Grief is the Thing with Feathers

Grief is rife with violent imagery and language, a thematic motif that pushes the novel beyond the realm of exploring grief as a form of sadness and into a darker realm of exploring how grief manifests as rage. The most openly violent characters in Grief are the boys, who kill a guppy, attempt to kill Crow and one another, and play games that put their own lives at risk. The traumatic loss of their mother has corrupted their youthful innocence, and their unresolved grief expresses itself in violent behavior, reflecting The Emotional Turmoil of Grief. The juxtaposition between innocence and brutality is at the crux of Porter’s use of this motif, as he seeks to convey the extent of emotional damage that has been done to the family.

Crow also exhibits some violent tendencies, although, unlike the boys, Crow only resorts to violence as a defensive technique. At times, he shifts between violent and calm countenances very quickly, such as in the scene where he defends the boys from the grief demon. In one moment, he is soothing the boys lovingly, but in the next, he is brutally murdering the demon.