Final Blog Post

   This semester went by so fast and I had no idea what to expect when first deciding to take this course. I am an Accounting and Business Major and have always struggled with reading and writing. I remember back to the first day of class when we were asked if there are any concerns or anything we would like to tell her. I was off to a great start but I had concerns about my reading and writing level. Professer replied and said, "Off to a good start in the class! In response to your comment about your struggles with reading and writing: I am happy to offer help outside of class and to read drafts if you can get them to me early enough. If my office hours conflict with your schedule, we can find alternate times. And, of course, the Writing Lab is a great resource." From this point forward, there was positive energy I could feed off of. This engaged me in the class early on and because of this I always had an open mind when walking into class. 

   The works we read by David Small and Rafael Campo were truly inspiring. Stitches was an easy read and this allowed me to reflect on it more easily and in more depth. I realized that this book would directly reflect the course as a whole. David Small's work captured me, but Rafael Campo's work won me over as well. For example, in the poem Her Final Show, line 1 stated, "She said it was a better way to die". This line proves that she was accepting of her death. Death causes pain and she overcame the pain because of hope. Rather than being ashamed of her illness, she died with dignity and pride, a large theme of our course. Rafael Campo never states the victim’s name because he is doing it out of trust he pursues truth through compassion to his friends illness. Rafael Campo’s works directly relate to Dominican University and its mission statement: As a Sinsinawa Dominican-sponsored institution, Dominican University prepares student to pursue truth, to give compassionate service and to participate in the creation of a more just and humane world. Campo can be identified as a compassionate and respectful friend. Truth and compassion are two important values for me personally. 

   I found myself applying this course to my everyday life. Regarding illness and death I was able to give compassion and feel empathy towards those who are sick, whether seriously ill or a minor pain. Literature is a great way to express the feelings of the humane society and the pain suffering among them. Everyone deals with pain. An individual must keep an open mind. When watching the news and seeing people suffering from illness, or looking back at my family's background I found myself applying the things I learned in class to each situation, reminding myself to keep an open mind when trying to understand the pain and suffering of others.

   I am grateful for taking this course. This course has taught me to be mindful of others and essentially how everything we do affects others. I have learned that it is impossible to know the amount of pain an individual is suffering. This course has created a greater understanding for psychological pain that an individual may endure from both psychological and physical illness. Prior to this course I had no intention to learning about how literature and medicine play a role in our lives. Because I have taken this course, I am open-minded on both the physical and psychological pain that individuals may suffer. I have come a long way from being the position I was at in the beginning of the semester and I do not regret taking this course for a second. Everything I have learned was essential and I will carry it with me for the rest of my life. Thank you for creating a great learning environment from day 1. This course has taught me much larger lessons in life. Thank you again. 

The Death of Ivan Ilych

   The Death of Ivan Ilych begins at the end of the story. The story is not told chronologically to create an intimate view of the social surroundings. It creates an unnatural mask for the members of Ivan's society. The story impedes human connection through materialism. 

   There is a contrasting value between death and morality. Death is more a subject of discussion. There is an unwillingness to consider death to comfort one's morality. Because of this, members are unable to comprehend the meaning of their own death. The members unintentionally have no understanding of the meaning of life. 

   He had choose his friends based on social standards and the ranking of the the person. He married because in his words, "it was the right thing to do". Ivan had always had that drive to become something more. He was a bit of a sociopath. He had that drive and nothing was going to stop him. Because of his drive it allowed me to question his true meaning of life. I believe by moving toward the light and the higher conduct to the opinions of the upper class, he is moving toward the flame that will eventually burn him alive.

respice finem-"look to the end"

    -focus on the outcome

    -warning for a man traveling down the wrong path (death)

*Ivan is closing himself off from everything... Including life itself...

Comments... 

Wit

   In the movie Wit, we are able to see someone going through the process of dying, which calls into question: did Vivian Bearing die a good death?

