Kevin's Watch

Maybe I'm stating the obvious, maybe I'm reading things into the text, but doesn't Covenant's soul journey in the Land correspond to the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance)?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model

Well, it's not really in separate stages, because most of them (especially denial) stick around for much of the time. But ya, I'd say it's applicable.

Are these stages of grief specific to an individual who has been told they are shortly to die, or do they pertain to grief generally? [eg if you are told your child/friend/parent is to die].

TC was certainly dying an 2C, and IIRC during TPTP - but what would the scource of his grief be, since he was basically unaware of this in the latter case and resigned to it in the former; his translation to the Land, his leprosy, the loss of his family, all of these? It's a good idea and warrents thought, but needs expansion.

My understanding of these stages of grief is that they apply to any situation one may grieve over. Not just death, but things such as a house burning down, a disability in a loved one when one thought all was well (such as working through and finally accepting my son's ASD diagnosis over time, or a beloved relative's decline in to age related issues), the loss of a long time career, the dissolution of an intense relationship, etc.

Covenant was grieving his life pre-leprosy. All those stages would certainly apply to someone having to make such fundamental adjustments.

I can certainly see where Covenant, in the Land - in the First Chronicles - had been engaged in denial, anger, bargaining, and acceptance. Possibly even in that order, although I think Covenant played the anger after bargaining and before acceptance.

But I can't put my finger on anything you could call 'depression' - or, more specifically, the loss of meaning and the pointlessness of life, as according to the Kübler-Ross model. It seems hard to believe life is meaningless when archetypal evil is out to get you.

Maybe this was represented by Covenant's plan to hide in the mountains and achieve a stalemate with Foul?

I think the 'anger' bit applies to his life post-leprosarium and pre-Land: all that frustration an anger building up in him due to him being rejected by society.

Depression: if one looks at the two first chronicles together, I can see a certain depression after the failed quest for the One Tree.