Consider and describe the rituals, beliefs, and habits around death associated with your religion, your society, your family. In what ways do they express grief, restrain it, ignore it?

Describe your personal experience with death and with grieving. In what way is it similar to that of the author? In what way is it different?

What symbolic meaning can be gleaned from the repeated references to the blood on the floor? What kind of metaphorical blood has been spilled, or is spilled, as the result of his death? Consider the author's conclusion that the blood came from John's mouth when he chipped a tooth as he fell. What else has been metaphorically "chipped", or damaged, in the aftermath of his death?

What about the author's thought processes, experiences of memory/emotion, etc. might be described as "magical"? Is the kind of magic she experiences...