Greif

           The novel “Peace Like a River” by Leif Enger is a story of a young boy coming of age and the events and decisions he makes along the way that form his character. A part that stood out to me in the reading this week was when Swede and Rueben saw Mr. Finch by the Post Office. In this scene Enger uses many descriptive words and rhetorical questions to bring about emotion for the characters and the reader.

            The word “grief” is defined as a “keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss”. (Dictionary, 2011) Reuben describes Mr. Finch, Israel Finch’s father, and says, “He looked dead, is what I am telling you”  He goes on to describe him as “skinny” and frail. Mr. Finch was suffering from grief of a lost loved one, his son.

This is a shocking moment for Rueben and Swede in the book, which is used to bring the reader back to reality. Enger uses this moment to note that someone loved Israel, no matter what he had done.  The fact was that his father’s life was forever changed because of what Davy did.  Mr. Finch was experiencing great grief due to his sons death and months later Rueben and Swede noticed the difference of Mr. Finch.  The part that nipped at my heart was when Rueben questions “ Was it possible that real loss had occurred at the death of Isreal Finch? That real grief has been felt?”.  It was as though Reuben thought that Mr. Finch was heartless and did not care about his son (who also seemed heartless after trying to molest Davy’s girl and his sister). When I read this part, after the description of Mr. Finch, a sudden sadness overwhelms me. The fact that while reading the previous chapters the writing and the reader focuses on the bad that Isreal had done and how he is killed, but as the reader, we forget to think about the aftereffects of this situation. Until this part it had seemed as though everyone had forgotten about the boys. But not Mr. Finch. Neither Rueben.

This part of the story adds depth and reality to the chapter. It is an important piece in the book and i feel that Enger did a fantastic job of incorporating it and expanding on this idea of grief of a lost loved one.

Dictionary.com. Define Greif at Dictionary.com, 2011.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/grief. March 30th 2011.