Problematize

She said it over and over under her breath: "Free, free, free!" 


In my readings this week what stood out to me most distinctively was death. And not just how a person died but the response of death from those left behind. In the poem, The Story of an Hour, it truly puzzled me and what mesmerized me was her response to her husbands sudden tragic death. There was a sense of shock and grief but that grief turned into peace rather quickly. She uttered the words Free....how could a person see death as freedom for THEM rather freedom for the PERSON WHO IS DEAD.

In the Christian Church we celebrate death because it means life for the person. Not life for those left behind directly. There is a sense of happiness and sadness because they are free from pain and worries and trials of the world but they are absent from us.

It puzzled me the Mrs. Ballard would see her husbands sudden death as her ticket to a care free, and how the writer put it "There would be no one to live for during those years to come," how is this a time to think about a vacation or having fun when your mate it gone. This would only be the case if there was an anticipation for this to occur, she too was suffering and was waiting for freedom and freedom to her came in this way that she could "live for herself".

This showed that she had some issues of herself that led to her looking at this as freedom. But she stated that "and yet she had loved him- sometimes. Often she had not." Bringing things together now it showed me that this freedom she spoke of was an escape from her lack of love and the ability not to have to deal with life.

As students we cannot just put things off we have to deal with everything Mrs. Ballard saw her husbands death as freedom from her issues and the anxieties of life. Whereas Christ followers we see death as freedom for the soul to be united with Christ. But the ability for those left behind to live on and remember those who have gone before us.

Blog # 3