“Once upon a time we were well brought up women; we were dutiful wives who kept our heads veiled and our voices shy and sweet.” pg 441
Although this is a fictional account of real events, “The Management of Grief” feels like an actual retelling of events that took place after the tragedy. The narrator shifts through the stages of grief in a realistic way so that a reader can personally relate to how she handled this tragic moment in her life. Though she spends a majority of the time sedated by Valium, we can still feel how she and everyone around her are being affected by the events after the bombing.
The Indian people have had their lives completely altered by this unexpected event and they’re trying to heal. Their husbands, sons, daughters, lovers, sisters, and brothers were torn away from them without warning on what was supposed to be a simple getaway. Most people are sympathetic and hand out flowers and give kind words while others, like the boil covered security guard, sees every brown person as a potential terrorist.
We see the stages of grief shift throughout the story and in the end, most people end up in a state of numbed acceptance. From one character simply refusing to sleep in the bed he shared with his wife to another character moving out the of the country entirely, everyone copes differently.