Death as Transformation: Examining Grief Under the Perspective of the Kubler-Ross in the Selected Movies

Abstract

Death has always been a central human concern. Death is transformative; for those left, therefore, the experience of grief and loss opens another world. The meaning of grief is not simply the “Loss of …” but the “Intense sorrow caused by the loss of a loved one (especially by death)”. Grief is the price we pay for love. The deeper the love, the greater the depth of the grief that follows the loss. Grief is a shape of emotional pain; however, human beings no longer constantly trip these levels in any unique order, nor do they trip each stage. This paper draws upon the conceptual framework of Kubler-Ross five stages of grief to analyze the following movies “UP”, “Baba Dook”, “The Kite Runner”, “Rabbit Hole”, “Summer 1993” and “Three Colors: Blue” content analysis as the method of analysis. Besides, this paper explores the impact of these five stages of grief on different genders through the characters and scenes in the selected movies. This paper is an exploratory and descriptive study grounded in qualitative research design and uses content analysis as the method of analysis of the selected movies. The findings of this study show that death is a transformative phenomenon and grief unlike other emotions is a powerful tool since it raises doubt about how the grieved discovers significance throughout everyday life.