Two metaphors that Lewis uses to describe grief are as a dark house locked against him and as a spiral.
Losing his wife leaves Lewis feeling that both God and his former life have forsaken him. Both are like a house with no lights in the window and a door locked against him. No matter how hard he beats on the door, it will not open.
Lewis notes that Christ felt the same way on...
Two metaphors that Lewis uses to describe grief are as a dark house locked against him and as a spiral.
Losing his wife leaves Lewis feeling that both God and his former life have forsaken him. Both are like a house with no lights in the window and a door locked against him. No matter how hard he beats on the door, it will not open.
Lewis notes that Christ felt the same way on the cross, and later he begins to wonder if he is kicking too hard against the door, when God simply said knock and it will be open to you. He also comes to understand that this house he wanted to reenter was like a house of cards. God needed for it to be knocked down so that Lewis could learn to base his life on a firmer spiritual foundation.
In chapter 3, Lewis likens grief to a spiral. You can think you are over it or some aspect of it and then it comes back and hits you again all over. It feels like rounding over old ground again and again. Lewis realizes, as he uses the image of a spiral, that grieving is a process. The first image reinforces the intense pain of grief as a form of aloneness. The second image reinforces the sharp, cutting pain that comes through the repetitive nature of grief.
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