Thursday, October 16, 2008
"The Use of Force"
Wow! is what i have to ay about this story. this story proves to people that doctors have alot and beyond on their plate. i believe this story takes place maybe in the 1960's. a time where doctors visit their patients at their house. well this one doctor made the usual hous call . in this case its about this little girl who had a fever for almost 3 days. she gave him the fight of a life time. she fought him very hard just so he wouldn't find that she has diphtheria. i had to give it up to this doctor because as much as that little girl gave him hell and as much as he wanted to smack her, he kept his composure. he kept it strictly professional. my question about this story is that why the little girl didn't want her parents nor the doctor to know that she had a sore throat? was this a suicide attempt? did she wanted to kill herself?????
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A close reading of the story will reveal that the narrator doesn't always keep his "composure" or keep things "professionasl" (in the usual sense of the term)--in fact, this is the source of the character's internal and external conflicts in the story (for a distinction between internal and external conflict, see your glossary handout).
The narrator does say that his passions got the better of him --hence his discomfot--so it's not exactly right to say he always acted/spoke in a "professional" manner--it seems one thing the story questions is this stereotype of "professionalism"; this is one of the "cultural roles" mentioned below, which the story qestions/explores.
Below are some comments from "Previous Blogs," which should give you some more specific points of focus; to address some of the story's thematic issues noted below, focus on key scenes, character and setting descriptions, the contrasting use of language (parents v. doctor), etc:
Think about what those characters represent? The story does explore questions of power, resistance, authority,ec. How many different levels of conflict can you find in the story? We have a child and adult, doctor and patient, etc. How does the story explore conflicts between various aspects of our culture? how are those various "forces" characterized?
The strangeness, or extraordinariness of the doctor's reactions may lead to some interesting discussion of the doctor-patient relationship, but beyond that, questions of power, authority, cultural roles v. human nature, etc. think about what the various characters represent.
Sexuality is an important "force" in the story; dicsusing it in this context will avoid the trap of judging the doctor as "perverted," which of course is not the issue. In this "nature" V. "culture" dicotomy--which the story suggests is no "dicotomy" at all--the story does give us a glimpse at what underlies our socio-cultural roles, one of which is the stereotype of "professionalism"; we often call this the "dark" side of "human nature"--dark, of course, because we often hide (from) it, exclude it from light.
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