Psychological Analysis of Grief and Trauma in 'Ordinary People'

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the 1980's movie "Ordinary People," directed by Robert Redford, focusing on the psychological themes of grief, pain, and troubled relationships within a family coping with the loss of their elder son. The analysis centers on the character of Conrad, the younger brother, and his struggles with grief, guilt, and suicidal tendencies following his brother's death. The essay explores the different ways in which each family member—Conrad, the father Calvin, and the mother Beth—expresses and copes with their grief, highlighting the impact of miscommunication and suppressed emotions on their relationships. It also touches upon psychological concepts such as self-victimization, the importance of communication in overcoming trauma, and the potential consequences of suppressing emotions, such as PTSD. The essay concludes that the movie serves as an artistic representation of the complexities of human relationships and the significance of accepting reality to foster emotional well-being. The essay is available on Desklib, a platform providing study tools and resources for students.

Running head: “ORDINARY PEOPLE” ANALYSIS
“ORDINARY PEOPLE” ANALYSIS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1“ORDINARY PEOPLE” ANALYSIS
The 1980's movie “Ordinary People” deals with three ordinary individuals in an
extraordinary situation. This piece of art is a creation of Robert Redford who dwells into the
issue of problematic relationships among three individuals and their expressional outburst in
terms of multiple emotions. This movie is based on the plot where a family loses their elder son
in a boat accident. All the characters of the movie centres on the death of the older son and
Conrad who is the younger brother are in deeper trouble than the rest of the family members
since he lived in the shadow of his brother. This movie develops the complexity of psychological
issues including grief and suicidal tendencies of Conrad in the later part of the film. This paper
will analyze the effect of the emotion, pain and anguish that Conrad goes through and try to
interpret the same within the context of the plot of the movie.
The movie depicts the pain and grief of Conrad where he tried to commit suicide soon
after the incident and spent days in the hospital. This expression of emotion is a natural outcome
of the incident he witnessed which made him believe that the death of Buck was due to his fault.
This character experiences extreme aversion to life since it is his belief that he is left with no
more motivation in life and there is no purpose left after the death of his elder brother. This kind
of situation arises among the children since their identities are always linked to their immediate
close individual (Maziade , 2017). Same with Conrad, his character was not complete without his
brother's presence in his life. This self-victimization of Conrad leads him towards decisions of
ending his life, and it is quite normal to take such steps when individuals are carried away by

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their emotions than their rational judgments, it may also happen among children whose
emotional faculties are not well developed and they tend to judge everything on the basis of their
experiences in life (Kaushik et al., 2016). The other two characters in the film, the father, Calvin
is concerned with the complex nature of the relationship he shares with his wife and the self-
victimization comes to play an important role here too since he believes that the nature of their
relationship in the family is due to the lack of communication in the family and especially with
his wife. It is important to note that the grief arising out of the father’s character is because of the
failure of a successful relationship that can bind the family together and it is due to this lack of
clarity in communication, guilt comes to play an important role here. This guilt along with the
health issues of the son creates anxiety to the father since he does not want to have the same kind
of childhood like his own where he was brought up in an orphanage. The last and the significant
character of the movie is the mother who is Beth. She is an expensively maintained lady who
spends most of her time socializing and trying to make the house an “ideal home”. She is a
depiction of the strong lady who even though bothered by the past, does not want to relive them
and tries to move on. This sort of behavior on the part of the mother is the source of the
complexity and conflict between Conrad and his mother.
Conrad suffers from mental illness and its attempt to hide the natural outburst of
emotions what creates the center of the problem. He has symptoms like keeping silence and not
being engaging in any kind of conversation even when the doctor tells him to communicate. The

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source of all this pain and grief is basically the hidden feeling, love, anxiety and many other
feelings that Conrad tries to hide in order to live happily. In the movie “ordinary people”, all the
characters go through an extended period of grief and their expressions are different from each
other in terms of their acceptance or denial of the mixed emotions. This is important to note that
the family goes through this grieving process not because of the death of Buck rather it is due to
the existential attitudes that each of the characters have towards their life. There are stages of this
grief which is anger, guilt, acute depression, denial of the reality and most importantly
acceptance. It is to be noticed that the denial of the existence and the suppression of expression
especially when there is the history of any traumatic situation, it is crucial to have
communication in order to come out of such condition (Cook et al., 2017).
According to the thought suppression literature, there are certain costs of suppressing and
denial of any form of conscious experience that one goes through because this situation leads to
the formation of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) (Cook et al., 2017). From the given
plot, it can be derived that the denial of the existence of the dark past of the mother and non-
acceptance of something serious like mental illness which is attached to societal stigma led to the
feeling on the part of Conrad that his mother only loved Buck and not him. This situation could
have been different just if the family had not suffered from any form of miscommunication. The
personal issues of the couple get reflected into the already complicated mental state of Conrad,
and this complicates the situation even to a greater extent. It is significant to accept reality as it is

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and live the way one wants to live. As part of reality, there are situations and experiences in life
which shapes the way we behave and express (Hobfoll et al., 2018). However, any denial on the
part of the individual often complicates the situation by interpreting the case in a different way
(Corrigan, 2016). This movie is an artistic masterpiece that has been able to show nuances of
emotions, and the nomenclature is an addition to the brilliant script and plot of the movie. This
movie through the character of Conrad and other family members tries to dwell into the
complexity of human relationship, their expressions and acceptance of the reality. This also
provides a holistic understanding of the possible outcome of a young adult who has witnessed
situations like this.

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