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In Alan Paton’s Cry, The Beloved Country, James Jarvis’ grief after the loss of his son, Arthur Jarvis, a prominent advocate for justice for black South Africans, prompts him to undergo a moral conversion. His deceased son’s journal shocks the equilibrium of ignorance that James Jarvis had pleasured himself in functioning in. In James Joyce’s “The Dead,” the character of Gabriel, after receiving shocking news finds that “his soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead (203).” Although Gabriel’s news of his wife’s past lover is not news that his wife is dead, but rather, news that results in Gabriel finding himself insignificant and even dead to his own wife. James Jarvis is able to turn his shock and grief into a product that ultimately yields a product of betterment for others, while Gabriel, filled with anger, feels as though all things have come to an end, and he, physically and spiritually, is dead. Although both gentlemen both enter the same grieving process, James Jarvis is ultimately able to deal with grief in a more productive and altruistic manner. James Jarvis’s moral alteration is a direct result of his grief. After the death of his son, James Jarvis changes, presumably