey through the five stages of grief. Through the psychoanalytic lens, one is able to observe a character’s actions and search

Denial, which is the first stage of grief can look like “avoidance, confusion, shock, mindless behavior, and disbelief,” (Stanaway). Both characters are seen displaying denial about their son after his death, as “Howard got up and began moving aimlessly around the room with the box,” and Ann reminds him, “now we'll have to get used to that” (Carver, 12). They initially refuse to believe that their son is dead, and they need constant reminders that Scotty really is gone. They make up excuses just like, “Scotty's going to be all right. We don't have to worry. He's just sleeping now, that's all," (Clark 3). This sense of disbelief is rooted in their underlying feelings of control and guilt. Surely this was something that was out of Howard’s control, and Ann is still disoriented as she only focuses on how it is her

After their sons death, both parents begin to try and make deals with themselves to make sense of their son’s death. Throughout the hospital stay, Howard and Ann bargain and try to get any information that they can from the doctors. They wish to bring him home so despartley and to have him be okay after the accident. They are unable to accept the reality of their son’s death and instead cling to the hope that they can some how change the outcome. The psychoanalytic lens reveals that their bargaining is rooted in their unconscious desires for control and