ROVA MAYE A.

TRANI WF: 1-2:30PM WFW

September 3, 2015 Prof. Isa Lorenzo

Hope: An Answer to the Management of Grief

Grief is something that all of us can relate to. However, as all of us are different, we all
react differently to it. But that doesn’t make grief any different than any kind of grief. Grief is
sorrow, heartache, anguish, pain, misery, woe and unhappiness. No matter how we say it, grief is
still grief. No matter how different we feel it, the degree of its sensation and its weight to us. We
all grieve in our own way.

A common conception of grieving is to feel hysterical at first or to be in profound

depression. As to Shaila Bhave, the main character of this short story, she feels a terrible sense
of calm. Her grief was a sort of numbness, an attachment but she was still screaming inside. Her
grief is potent, but is somehow overpowered by shock. She was still too shell-shocked by the
hasty pace of events happening in her life. Losing a family in a matter of hours was too much to
handle. Her tone can be described as detached, but it doesn’t mean that she was unemotional at
any part of this short story. Even the gentle and relaxing voice of the narrator told in the third
person’s point of view clearly shows Shaila’s anguish, pain and misery. She goes on with her
own process of managing her grief. It may have taken her a long time, but in the end she has
finally found a true sense of calmness that encompasses the beauty of hope. This is when she
drops her ‘package’ and ‘walks’.

“It’s a parent’s duty to hope.”

This is the phrase that affected me the most in the story. It is because this is where hope is
formally introduced amongst the grief. To hope is to be able to begin over something that has
ended. To hope is to start again.

I believe that when Shaila heard this from Dr. Ranganathan, her focus on her own
emotions has shifted. This can be easily seen as before this moment in the short story, she has
wished to have died together with her family. This in turn soothes her and turns her into the
positive light.

Of course, there is more to this short story than the management of grief, the management
of one’s emotions. This short story has represented, in a way, all of those who were the victims of
loss of the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182. The different characters here showed how the
people in real life have dealt with their own grief and emotions. It was also shown here the racial
divisions in a community. Races that are treated as inferior by the government are given second
priority. Or sometimes are even ignored, preferring that this certain race solve their own
problems without any outside help and any sort of diplomacy.

Sources:

1) http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2695400020/management-grief.html