| Description |
Grief is a component of immigration present no matter the time period or mode of migration. In the Distance by Hernan Diaz tells the story of a young Swedish immigrant to America during the 1800s gold rush as he traverses the country in search of his brother while Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck relays the contemporary stories of African refugees in Berlin, Germany seeking legal recognition as refugees so that they can remain and work in the country. The individual circumstances of the immigrants complicates their ability to process their grief, interfering with their assimilation to their new communities as they struggle to adapt to life far from home after experiencing substantial, continual losses. The economic and social landscape of the countries they migrate to further complicates both the mourning and assimilation processes as the immigrants struggle to communicate and relate to their counterparts in either the western territory of the United States or modern-day Berlin. |
