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Judith Templeton is a Canadian social worker in charge of carrying out government communications with the people who lost loved ones in the terrorist attack. Judith says the government has to distribute money to some people and get others to sign legal documents. She wants Shaila Bhave to help her in this process because, though the government has translators, Judith thinks they’re missing a “human touch.” Some of the people she’s trying to reach, Judith says, don’t speak English and have never dealt with money—others, she says, are simply “hysterical” or depressed. She thus identifies Shaila as a potential emissary, mistaking Shaila’s calmness for stoic strength. Judith’s knowledge of grief seems to come exclusively from textbooks, and she says that six months after the tragedy, only a few relatives of those who have died have reached the “correct” stage of grief. In this way, the story presents her as out of touch and culturally incompetent, unwilling and unable to accept and understand people who are different from her. It’s arguable that the story’s title, “The Management of Grief,” can be read as Judith’s attempt to shoehorn the deepest, most profound and difficult human experiences into a sterile, bureaucratic model of coping that doesn’t address the needs of the people it claims to serve. Shaila eventually grows tired of Judith’s cluelessness and stops assisting her without explaining why.
Judith Templeton Quotes in The Management of Grief
The The Management of Grief quotes below are all either spoken by Judith Templeton or refer to Judith Templeton. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Management of Grief
Quotes
Dr. Sharma, the treasurer of the Indo-Canada society, pulls me into the hallway. He wants to know if I am worried about money. His wife, who has just come up from the basement with a tray of empty cups and glasses, scolds him. “Don’t bother Mrs. Bhave with mundane details.”
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Get LitCharts A+“Nothing I can do will make any difference,” I say. “We must all grieve in our own way.”
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“In the textbooks on grief management,” [Judith] replies—I am her confidante, I realize, one of the few whose grief has not sprung bizarre obsessions—“there are stages to pass through: rejection, depression, acceptance, reconstruction.” She has compiled a chart and finds that six months after the tragedy, none of us still reject reality, but only a handful are reconstructing. “Depressed Acceptance” is the plateau we’ve reached.
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Judith Templeton Quotes in The Management of Grief
The The Management of Grief quotes below are all either spoken by Judith Templeton or refer to Judith Templeton. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Management of Grief
Quotes
Dr. Sharma, the treasurer of the Indo-Canada society, pulls me into the hallway. He wants to know if I am worried about money. His wife, who has just come up from the basement with a tray of empty cups and glasses, scolds him. “Don’t bother Mrs. Bhave with mundane details.”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Unlock explanations and citation info for this and every other The Management of Grief quote.
Plus so much more...
Get LitCharts A+“Nothing I can do will make any difference,” I say. “We must all grieve in our own way.”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“In the textbooks on grief management,” [Judith] replies—I am her confidante, I realize, one of the few whose grief has not sprung bizarre obsessions—“there are stages to pass through: rejection, depression, acceptance, reconstruction.” She has compiled a chart and finds that six months after the tragedy, none of us still reject reality, but only a handful are reconstructing. “Depressed Acceptance” is the plateau we’ve reached.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
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