Black Swans by Lauren Slater and Forth State of Matter by Joanne Beard are essays whose underlying themes both deal with loss of control. Lauren Slater and Joanne Beard develop different methods of retaining control of their lives but both woman prevailed in the end. L uren Slater loses control of her life when her OCD Osessive-Compulsive disorder, made her mid-twenties insurmountable. “Obsessive-compulsive disorder is pervasive and extreme, inundating the person’s life to the …showed first 75 words of 421 total…

…showed last 75 words of 421 total…them. Slater wrote “I must pause many times as I write this and do a ritual count to thirty. It’s distracting, to say the least, but I still write this.” Beard grieves and accepts reality of both her vanished husband and her friend’s death. By accepting what happened she is prevailing and healing. In refrence to her husband, “ I understand that he wished even more than I do that he still loves me.”