Divorced, Beheaded, Survived

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There are so many symbols in the short story and they are quite obvious if you really read Sarah’s words. That part where we hear about the children and how innocent they are. When they play around and don’t have to worry about serious things, like grownups have to. Then later on we hear about the children not playing in the garden anymore and being a little too old for such thing. “The children are too old now to play out there much when we go up, though I used to watch them dart around the wild, thorny rosebushes in the game of tag.” Another symbol is the fact that Sarah keeps a photograph of Terry but it is in the drawer. It’s shows that she hasn’t quite given up on him and maybe in reality she can’t. She doesn’t like to think and or talk about death because it’s still a painful subject for her to talk about. This short story could be a symbol about how we shouldn’t be afraid of death and its outcomes. We can never run from death so might as well just accept it. Someday death is going to occur in your own life or maybe for someone you love. As a mother you should be the grown up and be able to talk about it with your children, whether you like it or not. Your children need to know the difference between life and death even if it hurts them mentally. They may think death is a scary thought but nevertheless they will learn to live with the fact that someday you’ll die and all the people you care about. Humans aren’t meant to control life and death. It’s a natural thing in life, it is the circle of life. You get born, you live and you die.

I can conclude that you shouldn’t be afraid of death and that it is a natural thing that happens. You can’t escape death and you have to get you head around that fact to be brutally honest, whether you are a child or an adult. It is what it is and there is no other way around it. As humans we have to process the issue and get over it or else we will live in darkness and sadness.