Wes Anderson, Unexamined Grief, and Pediatric Chaplaincy: An Autoethnographic Reflection

This essay combines autoethnographic narratives along with the films of U.S. film director Wes Anderson to provoke and unlock a buried grief of serving as a pediatric hospital chaplain. Anderson is one of the most well-known U.S. film directors. Even if an individual has not seen one of his eleven feature-length films, his aesthetic, eccentricity, and production design are well known and have reached meme status on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Buried within the pastel pastiche are themes of grief and trauma. The author moves through these themes alongside Anderson’s cinematic universe and offer possibilities for communal care in an Andersonian manner.