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... lps him to realize that it isn't his fault that his brother died and he shouldn't feel guilty that he survived. This realization is a turning point in Conrad's emotional recovery. It helps him to understand his attempted suicide and get over the fear that his emotions will overwhelm him (Carlson 173). "Guests technique is to reveal information about Conrad and his parents, Calvin and Beth, in a piecemeal way...
with twists and turns that come like the proverbial unexpected buckets of cold water" (Kitchen 173). The book might have been more probing if the problem rested between the three characters, but the problem has been created by the death of Conrad's older brother. The tragedy has revealed their inadequacies (Kitchen 173). The tragedy dramatically affects the relationship of his parents. The trauma of Buck's death and Conrad's attempted suicide brings out the differences in his parents personalities.
Initially, the author portrays Cal as someone who cannot tolerate conflict. By his own admission, he drinks too much to deaden the pain of his real feelings. Raised as an orphan, Cal wants safety and order. As the story continues, the author has Cal recognize his grief through discussions he has with Dr. Berger. Although it helps him, it creates dramatic conflict with his wife who refuses to acknowledge her grief Beth, Conrad's mother is portrayed as a very "moralistic" person who always wants to do what is socially acceptable.
She is a perfectionist about people and life, so when life is unfair, she hides her real feelings. Someone that guards against expressing feelings and denies emotions in a situation like Beth, is clinically referred to as "anal retentive. " At the story end, Beth goes off on an extended trip to escape facing her problems, while Cal and Conrad are getting closer through being more open (Hergenhahn 481). The story takes place in Michigan and centers on Keith Browner and how he and his family handle his death. His final days with his family at Lake Huron are portrayed as warm and loving.
Keith has come to grips with his fate, but his wife of seventeen years, Annie and their three children have not. Annie's entire world is turned upside down after Keith dies. Her sister, Jess, tries to help out and moves in to share the expenses, but even their relationship becomes strained. Annie is so overwhelmed with grief and bills that she doesn't see that the family is beginning to fall apart. The children, thirteen-year old Harry, eleven-year old Jimmy, and nine-year old Julie also mourn the loss of their father. They express their grief by bickering and nagging at their mother.
Initially, Annie takes a bookkeeping job to help make ends meet. The job is low paying and very stressful due to an abusive woman boss who takes out her frustration with a divorce on poor Anne. Taking a job is Anne's first step in accepting how her life is now, however, it only seems to increase her stress and anger with her life. Anne hits bottom when she gets shingles and tries to resign her job to the owner. Amazingly, he confesses to her that he is forever grateful to her husband, a teacher, for helping his son with drug and suicide problems. He tells her to take as much time off to get well as she needs, and to consider a better position at another one of his branches in another state.
It is during this break from work that Anne finally accepts that life is what it is. Her sister Jess stays with the kids and Anne gets away to the lake. She finally gets over her anger when she reads her husband's journal that was written just days before he died. In it, he tells her to give up the illusion that we are in control in life and to make peace with life.
Whatever happens, he is sure it will be okay because she will still have herself. He has faith in her strength. She feels his presence in the air and in his words and it finally helps her to accept things. The book concludes with Anne returning home when a fishing hook is caught in Jimmy's eyelid. She is pleased to find that her usually bickering children actually supported each other in this crisis. She feels love and hope for the future. "Guest parallels the elements of nature to the impending death that the family is expecting.
The rising tide of loss feels real" (Clarke 23). The author portrays the theme of accepting the good and bad in life by discussing the many sides of nature. Nature can be kind when providing needed rainfall and then the warmth of sunshine. It can, however, cause mass destruction with floods and earthquakes. Nature is portrayed as similar to Keith's approaching death. Death and nature are both morally blind.
This is the central theme of how someone is supposed to view and accept death (Clarke 24). "At times in 'Errands, ' Ms. Guest widens her view to include certain contemporary realities. Some of the most persuasive writing here comes not from the overwhelming anguish Keith's widow, Annie, feels, but from her anxieties about finding a job and supporting her children" (Wolitzer 18). Annie Browner is incapable of helping her children. She is too consumed with how her families' life has changed economically. Anne's anguish over how she will pay the bills leaves her too exhausted to handle the negative interaction of her three children.
Their grief over the loss of their father and the distraction of their mother leads each of them into trouble with each other and in life. "For Keith's wife and children, the problems of grieving and adjusting begin, and it is in the probing characterizations of Annie and the children that Guest is at her best" (Basbanes 24). Annie seems to have the least patience for Harry, the oldest, who's talk back attitude, drives her over the edge a couple of times. Once, she slaps him and another time, she orders him out of the car and tells him to walk the remaining short distance home. Harry has turned into a rebellious teenager and is hanging out with a bad crowd. Julie starts to skip school and keep a secret journal of her true feelings.
Jimmy loses all his friends and begins to steal things. He can't take being the peacemaker anymore. When Annie Browner reaches her lowest point and she goes off to the cottage at Lake Huron to think about things, she finds the journal her husband wrote in his final days. She feels his presence everywhere and realizes the meaning of his words. Life is not perfect. If she wants to be a part of life, she has to accept that bad things happen.
Her husband's journal convinces her that separation is an illusion and that love is all there really is. Her husband's journal helps Annie Browner realize and accept that life isn't ordered, it simply is as it is. "Guest poignantly signals Keith Browner's acceptance of death with an analogy to the feeling one has on the last swim of the day when you know it time to leave" (Wolitzer 18). As Keith Browner's death draws closer, he remembers his childhood summer days spent at Lake Huron. The memory of how he knew it was time to take his last swim and leave portrayed his attitude toward his impending death.
Knowing his destiny for months, he has felt dead and just an observer of the here and now. This night he's not sure if he is losing his vision or death is near. He tells himself to trust in the next state, the eternal. He feels ready to take his last swim to silence. Keith Browner dies with the same dignity that he lived his life. Basbanes, Nicholas A. "Ordinary author finishes Errands after 10 years. " Tribune-Review 16 Mar. 1997: 23 - 24.
Braginsky, Dorothy. "Judith Guest. " Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 30 Dorothy Braginsky ed. , Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984. Carlson, Neil R. Psychology, The Science of Behavior. Massachusetts: Simon & Schuster, 1984. Clarke, Karen Henry. "Errands Begins With Purpose, but loses its way. " Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7 Feb. 1997: 37.
New York: Ballantine Books, 1997. Helmreich, William B. Against All Odds. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. Hergenhahn, B.
R. An Introduction to Theories of Personality. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1994. Kitchen, Paddy. "Ordinary People. " Contemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 30 Dorothy Braginsky ed. , Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984.
Larsen, Anne. "Second Heaven. " Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 30 Dorothy Braginsky ed. , Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984. Maddocks, Melvin. "Ordinary People. " Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 30 Dorothy Braginsky ed. , Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984. Stroud, Janet G. "Ordinary People. " Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 30 Dorothy Braginsky ed. , Detroit: Gale Research Company 1984.
Wolitzer, Meg. "Errands. " New York Times Book Review. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Comparison Of Ordinary People To Errands By Guest
