Grief In H Is For Hawk, By Helen Macdonald

Grief is abstract and there is no effective method that will heal it easily. This is portrayed in Helen Macdonald’s memoir, H is for Hawk, where she tells her story about her battle to cope with grief after the loss of her father. Throughout this book, Macdonald shares her struggles and relapses as she tries to get through these challenging times. To cope with grief, she turns to hawking because she feels this will be most effective. Helen soon becomes dependent on her hawk, Mable, and uses her to escape grief which leads her to feel like a hawk and loose her connection to humanity. Throughout her story, Macdonald shifts between past to present time. When she discusses her past, she shares the experiences she has had with her dad and how they

Macdonald shares her reaction when Christina went to visit her, “Three tentative raps on the front door. ‘Hang on,’ I call. A small voice inside me, resentful and savage, hisses, go away” (86). Christina is one of her closest friends, nonetheless Macdonald seems to regard her as enemy in this particular instance. This ties back to Mable being used as an escape from her grief. Macdonald has allowed herself to become isolated and she feels best when she is alone. Another interpretation of this text can be the depiction of Macdonald turning to her wild side. Macdonald states that the voice within her was hissing. Wild creatures also hiss or become bothered when their personal space is disrupted. Furthermore, while Macdonald converses with Christina, she mentions “The voice is not entirely mine” (86). This instance depicts how Macdonald has lost herself all through this time. Macdonald is aware that she didn’t have the same reaction with Christina before. Christina is one of Macdonald’s closest friends and this type of reaction is unfamiliar to

It also illustrates how they come to bond and begin to feel like one individual. Additionally, this specific text explains why she wants to be like a hawk and this also implies why she wants to spend so much time with Mable. Although it is not directly implied, in an objective matter, readers can foreshadow the harm this bond with her hawk will cause her. She has grieved on her own with the company of her hawk. Her strong desire to posses a hawk’s characteristics further encourage her to spend more time with her hawk. It can be assumed that having contact with humans throughout this grieving process will only bring her more