Divorced, Beheaded, Survived

Assignment A

“…Divorced, Beheaded, Survived”

A short story by Robin Black 2010

Children do not think about death; they don’t think about that one day they won’t be able to see their parents anymore. They play around and have the time of their lives with their friends, thinking about what game to play next. But is it a good thing? The fact that children doesn’t talk or experience death at all maybe isn’t that great. Maybe it’s the exact opposite. In this short story we hear Sarah’s story about her losing her brother and then years later, her son losing one of his very good friends as well. Sarah had never experienced or talked about death at that time and the death of her brother came as a shock to her. She didn’t exactly know how to act and respond to the situation at the time. Years later it happens to her own son Mark, who lost one of his best friends on the Long Island Expressway.

   “…Divorced, Beheaded, Survived” is a short story written by Robin Black back in 2010. The story is about Sarah who lost her older brother Terry and afterwards get two children Coco and Mark, where Mark loses his good friend Peter. In the Short story it starts out with Sarah and her friends as children back in 1973, fooling around in a backyard playing Anne Boleyn. They found the game extremely entertaining and funny. They knew that Anne Boleyn was beheaded and in their minds that was the most entertaining part of the game. Sarah and her friends had never experienced death before and didn’t think about it either. But again why should they? They were only children having fun. Sarah’s brother Terry then got sick but he recovered for a while. Time went by and he got sick again and died in 1974. Then years later Sarah’s own son experienced the same situation and was quite shocked. She didn’t want her son to lose it and tried to explain to him shortly. She was extremely careful with Mark because she knew how it felt to lose someone very special.

   Black’s short story is a Dystopian story and you will figure it out quite quickly while reading it. There is a dystopian atmosphere through the whole story and on page 148-150 you can see it clearly. “We never did call Nick back, the morning that we heard. And I don’t think Mark’s spoken very much to any of his friends since then. Not about Peter. He goes off to school, and comes right home. Heads straight for his room and closes the door.” This could indicate the Dystopian atmosphere. Mark was isolating himself from friends and family. Going straight to school and straight home afterwards. Mark doesn’t want to talk about what happened to his best friend at all. The way the story is written shows the dystopian aura and it is very clear when Peter, Mark’s friend passes away. It is very heavy weight to carry around for Mark and he closes of for everyone around him. One of the most obvious symbols are the title of the story “Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.” “Divorced” is probably a symbol for Sarah and her older brother Terry being apart from each other. “Beheaded” could possibly be a symbol for the big brother Terry’s sudden death and how his life just ended. “Survived” is the symbol for Sarah living on after Terry’s death. It was tough for her but she survived and kept going.

   In the Short story Sarah’s son Mark ask her about how it felt when she lost her brother Terry. She told him the truth, she told him that it was the worst feeling in the world and that it was so terrible. Nevertheless, she learned to live with it and moved on. She still has her mind on Terry once in a while but never really speaks about him. Just as Sarah learned to live with it and moved on, she knew that her son Mark would also learn to live on and keep going. Sarah’s daughter Coco got worried about her brother Mark when he changed and got quite depressive. Sarah told Coco that Mark would definitely be okay again but right now he needed time to grieve in peace. But he would someday come around and be just fine. He would learn to live with it but never forget. Sarah also goes through flashbacks to when her brother Terry died, which means that she continues to grieve. It shows us that death is the main theme and it also shows us that we can’t run from death. Whether it is our own life or someone we care about. Death is basically something that we can’t escape and it’s something that we have to go through as humans. Going through a death experience it can change us quite a lot. Some for the better and some for the worse. It depends on the person how to process the whole thing. Let them know they can talk about it if they want instead of staying silent.