   Everyone does have a different idea of death. In my opinion, a good death means a death that is peaceful, painless, and surrounded by the people you love. Even though at the end, Bearing’s old college professor goes to visit her, the events leading up to her death were full of suffering and for that reason I do not think she had a “good death”.

   Of course, her course of treatment was extremely painful and brutal. Throughout the movie she is throwing up and getting weaker and weaker. Of course, this is a large part of why she did not have a good death. She was in great suffering and pain and did not have anyone around to comfort her. Normally, a doctor would help ease this by comforting the patient. For Vivian, however, it is much different.

 

   Because she agreed to a course of treatment that would contribute to medical research, Bearing is treated as an object and not a person. They routinely ask her “How are you doing” not because they care but because it is a habit, and a routine of doing rounds. Even in a state of emergency when her heart stops, the doctors continue to think of her as research when the nurse says “She’s DNR!” and Jason, the resident, replies, “She’s research!”

   Along with being mistreated by her doctors, Vivian Bearing is in fear when she dies. As a college professor, she is constantly researching and gaining knowledge; when one has knowledge and understanding of anything, it is less frightening in most cases. However, when she is sick, she does not know what is going to happen. No one tells her if she is getting better or worse or how much time she has left, and it leaves her scared probably for the first time in her life.

   Whether or not someone has a good death depends on the person judging it, and in my judgment Vivian Bearing’s death was not a good one. She was forced to suffer alone in fear for her life because her doctor’s were not treating her as a patient, but rather an object of research.

Comments... 

Autobiography of a Face

   In Autobiography of a Face, I think Lucy Grealy is an example of how experience with illness relies on a person’s perceptions of it.

   I was bothered by the story because it seemed as though Lucy did not try to ignore criticism at all; she liked attention so throughout her life she accepted the criticism and chose to feel sorry for herself.

Grealy writes, “Sometimes the briefest moments capture us, force us to take them in, and demand that we live the rest of our lives in reference to them” (78). Grealy says this, but does not live by her own advice. Instead of reflecting on past experiences to make her stronger and help her grow out of her suffering, she uses them to remind herself that others think she is ugly and life in self-pity.

   What was interesting is that Grealy blamed her self-pity on those around her, rather than taking ownership for her emotions. She actually even blames her family problems on herself when she says, “Unable to locate my unhappiness within the difficult and complex family relationships we all shared, I thought that it all originated with me, that I was somehow at fault” (93). I think that because she was so young while all of this was going on, it was easier for Lucy to blame others and pity herself rather than be strong and ignore the criticism.

   Looking back at how perception affects a person’s experience with illness, I believe that this perception also affected how she heard the advice of her mother. For example, when her mother says, “If you wear something that comes up around your neck, it makes the scar less visible” (121). In the story we see the Lucy is automatically offended by this statement. However, if one looks at this in a different point of view, one could say that her mother felt as though she would not want others to see her scar; it had nothing to do with her being ugly, but it would just prevent people from staring at her (which we know she hated so much). Rather than saying her mother was being harsh and rude, it could also be said that her mother was just looking out for her daughter as any other mother would do.

   I connected these points to Audre Lorde’s essay, “Breast Cancer, Power vs. Prosthesis”. In her essay, Lorde blames society and men for the fact that women often feel the need to feel a prosthetic breast after breast cancer and mastectomies. Like Grealy, Lorde puts the blame for her own struggle on others because it is easier to do. This skewed perception is similar to Grealy’s; she perceives that society feels that she needs a prosthetic breast, and that this degrades women. However, if Lorde and Grealy both stopped blaming society and started realizing that their struggles lie in their own perceptions, they may possibly be freed from their struggle and find a way to accept themselves and easily ignore society’s standards. 

Comments... 

Strong Horse Tea

by Alice Walker

Quotes to think about:

"It was almost spring, but the winter cold still clung to her bones and she had to almost sit in the fireplace to be warm" (Walker 477).

"Black people as black as Rannie Mae always made him uneasy, especially when they didn't smell good" (Walker 478).

