GREY’S ANATOMY – Story & The Brain

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Experiencing Comfort

It feels like 2020 was just yesterday, where the world around us got shut down and we were locked in our homes, trying to make sense of what is happening. I had discovered the show, Grey’s Anatomy, which is considered a medical show with all sorts of drama. Whether it was a marriage falling apart, a plane crash, or a fatal car crash, I found myself trying to connect with the characters as they feel their different sort of emotions. There is one episode that has always stuck with me throughout the years, titled “Help, I’m Alive.” To sum it up, a bride fell off the balcony on her wedding day which lead to a number of complications. Because of these complications, she passed away. During her time in the hospital, the characters of Grey’s Anatomy made it possible for her and her fiance to get married in the hospital. Shinning their phone lights, I found myself crying my eyes out. My mind ran to the thought of true love and what it is like to have someone by your side. This episode and show has moved me in ways that I never thought it could.

Analyzing The Comforting Experience

Reflecting on the comfort that Grey’s Anatomy gives me, I am able to tie it with the experience of connection and identification. Often times, any piece of literature, video game, or movie/show, allows for connections to be made. Not only connection but it allows you as the reader/viewer to identify with something within, essentially placing yourself in the character’s shoes.

Meredith Grey, the most resilient woman on the show, is the character that I identify with the most, the strongest connection that I feel. Because of her character, I am able to find comfort, comfort that if Meredith Grey was able to get past something difficult, so can I. You can argue that it is silly but once you have lived life a little, I feel that it is easy to look at fictional character as real people, living every day life.

Something that I can confidently say is that I am an open book. Those who know me know that I have gone through a few bumps the last three years. My brother passed away at the age of fourteen, my father was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer, and my mother walked out when times got tough. Everyone goes through moments in their life where they want to stop, stop the things around them and freeze time but that is not possible. As I think about what has happened, I will always turn back to Meredith Grey. From losing her mother to Alzheimer’s, having her husband die in a tragic car accident, almost passing away herself in a plane crash, Meredith is able to stand with her head held high. This is where I find myself identifying with her. I am able to feel my emotions but I do not allow it to define me, just like Meredith has done the last twenty seasons of Grey’s Anatomy.

Features That Prompt Comfort

What exactly shaped my experience of comfort with Grey’s Anatomy was the aspect of the plot because no two episodes were the same. Normally, you would not place comfort and change in the same category but the reason as to why I would is because Meredith Grey has always stuck around. Throughout the storyline, there are times where important characters left, in ways that have caused me emotional distress. But, no matter what happened in one episode or another, she has stayed. Either physically in the episodes or through voice- over narration.

Meredith will always be around, that is something I will never question within her character. It makes me think of present- day in the show, where Grey moved to Boston due to wellbeing of her daughter. This does not stop her from being there, from being present in the hospital, being the powerful character that she is. This inspires me to be the woman that I am today because no matter where life takes me, I try to be present. I try to remind those who I love and care that I can be two minutes away or a hundred miles away and still be there.

I reflect on myself, almost five years ago, to the person I am today. Five years ago, I was sitting in my bed, discovering Grey’s Anatomy, with a global pandemic happening right outside my window. I am not the same girl I was, I have gone through life and grown as a woman. I am fortunate enough to be sitting in my college dorm, taking an amazing class where it is going to push myself open my eyes to endless possibilities that literature has to offer. If it was not for the people around me, I would not be where I am today. Just like Meredith Grey, without her people, she would not be standing as the character that she portrays.

Narrative Technology That Creates Comfort

The feeling of comfort came easy due the narrative technology, character. One example of character that jumps out to me when I think about Grey’s Anatomy is reality shifter. This is described as “presenting an alternate reality in the form of an absurd or unrealistic plot, character, or storyworld.” An episode that makes me think of this is “Someone Saved My Life.” Meredith Grey suffered a COVID- induced coma, where she entered a new life, a reality she can never face in real life. Derek, her dead husband, can be seen from a distance. I remember, even myself, was shocked to see the man everyone loved standing there. They were at a beach, where you can hear the waves hitting the sand, it brought a different sort of peace to the watchers and Meredith. Derek and Meredith reunite and there are different conversations and questions that need to be answered. This alternate reality will stay a wish for Grey, because when she comes back to everyone, her husband will still be dead. There will be no beach and no conversations.

This video highlights reality shifter, especially when Derek tells Meredith that the sand is not even real. It proves that Meredith entered an alternate reality.

Within narrative technology, there are different aspects other than character that allow the feeling of comfort to come easy to me. A different aspect is narration, more importantly, soliloquy. This can be described as “a narration technology that allows spectators or readers to hear or read the inner conflict of an individual character.”

Meredith’s soliloquies solidified the connection I felt with her character because her soliloquies provided insight into her emotional state and often set the tone for the episode, whether she’s dealing with trauma, a relationship, or existential questions about her identity. I often found her words going through my brain, making me things I have never thought of before. Meredith Grey is a phenomenal character that has shaped me into the woman I am from the last five years.