While my characters are still nebulously defined and their roles in creating a narrative are still uncertain, I feel that I should begin making reference to the sorts of character relationships I'll be writing about. This will inform me of further research; investigating, interviewing, and exploring the memoirs of those who've shared a similar experience to the one I'd like to capture in my writing.
Green will signify that the character is living, while blue will show that the character is deceased. The character relations will be written like this, and I may develop, alter and develop these relations, unless they're role becomes less potent or useful in comparison to others. These characters, their developments, and their relation to the larger narrative will be explored further on the blog, alongside my research.
Father and Son
The role of grief shaping a person's upbringing is arguably a massive definer as to how they respond to the world around them. The death of a parent, particularly at an early age, has a massive effect on how that person perceives themselves in relation to others. Additionally, the role of hereditary conditions can be seen to create anxiety and fatalism - if a child loses a parent to a particular heart condition, and they too are discovered to have this heart condition, the child is likely to be scared of ending up in a similar situation. This could be an interesting source of character conflict.
Sibling and Sibling
Siblings, despite humanity's shared apathy towards their own kin, are typically our first friends when growing up, and experience some of our most intimate moments by their presence. They're someone to rely on, especially as the years wind on. Losing someone with such a close (but oftentimes fraught, due to extraneous circumstances or conflicting personalities) connection can incite a miserable experience which can be explored through the mode of writing.
Grandparent and Grandchild
Often, our first experiences with death in the family come from its patriarchs or matriarchs - the heads of the families who brought up the subsequent generations, and have themselves changed from each one. A child's concept of death is typically different from that of an adult's and is something intriguing to demonstrate through poetry, as their relationship with their grandparent is likely to be vastly different from that of the previous generation.
Spouse and Spouse
Our culture places great value on marriage and its longevity in regards to creating a 'family unit'; many children grow up dreaming of finding 'the one' and develop a romantic interest. Losing a spouse has previously been treated as the end of the world, but in the contemporary culture of remarriages, partnerships, and easy access to dating, it's often thought that, after a certain amount of grieving, a person should be willing to move on and find love again: it is perceived as the pinnacle, after all. This can create tension between new partners and the deceased partner's relations, fights over the appropriate amount of time spent grieving, and suchlike. This, again, is something interesting to explore.
While these are merely four relations, different variations can yield entirely different situations and different reactions to these. Therefore, my later posts may reflect these relationship dynamics for my characters, although I may instead deviate and find other forms.
