Grief In Ordinary People Essay

There are multiple stages of grief and healing.The stages have no order, so one person may not be at the same stage as another when dealing with the same situation. The same thing applies to the stages of healing. In the novel “Ordinary People” by Judith Guest, the Jarrett family, Conrad, Calvin, and Beth are all in different stages of grief due to the loss of Buck and other reasons varying from character to character.The two main characters Conrad and Calvin move from stages of grief to stages of healing by recognizing why their grieving. They move forward where as Beth does not. Conrad and Calvin move towards healing as they recognize the the reason why they’re grieving, by finding counsel that helps them to let go of grief and to find themselves,

This grief can be seen when Conrad says, “Conrad Jarrett the Anxious Failure dress this guy in blue and gray.” (Guest 2). This reveals that Conrad is in a deep depression because he doesn’t see himself as anything more than a failure. He associates himself with the two colors he recognizes as anxious and failure, he believes that he is missing a sense of humor. This connects to the stage of grief, depression, because when people are at this stage of grief they tend to put themselves down and think about the negative things in life. Conrad is clearly suffering from depression as shown in the quote above. Conrad also shows a stage of grief when he says “This house. Too big for three people.” (Guest 4). This reveals that Conrad is in a deep depression about his brother’s death because he feels that someone is missing from the house. Since Buck, Conrad’s brother, is dead, Conrad is feeling depressed seeing that the house is more empty now that Buck is gone. Conrad also shows deep depression in school when his teacher questions him asking, “Why are you writing all this about violence and war? Aren’t there other things you’d like to say, Conrad? This doesn’t sound like you.” (Guest 19). This reveals that Conrad is in a deeper stage of