Grief and Suffering Theme Analysis in The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker Essay Example

When Covid-19 hit Glenview and the rest of the world hard, everyone accepted that things would be hard, and certain things just had to change. For my family, a loss that caused us to suffer and face some harsh realities was when we had to say goodbye to my grandparents as we stood in the airport and watched them fly to their homeland, due to the new rules. Not only was it hard for us to adapt to their missing presence, but we also were trapped at home due to all the new rules this mysterious virus was throwing at us.  In the novel, The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, Julia’s life is also flipped upside down by a disaster known as ‘the slowing’. The slowing is just what it sounds like: the rotation of the earth around the sun slows down, and a 24 hour day is no longer normal and the days go by slower and slower as they get longer and longer. Communities and relationships get shattered because of the division and differences caused by real-timers and clock-timers. As Julia shares her experiences with the reader, it becomes obvious that the loss of relationships and normalcy causes substantial grief and suffering in The Age of Miracles. 

In The Age of Miracles, suffering and grief is clearly caused by the loss of normalcy. The slowing forces everyone to pick between clock time and real time. Clock time follows the clock, while real timers follow the sun's rotation. While neither is required by the law, the majority of the world sticks to clock time, making it the more appealing option, but that doesn't always mean it was the easier one. On white nights, it becomes extremely difficult to sleep, and Julia explains how many products that were being sold to help this new insomnia, like blackout curtains, sleeping masks, herbal sleep remedies, sleeping pills and even chamomile tea, were all practically sold out. Although this affected many people, Julia’s mom was hit even harder.  Julia recalls, “The skin beneath her eyes turned a shadow gray. She cried over the tiniest thing. ‘I don't know why I'm crying,’ she'd say as she mopped up a broken wineglass or nursed a stubbed toe… I caught her sobbing once in her bathroom, crouched over a bottle of liquid makeup that had cracked open on the white tile, its contents slowly bleeding across the floor. Her spine arched and shook as she wept. It was the twentieth hour of light,” (Walker 110). Julia’s parents, friends, and almost the entire society was now struggling, even though staying on clock time was a conscious choice they all made. Especially evident in her mother’s experience, losing the ability to soundly sleep during white nights resulted in a lot of suffering. It caused the way that she reacts to change, and it definitely made it so much harder to function on a daily basis. But, even though clock timers had a hard time adjusting to these white nights, being a real timer wasn't exactly easy either.  Julia had always been fond of her neighbor Sylvia and loved the way she taught piano. But when the slowing blew in, Syliva and Julia’s family had two completely different views on how to react. When Sylvia’s decision to be a real timer got out to the public, people began to attack her and fear her, and her way of living had to change. One night, when Seth and Julia sneak into Sylvia’s backyard to spy, Sylvia notices them. Julia then thinks, “The usual sweep of her gestures, formerly so graceful, had been replaced by the tight crossing of her arms, the anxious biting of her lower lip… ‘I think you should both go home,’ she said. ‘Right now.’ I’d never heard her talk this way. As a teacher, she was endlessly patient and kind,” ( 240). Not only did Sylvia’s lifestyle change completely, but the type of person she once was is no longer the person she is now. Living in fear turned her into a cold and unwelcoming person. This loss of normalcy and stability in Sylvia’s life really caused her to become an outsider, and suffer such a rough change because of her decision to be a real timer. All in all, these examples show that suffering and grief in Julia’s friends and families lives is caused by the loss of normalcy. 

Suffering and grief in The Age of Miracles is also caused by the loss of relationships. For years and years Julia and Hannah had been inseparable best friends, a duo that Julia believed would last forever. But when the slowing hits sunny California hard, Hannah’s parents decide to move to Utah, and wait for ‘the end of the world’ there. Julia is devastated and misses her best friend, but continues hoping to see her when she comes back. One day out of the blue, Julia sees Hannah at school, but things no longer feel the same; Hannah has come back from Utah with a new best friend, a replacement for Julia. Later that night, Julia recalls, “That night I was too upset to fall asleep. I remember waking up at some late hour and cutting apart the bracelet I’d been making for Hanna. Then I dropped the scraps along with the charm bracelet she’d given me in a shoe box and shoved it into the back of my closet” (101). Julia’s actions display how hard it is to lose someone that you were so close to for so long. Julia physically wants to get rid of the things that remind her of Hanna, and likely wishes to get rid of the memories too. Without Hanna, her life is going to be extremely different, and, because of that, this loss will really affect her. Watching Hanna and her new best friend do the things that Julia and Hanna used to do can really cause her to suffer and wish that her life would go back to how it was. Another person who’s relationship with Julia is not the way it used to be, is Julia’s father. Julia’s parents have both had very different thoughts on the slowing. Julia’s dad has decided to continue to live his life normally and trust the doctors of the world to solve the problems the slowing has caused, while her mother is now constantly worrying. When her father claims to be at work, Julia catches him kissing her neighbor: Sylvia, a real timer who her mom is not a fan of. This freaks Julia out and later that day she thinks, “I hated him right then, sweeping into our house in his white lab coat as if he hadn't thrown it on only moments before walking through the door” (131). Julia learning this about her father entirely changed her perspective on the type of person he is and her feelings towards him. It may be hard for Julia to believe that her dad could really do this. This situation can cause Julia to suffer because she can never go back to trusting her dad after this. It is a tough situation for her, because she is forced to continue to act normal around her dad, and she doesn't know if it is her place to tell her mother about this situation. Overall, these examples show how Julia’s loss of relationship with her former best friend and her father also causes grief and suffering in The Age of Miracles. 

The loss of relationships and normalcy for the characters in The Age of Miracles evidently causes significant despair and suffering.Throughout the novel, Julia suffers from the loss of two major relationships, causing her to suffer because she kept those relationships for practically her entire life. This change greatly affects her, because she spent such a long time with them before. Julia’s mom and Sylvia are also negatively affected by a loss of normalcy. Because of the slowing, they no longer are the same type of person, and no longer act the same way. Karen Thompson Walker consciously made these losses obvious during the novel. Their purpose helps the reader explore the coming of age aspect in the novel. These losses not only help the reader see how Julia is affected and forced to mature throughout the story, but it also makes it evident that Julia’s friends and family needed to adapt and overcome these new obstacles that came with this worldwide unexplained phenomenon. It allows the reader to accept that outside forces can affect your life in new and unexpected ways, but just because something is unfamiliar and different doesn't mean it won't get closure in the end.