Shaila’s Package Symbol Analysis

Shaila Bhave’s package represents the habitual weight of grief that Shaila carries. On a sunny winter day, Shaila runs a small errand to Yonge Street, where she picks up a package. While walking back home through the park, she notices something rustling in the trees. She looks up and sees one final vision of her family, and they tell her that her “time has come” and to “go, be brave.” She does not know where the voyage will end and doesn’t know what direction she’ll take, but she drops the package on a park bench and starts walking. It’s clear, then, that the package doesn’t consume her attention or excessively weigh her down, similar to how her grief doesn’t necessarily occupy all of her attention or emotional energy but is still with her wherever she goes. The fact that she leaves the package behind when her family urges her to “go, be brave” doesn’t mean she leaves her grief—or the memory of her family—behind, but that she is beginning to move toward a new mode of life that will perhaps make it possible for her to find some kind of normalcy once again. In other words, she lets herself begin to come back to life after being devastated by grief. In turn, the package itself represents the idea that it’s necessary, at some point, to stop carrying around certain emotions in order to move on, even if doing so seems impossible.