Katherine Mansfield The Fly

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Sarah Dessen once said that “Grief can be a burden, but also and anchor. You get use to the weight but it holds you in place.” This quote matches up well with the story “The Fly” by Katherine Mansfield about how the boss goes through all of this pain of losing his son to the war. Everyone in life does experience some type of grief in their life, some harder than others. The boss feels that life is not fair at first for taking his son, but he moves on after the six years even though he went through a lot of struggles to get to this spot, much like the fly. The boss believes that life is not fair to take his son away from him like it did. The boss tells that his son “had been in the office learning the ropes for a year before the war.” Every…show more content…
"Old Woodifield paused, but the boss made no reply." The boss does not know what to say when Mr. Woodifield says that he has gone to the boss's son grave. Just like the first time the fly falls into the ink and cleans himself off. He shakes it off and keeps moving on. "Although over six years had passed away, the boss never thought of the boy except as lying unchanged, unblemished in his uniform, asleep forever. “My son!" groaned the boss." thinks the boss as Mr.Woodifield leaves his office. The first stage of grief is denial then comes sadness. This point in the story, the boss is wondering why it was his son and wants to cry over the loss that he is experiencing. The second time the fly brushes himself off, the boss kind of scratches his head and puts more on for the third time. Grief will way down on someone and bring them into the lowest lows. "New furniture," and he nodded towards the massive bookcase and the table with legs like twisted treacle." He motioned to all the new things in his brand new office. He had finally moved on and forgotten about the death and felt a bit better. Much like when he finally kills the fly. It is not about killing the fly, it is about a new beginning. The fly dying is showing that it was a start of something new, much like the boss started something new for his company. He knew what to do after losing his son and thinking about giving the company to the son. He knew that moving on was the best for him. Killing off the sadness and finally breaking

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