Rabbit Hole ResponseAbigail Feldman2/19/15

Im going to be honest, Jay, this play was really hard to get through. Not because I didnt like it, or because the writing was poor of anything like that, but because the subject matter is very personal for me, and it hit home. Its certainly nothing I plan on talking about in class, but I have experienced a very personal loss in my life that made reading this play feel like reading a diary about my past self. But that, I think, is a testament to both the quality and excellence of the writing, and also why it was able to win a Pulitzer. Anyone who has ever experienced a loss of some kind, any parent who has ever lost a child, any child who has ever lost a sibling, or a cousin, or a friend, will understand this play on a deeper level. There are so many different stages of grief, and one thing I loved about this play was that it portrayed so many different levels of them. Each character seemed to represent a different level, or stage. Becca is denial, trying to almost erase her son from her immediate life, remove the things that are colored by her memory of him to escape the pain that being reminded of him brings her. Howie is escaping into the past, clinging to his sons dog, watching old tapes and home videos of Danny, pressuring Becca to sleep with him so he can try for another child. Nat is old grief, grief that has been with her for so long that its a part of her now, an old friend. Izzy is in that hard place of being affected and saddened by the death, but knowing that it didnt touch her on nearly as personal a level as it did everyone else. Another thing I loved about this play, is that Becca made it very clear that wasnt going to let anybody else tell her how to grieve for her son. When Nat and Howie try to pressure her into attending support groups and talking to them about her sons death, she clams up and becomes very aggressive, and that is so amazingly realistic. Different people deal with loss in different ways, some people take great comfort in support groups and religion, and some people prefer to work things out on their own, no matter how unhealthy is it. Its their own grief and they have to work through it. Also, I loved the character of Jason. He seemed like such a wise person, even though he was so young. The accident clearly wasnt his fault, it wasnt anybodys fault, and we see that he doesnt feel some guilt about it, but I dont think he blames himself. I dont believe he wants to meet and talk with Becca so that she can forgive him, or absolve him of his guilt, I think he just wants to help Becca. To meet the parents of the child he inadvertently killed, and offer his story to them as a dedication to their son. I loved this play. It wasnt a nice play or an easy play, or even a play with a particularly happy, heartwarming ending. But it was realistic, starkly honest, and strangely cathartic, in a way.