Lucy Knisley Analysis

Staring below, to the deepest ends of the sea, she notes how “[i]t evokes a terrifying, humbling, primal fear” (Knisley 99). This fear of the unknown parallels with the fear of death as she realizes the limited time she has with her grandparents, disabling her from repressing the idea of death. As Nelson explains “self-esteem becomes an anxiety buffer in that it helps people deny their mortality” (Nelson 214). However, for Lucy her self-esteem drops during the trip to the crushing stress of taking care of her parents and feeling alone. Her loneliness is highlighted in various instances in the book, in which one moment she is shown contemplating her day and choosing to be the caretaker alone in her dark room (Knisley 46). In her inability to deny the idea of death, she is faced with the overwhelming fear in which she does not know how to cope and is unable to sleep. She describes the cruise as “a metaphor for mortality. The whole world is rocking back and forth” (107). To …show more content…
Her grandfather Allen writes in his diary about a man named Bill who died in the war leading him to think “about life and about destiny” (Knisley 65) While not facing death in terms of aging, Allen encounters death through the loss of a fellow soldier. This diary entry enables Lucy to connect with her grandfather by seeing that they share the same inquisitive thoughts on life at a similar age. Often, the age differences create a divide in the ability to understand one another, leading to people creating stereotypes based on ages. Andrew defines this act of classification as attributing “generally unfavorable, characteristics to individuals on the sole basis of their belonging to a particular age cohort” (Andrew 57). Nevertheless, the diary entries provide Lucy Knisley an inner view of her grandfather’s thoughts at her age, enabling her to connect with him and see past his current