Grief

As the catalyzing event in Chorus is the suicide of the cold and distant family matriarch, Marie, it makes sense that much of the novel is curious about the consequences and residues of grief. Kauffman spends a great deal of time on the childhoods of the Shaw children as they attempt to make sense of their mother's sickness and death. She also examines the ways in which the wounds left by that grief continue to plague the Shaws into their adulthood.

The childhoods of the Shaws are largely marked by feelings of abandonment and confusion, a sense that springs primarily from the lack of motherly instinct in Marie. Although Jim tries his best to act as a loving father to the children, they often find his parenting methods well-meaning but ineffectual, while Marie's complete isolation from many of their family events (and cruel demeanor when she...