• In relation to Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and Buffy (in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) how do humans show various reactions to sudden death (or sudden realization of another’s death)? Using your choice of concepts from class, how do Joan and Buffy struggle with the sudden reality that, as Joan puts it, “life changes in the ordinary instant?”
• Regarding the death of a loved one, how is it virtually impossible for a survivor (who truly loved the departed) NOT to experience some type of survival guilt? Drawing upon Joan Didion in The Year of Magical Thinking and Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People, as well as your choice of concepts, is survival guilt necessary to experience as one tries to recover? How can a person grow from such guilt?
• In specific regard to Rabbit Hole, how is interpersonal grief among intimates(experienced by Howie and Becca together) complicated? Using lecture concepts of your choice, how would you characterize Howie and Becca in regard to how they are dealing with traumatic loss? What are signs of trouble and signs of hope for them in regard to the shared future as an intimate couple?
• What is the myth of closure and how does it relate to grief? What specific complications associated with grief and the myth of closure, in your opinion, most affected Becca/Howie (in Rabbit Hole) and Conrad (in Ordinary People)? Again, in your opinion, did Becca/Howie and Conrad reach closure? How so (or how not so)?
• In regard to the segment from Friday Night Lights and the death of Matt Saracen’s father, select any concepts of your choice and describe the process that Matt goes through as he struggles to deal with his father’s death. What do you see as Matt’s major struggle and why do you see it as a major struggle?