Symbolism In Ron Rindo's Learning To Drive

“They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite” (Cassandra Clare). Grieving time is limited, especially in the case of Ron Rindo writes the mournful story “Learning to Drive” where the nameless protagonist’s wife, Elaine, is driving him home from the hospital. He just had his leg amputated due to cancer. When he gets home there is a party where he meets his daughter’s new boyfriend, and receives gifts from everyone. The next few days the protagonist easily adapts to this “new” life. But soon after he is called back into the doctors’ office to find that the amputation did not help, and the cancer still flourished within him. Thereafter, he plunges into depression. His family tries to intervene and help him, but he declines and disregards their efforts. Through the protagonist’s grieving, Rindo develops indirect characterization and symbolism within the characters in the story. Rindo pulls the characters through the stages
In “Learning to Drive” Rindo shows us that you have to accept what comes at you in life or hold onto it’s weight. The protagonist began trying to convince others that his situation is miniscule compared to the worldly conflicts around them. Then he falls into depression and loses hope for himself. Once his family intervenes he starts to get better. Within this there is a lot of symbolism in characters. Like Neon, Sarah’s boyfriend, who is a foreshadow of the protagonists nearing due date. the family dog, Snuggles who acts like everyone else and steers clear of the topic of their father/husband’s cancer. __Cassandra Clare reveals a very contradicting quote for this story. She claims that wounds take time to heal, but the “source of grief” has a time limit. The source of grief does have a time limit, for you, the source of the grief, does not have forever to live to overcome the