The Irony of Ward’s homesickness
Ward elucidates, “My homesickness always meant that the thought of going home was exhilarating and comforting but over the past four years, that sense of promise turned to dread. When my brother died in October 2000, it was as if all the tragedy that had haunted my family’s life took shape in that great wolf of DeLisle, of a world of darkness and grief, and that great thing was bent of beating us.” Before the death, Ward would be enchanted about returning to DeLisle. However, after her brother’s demise, the homesickness transmutes into trepidation. The ironic conversion of her homesickness is attributed to the recollections of her brother which materialize when she is at DeLisle. The remembrances disturb her family which faults DeLisle for subsidizing the death. Psychoanalytically, Ward and her family Project their agony of losing Robert to DeLisle, which is why they equate the entire locality to a wolf.
The Irony of “Rog to rise out of the back, alive”
Ward recollects, “After the people dispersed and Rog’s immediate family locked the house and turned off all the lights, we milled in the street waiting. We waited as if we could will the hearse back to the house, will Rog to rise out of the back, alive. Will him to joke, to smile.” The expectation of Rog’s revivification is idealistic considering that death is irrevocable. Manifestly, Ward and her associates are in denial about Rog’s demise which makes them to mill with the hope that Rog will miraculously join them. The impracticable expectancy is a constituent of their lamentation.