"Cold wind was shooting all around her from the cracks in the window framing, faded circulars blew inward from the walls. The old woman's gloomy prediction made her tremble" (Walker 480).

"Rannie Toomer began to tremble way down deep in her stomach" (Walker 481).

"The rain fell against her face with the force of small hailstones" (Walker 482).

"Lightning struck something not far off and caused a crackling and groaning in the woods that frightened the animals away from their shelter. Rannie Toomer slipped down in the mud trying to take off one of her plastic shoes to catch the tea. An the gray mare, trickling some, broke for a clump of cedars yards away" (Walker 482).

"In spurts and splashes mixed with rainwater she gathered her tea. In parting, the old mare snorted and threw up a big leg, knocking her back into the mud" (Walker 483).

"Quickly she stuck her mouth there, over the crack, and ankle deep in the slippery mud of the pasture and freezing her shabby wet coat, she ran home to give the still warm horse tea to her baby Snooks" (Walker 483).

Interpreter of Maladies

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Words to think about while reading quotes:

Beauty:
"She wore a red-and-white-checkered skirt that stopped above her knees, slip-on shoes with a square wooden heel, and a close-fitting blouse styled like a man's undershirt" (Lahiri 46).

Typical Tourist:
"He had a sapphire blue visor, and was dressed in shorts, sneakers, and a T-shirt. The camera slung around his neck, with an impressive telephoto lens and numerous buttons and markings" (Lahiri 44).

Civilian:
"Mr. Kapasi pulled over to the side of the road as Mr. Das took a picture of a barefoot man, his head wrapped in a dirty turban, seated on top  of a cart of grain sacks pulled by a pair of bullocks" (Lahiri 49).

Princess:
"'But so romantic,' Mrs. Das said dreamily, breaking her extended silence. She lifted her pinkish brown sunglasses and arranged them on top of her head like a tiara" (Lahiri 50).

Grateful:
"He began to check his reflection in the rearview mirror as he drove, feeling grateful that he had chosen the gray suit that morning and not the brown one, which tended to sag a little in the knees" (Lahiri 53).

Physical Attraction
"From time to time he glanced through the mirror at Mrs. Das. In addition to glancing at her face he glanced at the strawberry between her breasts, and the golden brown hollow in her throat" (Lahiri 53-54).

Birds of America

by Lorrie Moore

Quotes to think about:

"A beginning, an end: there seems to be neither. The whole thing is like a cloud that just lands and everywhere inside it is full of rain" (Moore 212).

"What words can be uttered? You turn just slightly and thee it is: the death of your child" (Moore 220).

"It's a fast but wimpy tumor" (Moore 227).

"He feels like a heart attack, a failure of will and courage: power failure of everything" (Moore 219).

"The Baby smiles, even toddles around a little, the sun bursting through the clouds, an angel chorus crescendoing" (Moore 248).

"'Let's make our own way,' says the mother, 'and not in this boat" (Moore 249).

"A child's illness is a strain on the mind. They know how to laugh in fluty, desperate way--unlike the people who are more her husband's friends and who seem just to deepen their sorrowful gazes, nodding their heads with Sympathy" (Moore 243).

Charlotte Perkines Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (1899)

   "A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity--but that would be asking to much of fate!
   Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it".

   This gives an image that the husband is romantic because he provides her with a stylish estate. However, this estate may be seen as a haunted house. She questions how they could afford the mansion and why it has been empty for so long. However, there is something queer about it. This brings to our attention the discussion of illness. She is a bit nervous about her marriage and is becoming depressed about it. Depression is commonly found, but her depression has caused her to lose her mind. Her husband neglected her and all she could think about was "The Yellow Wallpaper".
    I feel like I can somewhat relate to this story. Being a colligate athlete and student, I rarely find time for myself or time to hang out with my friends. At times I feel like my life only resolves around school and soccer. So depression kicks in because lack of free time, or any type of feeling wanted. Ultimately everyone wants to feel wanted in the world and during all this time cramming, it is difficult to please everyone. So at times I feel like all I have is my books. At times I try to plug myself into stories and situations to see how I fit. In this specific case, I do feel times of depression because lack of free time, but in the end, I know everything will work out for the best.

