Anticipation Set Response for Year of Impossible Goodbyes

After thinking about the title, I imagine that in the book Year of Impossible Goodbyes, similar to So Far From the Bamboo Grove, characters are forced, due to war, to leave behind people and things they love to go to another, foreign, land. Not only do they have to say goodbye to these things but also to other less tangible things like their freedom and their ability to sleep peacefully at night. I think the quote about the life of the spirit being long and life being short applies to the book because, while life may be ephemeral and fleeting, the life of the spirit does not soon give up or quit as easily, but can keeps on going for a long time. It could also mean that there is hope because there is an after life where the spirit of a person never dies but goes on to a better place.

Hope would play a huge role in my heart because hope is my heartbeat; it keeps me going. It's just like why go on if nothing has meaning, If there is no hope? Hope is everything. What is hope? That is a good question. Hope is a reason to live, it's something you are looking forward to. Hope is waking up in the morning and expecting great things to happen to you that day and the next day and the next. I would imagine I would need this hope all the same if I were in Sookan's situation.