Reactions/responses to grief in ‘Effects’:
LOA 1: The ‘effects’ of grief are seemingly alleviated by the continuation
of the memory of those lost:
- Highlights the significance of the prevailing nature of memory as a
gateway to spiritual closeness through the titular pun of ‘effects’-
relating to both the physical belongings of his mum and her impact
on the speaker’s life, the remembrance of one deceased is
embedded in an attribution of their memory to their physical
effects/legacy
- ‘the little bag of her effects’ given to the speaker, presumably
Jenkins, after her death allows for the formation of this continued
memory of his mother- ‘her watch’ triggers the speaker to recollect
and acknowledge the more metaphorical ‘effects’ his mum has had
on his life
- This expansive, flowing memory, assisted by enjambment and
polysyndeton, is enabled through the lens of her belongings. The
anaphora of ‘not’ continues this remembrance, for ‘not in all the
years they sat together’ or ‘not in all the weeks I didn’t come back’
or ‘not later in the psychiatric ward’ was the watch removed-
memory embedded within physical belongings. ‘Watch’ as a
representation of her memory, immune from deterioration unlike her
physical self, remains constant in spite of this
- Deterioration reflected by the pooling of lines via aforementioned
anaphora, breakdown in structure mirroring breakdown, sequential-
‘sat together’ to ‘psychiatric ward’
- Thus, despite slow loss of mother, speaker able to find comfort in
her ongoing memory enabled by her physical ‘effects’- persisting
nature of memory through physical belongings aids and alleviates
the pain of grief by giving way to a spiritual closeness
LOA 2: Jenkins uses the elevation of the mundane to cope with grief and
create a personal response to its effects:
- Jenkins crafts the image of a mundane domestic sphere in the
asyndetic listing of ‘saucepan, frying pan, cup and plate’, creating
an overwhelming sense of the monotony that characterised his
mother’s life- furthered by parallelism of ‘saucepan’ and ‘frying
pan’, creates a blurring together
- However, in the attention Jenkins pays them, these objects serve as
a means to cope with grief in again evoking the memory of his
mother as they act as markers of her life and are therefore elevated
in significance, despite their intangibility
LOA 1: The ‘effects’ of grief are seemingly alleviated by the continuation
of the memory of those lost:
- Highlights the significance of the prevailing nature of memory as a
gateway to spiritual closeness through the titular pun of ‘effects’-
relating to both the physical belongings of his mum and her impact
on the speaker’s life, the remembrance of one deceased is
embedded in an attribution of their memory to their physical
effects/legacy
- ‘the little bag of her effects’ given to the speaker, presumably
Jenkins, after her death allows for the formation of this continued
memory of his mother- ‘her watch’ triggers the speaker to recollect
and acknowledge the more metaphorical ‘effects’ his mum has had
on his life
- This expansive, flowing memory, assisted by enjambment and
polysyndeton, is enabled through the lens of her belongings. The
anaphora of ‘not’ continues this remembrance, for ‘not in all the
years they sat together’ or ‘not in all the weeks I didn’t come back’
or ‘not later in the psychiatric ward’ was the watch removed-
memory embedded within physical belongings. ‘Watch’ as a
representation of her memory, immune from deterioration unlike her
physical self, remains constant in spite of this
- Deterioration reflected by the pooling of lines via aforementioned
anaphora, breakdown in structure mirroring breakdown, sequential-
‘sat together’ to ‘psychiatric ward’
- Thus, despite slow loss of mother, speaker able to find comfort in
her ongoing memory enabled by her physical ‘effects’- persisting
nature of memory through physical belongings aids and alleviates
the pain of grief by giving way to a spiritual closeness
LOA 2: Jenkins uses the elevation of the mundane to cope with grief and
create a personal response to its effects:
- Jenkins crafts the image of a mundane domestic sphere in the
asyndetic listing of ‘saucepan, frying pan, cup and plate’, creating
an overwhelming sense of the monotony that characterised his
mother’s life- furthered by parallelism of ‘saucepan’ and ‘frying
pan’, creates a blurring together
- However, in the attention Jenkins pays them, these objects serve as
a means to cope with grief in again evoking the memory of his
mother as they act as markers of her life and are therefore elevated
in significance, despite their intangibility
