In this scene of the movie, An Unfinished Life , Jean (Jennifer Lopez) and Einar
ID: 3526846 • Letter: I
Question
In this scene of the movie, An Unfinished Life, Jean (Jennifer Lopez) and Einar (Robert Redford) express their mutual pain over the tragic death of Griffin—Einar’s son and Jean’s husband. Obviously, there is a back-story to this scene, but it has enough information to demonstrate their struggle with grief.
In 150-250 words, provide your reaction/analysis of this scene. I’ll be looking for reference to the stages of grief as discussed by Grunlan (and recently largely confirmed by a 2007 Yale study) and which stage or stages you think are demonstrated in this scene. Feel free to share any personal experiences with grief and how that informed your understanding of the process. Use language and express attitudes that are respectful of potentially competing points of view. Please don’t plagiarize.
NOTE: One common vulgar word occurs in this scene. Neither the instructor nor the University endorses this type language.
Video can be found on YouTube
Title- An Unfinished Life (6/12) Movie CLIP - A Grieving Confession (2005) HD
Published on Sep 28, 2011
In this scene of the movie, An Unfinished Life, Jean (Jennifer Lopez) and Einar (Robert Redford) express their mutual pain over the tragic death of Griffin—Einar’s son and Jean’s husband. Obviously, there is a back-story to this scene, but it has enough information to demonstrate their struggle with grief.
In 150-250 words, provide your reaction/analysis of this scene. I’ll be looking for reference to the stages of grief as discussed by Grunlan (and recently largely confirmed by a 2007 Yale study) and which stage or stages you think are demonstrated in this scene. Feel free to share any personal experiences with grief and how that informed your understanding of the process. Use language and express attitudes that are respectful of potentially competing points of view. Please don’t plagiarize.
NOTE: One common vulgar word occurs in this scene. Neither the instructor nor the University endorses this type language.
Video can be found on YouTube
Title- An Unfinished Life (6/12) Movie CLIP - A Grieving Confession (2005) HD
Published on Sep 28, 2011
Explanation / Answer
Answer.
The movie ‘ An Unfinished Life’ presents a case of loss, suffering and consequent healing which animate the lives of a typical family who is grieving the death of a loved one. The movie unfolds a bitter drama between an old man and a young woman both of whom have lost their son and spouse respectively and their individual struggles in the process of grief over the same individual as the two persons experience the loss very differently based on their relationality with the bereaved. For Einar, it was a loss of a son, his last familial connection in the world and he appears to be blame his daughter-in-law Jeanne for the death of his son. Based on Grunlan’s analysis of the grieving process, Einar is stuck in the anger phase.
Jeane on the other hand, is shown to be in the yearning phase where she has not fully recovered from her love for her dead husband even though she has repeatedly tried to be in (failed ) relationships since then. In the given scene as she narrates the incident that lead to the death of her husband, she takes a rather confessesional tone which conveys an underlying emotion of self blame and regret which is associated with the depression stage of grief.
The scene sets the course for the larger issues of family and forgiveness which undercut any perosn’s experience of recovering from the loss of a loved one. People have a harder time dealing with grief when a loved one dies suddenly and tragically, such as in an accident and both Einar and Jeane are caught up in such an emotional tension in the movie.
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