Coping With Grief as “Bearing Up” and “Bearing Down”: An Exchange on James Agee’s “A Death in the Family”

This paper comments on the novel ” A Death in the Family” which relates events following a fatal car accident & how the surviving family copes with the death. Discusses the role of Catholicism in dealing with the reality of death. States that religious faith can contribute to the denial of death but can also be a great source of emotional support.