"That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, but I don't care--there is something strange about the house--I can feel it".

"And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don't like it a bit. I wonder--I begin to think--I wish John would take me away from here!"

"Life is much more exciting now than it used to be. You see I have something more to expect, to look forward to, to watch. I really do eat better, and am more quiet than I was."

"But there is something else about the paper--the smell! I noticed it the moment we came into the room, but with so much air and sun it was not bad. Now we have had a week of fog and rain, and whether the windows  are open or not, the smell is here."

"Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!"

A Small, Good Thing

“I want to talk to the doctor. I don’t think he should keep sleeping like this. I don’t think that’s a good sign” (Carver 381).
-This statement shows that Dr. Francis provided Ann with bland answers that.

“Scotty was fine, but instead of sleeping at home in his own bed, he was in a hospital bed with bandages around his head and a tube in his arm. But this help was what he needed right now” (Carver 382).
-This was a thought just stay on the positive sides of things.

“We’ll know some more in a couple of hours, after the results of a few more test are in. But he’s all right, believe me, expect for the hairline fracture of the skull. He does have that” (Carver 382).

“I’ve been praying, I almost thought I’d forgotten how, but it came back to me. All I had to do was close my eyes and say, ‘Please God, help us—help Scotty,’ and then the rest was easy. The words were right there. Maybe if you prayed, too” (Carver 384).

   Something else that the couple was aware of throughout the story and that was also shown to us in the closing scene of the story was: it was still important for the couple to take care of themselves and each other. They sought to do the little things that they could to make themselves feel better; for example, the couple continually told each other to get some rest, get some food, and relax. Also, they gave small embraces and checked to see if each other were okay. It was valued by the couple to tend to each other and themselves in a time of need.  At the very end, the baker assured the couple that eating something when you’re in a poor state is “a small, good thing.”
   This is often seen in many other situations where someone is ill. For instance, I could directly relate to this story. My grandma one day became extremely ill. We instantly ran to the hospital, but the doctors were not giving us the answers we needed. They only provided bland answers that did not justify what I searched for.
   Doctors played the waiting game with us too and my family took a similar approach to cope with the pain of waiting. We constantly asked each other how we were doing and told each other to get rest. We looked at the small things to help the larger picture.  My family too believed that praying was the solution. We leaned to God for help because we had felt he was the only one who can ultimately help us.

"There were no pleasantries between them, just the minimum exchange of words, the necessary information" (Carver 376).

-This quote resembles alienation and isolation. Ann's overall minimal knowledge of the baker and/or her neighborhood. The baker resembles God itself. An image often seen with a bakery is bread. Being Catholic at a Catholic institution, I recognize bread as the body of Christ. The baker resembles God and how religion is always there even if you didn't recognize it. The baker also resembles how Ann and Howard were being contacted by God throughout the story but did not realize it. Both Ann and Howard were praying for Scotty, and the baker, the image of God, was responding through phone call. The bakery is unforeseen image of Christ. This shows that although there was a minimal exchange of words, there ultimately was a resolution. In the end of the story they realize the baker is the one consistently making the phone calls to them. Ann and Howard, disappointed about there son, attend the bakery to pay for the cake they never picked up. The baker befriends them and offers the smallest thing in order for pleasure. Ultimately that's all religion has to be for you. Religion can being the largest factor in an individuals life or the smallest thing, in the end, it plays a reflecting role on peoples lives as the baker did in "A Small, Good Thing".

The Masquee of the Red Death

by Edgar Allan Poe

 

While reading quotes by Edgar Allan Poe, keep in mind how dark everything is...

 

 

 

"The 'Red Death' had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous" (3).

 

"There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and the profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution" (3).

 

"But the prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand half and light-heated friends from among and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys" (3).

 

"The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue" (4).

 

"But in the western or black chamber the effect of the firelight that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all" (5).

 

"There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust" (6).

