The grieving process is, in my opinion, different to different people. The amount of time and pain it takes for a person to finally accept the fact that a loved one is dead, is something that can lead to either a healthy or non-healthy type of grieving. Be Right Back was an episode that detailed the grieving process that Martha went through. It was instantly understood that she was disconsolate after learning about the death of Ash 1, and this was why she refused the idea provided by Sarah at the funeral. Sarah proposed to have Martha signed up for a "program" that could help with her loss; however, Martha seemed to be against this idea. After learning that Sarah signed her up to program, and that the program was actually a way that she could communicate with a "virtual" form of Ash, she confronted Sarah, stating that she did not want to be in any part of it. Martha's dissatisfaction with Sarah's proposal is something that could be understood by many. As I observed in my class today, the majority of the students agreed that they would not use this type of "remedy" to the grieving process, if it was available. Furthermore, some noted that this would be classified as an unhealthy type of grieving.
Although I am unsure if I would personally use this type of communication if it was available, I believe it is not always unhealthy. Involving yourself in a type of program like the one Martha was exposed to, presents a thin line between how healthy grieving could quickly take its turn; however, as observed in this episode, Martha does not continue to have Ash 2 alongside her after time passes. In the end, it was showed how Martha finally decided to only visit Ash 2 with her daughter on the weekends. This explains how her grieving was not unhealthy due to the fact that she did not need to maintain Ash 2 by her side, even after her daughter was born. Furthermore, it shows how acceptance, in the end, is a way that a person could see that the grieving process was a healthy one.
6 comments:
I completely agree. I believe Sarah should've given her something to help cope and reminisce instead of something that'll cause her desire for Ash to come back even stronger. When someone you love dies, of course you're going to wish they were still with you, but you know that's impossible. Sarah introduced an alternative to coping, which caused damaging effects.
You said that this episode was an example between the thin line between healthy and unhealthy, and I completely agree. It definitely seemed as if Martha was attempting to let Ash2 completely into her life at certain points, but in the end, she realized on her own that it wasn't right. The method itself wasn't wrong, but the risk of it was. It takes a person being able to fully accept a situation like this to find the strength to grieve healthily.
I think that her extreme need to bring Ash back in whatever form possible is a sign of unhealthy grieving. If she really was grieving in a healthy way, like you said, then why would she continue to hang on to Ash 2 when she isn't grieving anymore? I think it's because she still wants him a part of her and her daughters lives and she'll take whatever she can get. I think falsifying humans for this type of means can be dangerous and extremely unhealthy.
I don't think it was completely unhealthy until Martha got Ash 2 in robot form. She puts him in the attic and allows herself and her child to visit on the weekend and special occasions. I don't think this is very healthy for her or her daughter to have scheduled days to grieve the loss of a husband/father who she has an almost-perfect physical replication of in her attic. I think that would leave a kid extremely confused and with an artificial sense of who her father really was.
I think it is very unhealthy to be able to communicate with someone who has passed on. Martha though that being able to talk to Ash would give her closure but it ended up making her become unstable.I believe that this kind of technology should not be created because it will cause people to not be able to realize that their loved one has past on and is in a better place.
I don't think Martha meant for it to get as far as it did, I think she was just trying to grieve and it just got out of hand. When a person is grieving, especially over someone as close as Ash was to her, they aren't always capable of thinking and rationalizing in the same way they normally would. So, I think partly the company that produces these services as well as society should partly be to blame. The company for making products that essentially prey on people who aren't necessarily thinking rationally, and society for not realizing that what this company is doing is not healthy for the grieving individuals.
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