In "The management of grief", a story by Bharati Mukherjee the function of the narrator Shaila Bhave's journey from Canada to Ireland and through India is a phase of transition from the feeling of denial of the tragic death of her husband and two sons

Rahul 1
Rahul Shah
Sharon Warycka
Writing & Literature I
24th October, 2002
Essay # 2
In “The management of grief”, a story by Bharati Mukherjee the function of the narrator Shaila Bhave’s journey from Canada to Ireland and through India is a phase of transition from the feeling of denial of the tragic death of her husband and two sons in a plane crash to the slow acceptance of reality and trying to obtain closure on the terrible event.
Four days after the incredible tragedy of the crash of the plane in which her husband and two sons Mrs. Shaila Bhave finds herself at a bay in Ireland near where the crash occurred. There were speculations of what had caused the plane to abruptly blow up but nothing was confirmed. One of the foremost reasons was considered to have been a bomb set off in the plane. Shaila finds herself looking at her neighbor Kusum squatting on this rock which jutted out into the water of the ocean, and she thought that this would probably the closest she would get to her family. Kusum’s family which consisted of her husband and one of her daughters was also on board that flight. Shaila is ashamed of herself as she can not grieve as all the others do. She is angry at here calm and says “By the standards of the people you call hysterical, I am behaving very oddly and very badly,” (par 32). This odd calm in her is caused by a dosage of Valium a drug prescribed to her by her doctor so that she can deal with the situation better.