"But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture; for the night is waning away; and there flows a ruddier light through the blood-colored panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appalls; and to him whose foot falls upon the sale carpet, there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears who indulge in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments" (7).

"There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made" (8).

"Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of revelers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave cerements and corpse-like mask, which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form" (10).

"And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all" (10).


 

 

 

Her Final Show

by Rafael Campo

She said it was a better way to die
Than most; she seemed relieved, almost at peace,
The stench of her infected Kaposi's
Made bearable by the Opium applied
So daintily behind her ear: "I know
It costs a lot, but dear, I'm nearly gone."
Her shade of eye shadow was emerald green;
She clutched her favorite stones. Her final show
She'd worn them all, sixteen necklaces of pearls,
Ten strings of beads. She said they gave her hope.
Together, heavy as a gallow's rope,
The gifts of drag queens dead of AIDS. "Those girls,
They gave me so much strength," she whispered as
I turned the morphine up. She hid her leg
Beneath smoothed sheets. I straightened her red wig
Before pronouncing her to no applause.

     The bolded statement "She said it was a better way to die" proves that she was accepting of her death. Death causes pain and she overcame the pain because of hope. Rafael Campo never states the victims name because he is doing it out of trust. He pursues truth by being compassionate to a friends illness. This poem relates to Dominican University's mission statement: As a Sinsinawa Dominican- sponsored institution, Dominican University prepares students to pursue truth, to give compassionate service and to participate in the creation of a more just and humane world.
     In this poem Campo's friend is suffering from AIDS and receives hope from other drag queens. The poem mentions things of value, such as "costs a lot," "emerald green," and "sixteen necklaces of pearls." This shows the monetary value of money and beauty for drag queens. Drag queens view beauty as a value and it gives them hope. The gifts by people who have passed away, such as pearls, surrounds her with death and love by others. She also is being compassionate to those who have passed away as well by wearing the pearls passed down to her. Campo would like to live in a more just and humane world. Ultimately Campo was doing a compassionate service by being there for a friend who is suffering.

After the biopsy

 

Jul 25, 2006 by Anya Silver              

“Each time that we have some pain to go through, we can say to ourselves quite truly that it is the universe, the order and beauty of the world, and the obedience of creation to God that are entering our body. After that, how can we fail to bless with tenderest gratitude the Love that sends us this gift?”
                                —Simone Weil

The pathology report an icon; the tissue
staining the slide, God’s kaleidoscope.
And those cells, obeying their DNA,
cosmic dust as they whirl and split.
Why not praise cancer, relentless, blind,
that seeks and finds the lymph and blood?
Because I am unthankful, rude.
Because if I linger over this gift,
I will change, I will vanish from the earth.
In Russia, an icon of Mary has wept
for twenty years. Mary, do you see
my nuclei mutating, like words
in “whisper down the lane”? This same God
took your son away. Help me disobey.

 

When it pertains to religious ideologies, it is said that everything is made in the image of God, as discussed in the book of Genesis and numerous times throughout the Bible.  The beginning line of the poem “After the Biopsy” describes the pathology, or the science of the causes of diseases, as an icon. Icons are defined as a representation of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a holy figure by the Collins English Dictionary; as a picture, a sculpture, or a painting. This immediately sets straight the belief by the narrator that what is happening to her body is an act of God, sculpted in his image. God views these images through his kaleidoscope in which the cancer tissue is the stain of the slide. This image makes the reader think of God overlooking every detail and watching the cells as they obey their creation and their purpose; splitting and producing. This relates directly to our school motto: Caritas Veritas. Caritas Veritas or Love and Truth answers the questions of being and becoming, of meaning and calling, of mindfulness and wonder. It allows us to examine life as a whole. God is overlooking us all and his creation allowed cancer. Cancer is reality and through love and truth one may overcome the calling of cancer and the meaning of our calling. Although one may want to disobey, the truth is God has created cancer and cancer was upon you. The reality is one may overcome the fight and one may be able to do so through love and a fight. The purpose of the poem is to show her reflection on life and religion after something so tragic has happened to her; the goal is to overcome it.

