On Loss

Losing everything would be completely demoralizing. Just the fact that you will never have any of those things that you have grown to love again is bad enough, but this is paired with a feeling of hopelessness and despair that you will not have any chance of ever regaining your normal flow of life. After losing everything, you would not naturally have any drive to regain your things. It would most likely take counseling of some sort for a person to even begin to cope with the stresses of losing all of their possessions.

Loss seems to be a recurring theme in American literature thus far. In John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, the Joads lose everything that they can't fit onto their truck. They then must cope with the stresses of losing not only their material possessions, but also their memories of home. In J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Holden has lost his innocence. He focuses his efforts on making sure that children do not lose their innocence as he did. In Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea Santiago strives day and night to catch the giant Marlin, only to lose it to sharks on his return. And, most obviously, in Upon the Burning of Our House, Ann Bradstreet tells of how she loses everything in a house fire. Her faith gets her through this, and she actually manages to find a bright side of her unfortunate situation.

I feel that this theme is common because it is very interesting to read about hypothetical situations that would be very disappointing if they happened to the reader. It is naturally appealing to humans to see how other people would act in dire situations, fictional or nonfictional. Also, as with reality TV shows, people enjoy watching other people struggling or in their lowest form of humanity. I honestly don't know why, but I can be easily entertained watching normal people running an impossible obstacle course. The more normal they are, the better. I grow to love these people, and if they cross the obstacle safely, I feel very happy for them. I get the same way about literature. I like to be able to relate to characters' struggles. When dealing with loss, I root for the characters and hope that they can overcome their obstacles.