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b. On Norah
David’s decision of taking her daughter away gives a big influence to Norah. David has told her that they get twins but the daughter dies as soon as she
is born. David thinks that it will save Norah from pain, but David is wrong. She is
in a deep loss of the death of her daughter although she does not cry after David
tells her that the daughter dies as she is born pp. 46-56. Everybody tries to amuse her that now she has a beautiful and sweet baby son, but she does not want
everybody to forget her daughter. She wants everybody to remember the daughter. “I had twins, Bree,” Norah said quietly, conscious of her dream, the
empty, frozen landscape, her frantic searching. “No one else will say a word about her. They act like since I have Paul, I ought to be satisfied.
Like lives are interchangeable. But I had twins. I had a daughter too_” p. 56
Norah responds the same thing when her friends from her sewing circle
and china-painting club come to visit and gives presents. Flora Marshall, the oldest among them, tells that she has predicted that Norah may have twins, so she
has knitted two blankets during her evening seasons and the coffee hour at church. As she gives Norah two packages, Norah feels the wisdom of a grandmother.
Norah opens the first package and finds a soft blanket. She feels that her lost daughter seems very near para. 59. Nevertheless, she finds playsuits instead of
another blanket she longed for when she opens the second package. She asks, “’Where’s the blanket you made for my little girl?’” p. 60.
“He had a sister,” Norah whispered, determined, looking around at all the faces. …
“Her name was Phoebe. I want somebody to say her name. Do you hear me?” she stood up. “I want someone to remember her name.” p. 60
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56 Norah does not want anyone to forget her daughter. She also wants David to
remember their daughter. That is why Norah gives David a camera. “… so he’d capture every moment, so he’d never forget” p. 112.
A deep loss cannot be easily erased. A few days after the birth of the twins David starts to be busy with his work. It is safety needs. Maslow says that it
includes needs of security in his life as cited in Petri, 1979, para. 303-304. David tries to find secure life by being busy in order to obscure memory about his
daughter and what he has decided. It also to solve feeling of fear aroused in David. According to Hebb, conflict is one of the sources of fear. It deals with
fears aroused by pain, loud noise, dead or mutilated body and strange persons or animal as cited in Beck, 1978, p. 194. David’s fear is aroused by pain of the
fact that his daughter has Down syndrome. That fact leads him to decide taking his daughter away. His fear is also aroused by the dead of his sister because of
heart defect. Meanwhile, Norah is in her progress to heal her emptiness of losing her daughter. In the emptiness of the house, she sometimes makes a trip to a
private cemetery where her daughter is buried. She stays there four hours in grief and sorrow para. 94. She keeps driving back to their old house almost everyday
although she and David agree about moving away into a new house. “’Because it’s the final thing,’ she said at once, surprised by the sureness and sorrow in her
voice. ‘The final way we leave her behind’” p. 110-111. Months after David and Norah move to a new house and sell the old house, Norah still cannot get the
daughter away from her mind. She thinks about her and wonders what her daughter is like para. 146. She has same feeling like when she is opening
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57 package from Flora Marshall. She feels her daughter is near. She says to David,
“’… Sometimes, honestly, I feel like she’s so close, just in the other room, and I’ve forgotten her. I know that must sound crazy, but it’s true’” p. 143.
Norah envies Kay Marshall. Norah sees Kay Marshal as a woman whose life is full of joy. “Kay lived in innocence, untouched by loss, believing that she
would always be safe; …” p. 162. She has two daughters. The first is Elizabeth.
She is born a week after Paul. The second is Angela. Neighbourhood say that Kay has easy and perfect labours. Compared to Kay, Norah’s life has changed after
Phoebe dies. She passes days with a deep grief of losing Phoebe para. 160-161. She has stopped hoping to have another baby because David does not want it.
Norah loses her daughter and becomes afraid of further loss. Losing a daughter leads Norah to a deep grief. She becomes afraid of
losing people she loves. She is afraid of losing David para. 111. She is also afraid of losing Paul, his son. Paul knows Norah’s fear. She sometimes makes her
hand hold on Paul’s cheek and look at him hard as if he may be lost para. 271. Norah says to David that she is afraid of losing Paul when Paul is going to get to a
jail because of stealing a car. “’I lost one child,’ she said, turning to him. ‘I will not lose another’” p. 383.
Because of her sister’s motivation, Norah tries to get out from her sorrow. She arranges a party as the first movement. Another intention of the party is to get
David’s attention and David’s acknowledgement that she is existed. She loves to prepare all of it. She cleans and decorates the house. She also takes a risk to get
wasps away because Paul and David are allergic of them. She hopes David
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58 pleased and surprised to find all those hard works para. 176. She says to David
that she enjoys the planning and the cooking because it gives her pleasure. On purpose, she says, “’I have a lot of talents,’ she added, coolly, ‘whether you
realize it or not’” p. 181. Finding a job is her next way to fight against her helplessness and sorrow
and to get out from grief, pain and loss because of her daughter’s death and David’s change. It is her sister who suggests her to find a job. She is working in a
travel agency. As years passed, she can achieve the highest level of her career. She owns the travel agency. She becomes very busy year by year. She comes
home midnight almost everyday. “Her days were hectic, busy, satisfying-and every night she came home to a house full of silence” p. 222-223.
It is in a family vacation in a beach David’s family has a guest named Howard. He comes to praise David’s work. Enthusiastically, David explains his
work to Howard. It makes Norah bored and thinks that David pays no attention to her along these years. Meanwhile, Howard catches Norah’s beauty and praises
her. Then, Norah has an affair with Howard. From that moment, she comes to other affairs para. 221-240. The affairs are motivated by Norah’s need of love or
belongingness. As Maslow conveys the idea about human motivation, the third level of hierarchy of needs is belongingness need as cited in Petri, 1979, pp. 303-
304. People need affection, and Norah needs affection. Whereas, Norah thinks that she does not get affection she needs from David since their relationship is
getting worse.
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59 From the analysis above, David’s decision gives a lot of influence to
Norah. She experiences a deep loss of the death of her daughter. She wants everybody to remember her daughter. Norah also envies other people whose their
life seems happy and away from lost. Losing her daughter causes Norah to be afraid of losing David and Paul. She tries to get out from her sorrow by holding a
party and taking a job.
c. On Paul
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