Grief a Temporary Matter

Death and change are a part of life that cannot be escaped; everyone at some point in his or her life will have to work through the grief of losing a loved one. Grief is the process that we go through to let go of old habits and starts a new way of life. We all need to examine the way we deal with these changes in our lives. When we understand our reactions to changes that happen in our lives we will be able to accept these changes and the grieving process will be easier.
In the book ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ (Jhumpa Lahiri’s) characters Shoba and Shukumar enter a world of grief after losing their first child. The book is set in America but their cultural background is Indian, although Shukumar has not spent as much time there as Shoba it is talked about regularly throughout the story.
The tragedy that occurred in their lives made it impossible for them to find the connection in their relationship that once was. They lived in a rut barely aware of one another’s presence. Although there is no doubt they loved each other Shoba and Shukumar had become two different people living in denial.
Grief had made the couple bitter and resent one another, instead of the couple processing the grief together they separated their feelings and from the day that they lost their baby they went separate ways although still living together and not speaking of the tragedy or the lost connection they continued to let grief run their life’s.

“He had held him until a nurse
Knocked and took him away, and he promised himself
That day that he would never tell Shoba, because he still
Loved her then, and it was the one thing in her life that
She had wanted to be a surprise.” Pg 26 Author Interpreter of Maladies
Shukumar was talking about the gender of their still born baby in the quote above, he had kept it from Shoba because he loved her and knew how much it had meant to her but now that it was coming to an end and the love he had once felt was now different it was time to let