Analyse af 'Divorced, Beheaded, Survived'

Although death is a natural and inevitable part of life, it will never feel natural losing someone close to you. Sometimes life will hit you hard at the most unreasonable times; such as if you’re only a kid, not in any way mentally ready to deal with the loss of someone you love. In the short story “Divorced, Beheaded, Survived” themes like death, grief and survival are taken up to consideration. We encounter an example of how death can affect you throughout your childhood and your life as an adult.

The story begins in media res with a scene from the main character Sarah’s childhood. It jumps frequently in time from the past to the present, which gives the story an exciting stamp and forces the reader to proceed focused, though you never really lose track of when and where the narrator is taking you throughout the story.

The story is based on Sarah’s life after her brother Terry’s death and a certain act they played with their friends shortly before. The difference between the death scene in the act and the death of Terry in real life indicates how children’s view on death easily can change. Before death was a game, but it changes the second Terry gets sick. “And Terry would hold his face in both his hands, his shoulders heaving in enormous, racking, make-believe sobs. But in real life, it was all silent hours. Vacant stares”(line 99) In the play it is symbolized with tears and sobs, but in real life after Terry passes away, the friends distance apart, almost pretending it never happened. This becomes clear in the end of the story. “Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Miss Rafferty wrote the rhyme out on the board while Molly Denham and I dutifully copied it into our notebooks, as though we might otherwise forget.”(line 174) Of course they both remember the rhyme but the fact that they haven’t talked at all since Terry’s death results in them pretending as if it never happened. It is too vulnerable for them both to be open about, especially after such a long time with no contact at all.