Meaning making in loss in Kyung Sook Shin's novel I'll Be Right There

This study analyzes the meaning making process in response to loss experienced by characters in the Korean novel I'll Be Right There by Kyung Sook Shin. The death of someone emotionally significant becomes a loss because it breaks the existing attachment bond, eliciting grief as a response. Loss can disrupt one’s core meaning structures, which consist of the beliefs, assumptions, and values that shape an individual's understanding of self and the world. The disruption undermines one's sense of coherent self, causing distress. Using Gillies and Neimeyer’s meaning making model of grief and Worden’s four tasks of mourning, this study explores the characters’ grief as a process of meaning reconstruction in the event of loss with the ultimate goal of moving on with life. The findings reveal that while Jung Yoon and Myungsuh gradually integrate their losses to their self-narrative through meaning making, Miru becomes trapped in a cycle of unresolved grief. Their meaning making is also found to bring constructive changes to Jung Yoon and Myungsuh’s sense of self and grief resolution, while resulting in destructive changes to Miru’s. The differences in the process and impact show that grief as a meaning making process is highly personal and distinct.

EMMANUELLE SIBARANI Jenny Mochtar Djundjung (Advisor 1); Theophilus Jokri (Examination Committee 1); Liem Satya Limanta (Examination Committee 2) Universitas Kristen Petra English Digital Theses Undergraduate Thesis A Critical Thesis A Critical Thesis No. 01012453/ING/2025; Emmanuelle Sibarani (A11210064) MEANING-TEXT THEORY (LINGUISTICS); EMOTIONS AND COGNITION; GRIEF--FICTION

Files