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Duong Nguyen
Kenneth Rich
English 100
December, 10th 2012
Coping with the Death of the Loved One
Have you ever had the feeling of losing someone who you love most? When you lose
someone you love, all feelings become sharp, sudden, and numb; and it should be extremely
painful. It seems the minutes are hours and still you wait, and they will never return to you; only
in your dreams, thoughts and memories. When a loved one dies, those left to mourn often find
themselves entangled in a complex web of emotions and reactions. I believe that some of you
have already lost people that you cared about, and you still remember the feeling you felt when
you first heard that your loved one passed away. The depression made your days go bad, and you
can’t concentrate on anything, except thinking of them. “The Wig” by Brady Udall and “Give
Me Five More Minutes” by Christy De’on Miller are great examples of expressing loved to the
important person who passed away, and how people face and react with the loss of loved ones.
In Udall’s story, the mother passed away made the little boy deeply sad in his heart. His
mind always filled the imagination of his lovely mother, and it could be a shock to him, to a little
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eight year old boy when the one he loves most suddenly gone away. While reading “The Wig”,
that seems to blows me away and plants an early seed in my mind that one could write such
works and this story is one of the most powerful that I’ve ever read in any length. A death of a
loved one can be painful, but what makes it even more difficult is if the death is an unexpected
one. As Miller’s fiction, the mother is weak when she knows that her son was killed when he was
conducting a security patrol with his company, in enemy territory. Everything that the son left
for her is like a gift such as the watch, blanket, uniform, and shoes; and they become important
memories for her.
There is a great symbolism of the father who silently takes care of his son and the sadness