 

Lament By Thom Gunn

 

"Your dying was a difficult enterprise."
     The poem starts off with a nameless victim stating how the death of something was a difficult challenge that they encountered. This line proves that there is a challenge ahead of them.

"In hope still, courteous still, but tired and thin,   

You tried to stay the man that you had been"

This quote proves that although this "man" encountered a challenge, he still would still like to be the same man that he has always been. Although he may have encountered a challenge, he would like to be treated the same and act the same as if "nothing" has happened.

 

"No respite followed: though the nightmare ceased,   

Your cough grew thick and rich, its strength increased."

This was seen as a nightmare because of the sickness. The sickness is developing and his cough is growing thicker, more in strength.

 

"We talked between our sleeping bags, below

A molten field of stars five years ago:

I was so tickled by your mind’s light touch

I couldn’t sleep, you made me laugh too much"

 

"You never thought your body was attractive,   

Though others did, and yet you trusted it   

And must have loved its fickleness a bit"

He always viewed himself as unattractive; even though other did, he became untrustworthy. The attention was nice, but if they were accepting of the complement, then they would not longer receive it.

 

Comments...

 

 

Rafael Campo

Aids and the Poetry of Healing

"Now you were tired, and yet not tired enough

—Still hungry for the great world you were losing   

Steadily in no season of your choosing—

And when at last the whole death was assured,   

Drugs having failed, and when you had endured   

Two weeks of an abominable constraint,   

You faced it equably, without complaint,   

Unwhimpering, but not at peace with it.   

You’d lived as if your time was infinite" (Thom Gunn, Lament).

 

 

"No matter how much I fortify, however AIDS seems to demand that I suffer too" (95).
Even though one is building strength and prove to not only everyone else but themselves too they are strong, AIDS pulls them back demanding one to suffer. It is an incurable virus many suffer from.

"Religion still implies AIDS is a punishment, meted out by an unloving, unforgiving and unimaginable God, intent with wrath" (95).
This is a dehumanizing statement. This statement says one is deserving of an illness and should expect the worst to happen. Religion plays a large role on people's lives and it is hurtful to say God is unforgiving and his intent with wrath.

 

    "So I am grateful for the poetry that is written about AIDS, in that it has helped me so generously to  locate myself in a world irrevocably altered by the presence of the virus" (95).
    This is proof that poetry written about AIDS has helped locate them as a person and helps the recovery process of staying positive.

    "Now, when I see SILENCE = DEATH painted on the sidewalk, or pinned to the lapel of my white coat, immediately I know what that means. It means our words are keeping us alive" (99).
    Words play a larger role on ones life. Words can mean keeping us alive proving poetry in general plays a large role on healing someone.

    "I have lost myself the same way in the faces, the bodies, and the poems of people with AIDS. I see them teaching us, each one of us, the meaning of our own losses. Teaching us that every word is true" (100).
    Poetry can teach us the meaning of our losses. It teaches us that every word has meaning and they play a larger role on our lives.

Stitches A Memoir By David Small

Quotes through Page 156:

"The mere moving of her fork a half-inch to the right spelled dread at the dinner table" (16).

"And it was dad the radiologist who gave me the many x-rays that were supposed to cure my sinus problems" (21).

"I thought it must be her hair that gave Alice the magic ability to travel to a land of talking animals, singing flowers, and dancing teapots, I wanted to go there immediately" (56). 

"Your mother has asked me to speak to you about something we both feel is important" (150).

Quotes 157-325

"That night, back in my hospital room, I was surprised by a visit from my mother" (170).

"Even among my old friends I felt invisible, a shadow flickering around the edges of every event" (213).

"At home, late at night, I began to have the sensation that I was shrinking down... and living inside my own mouth" (216). 

"After that awkward moment, while my own emotions ricocheted between extremes of betrayal and foolishness, anger and confusion, what stayed with me for the longest time was the look mother gave me, itself full of complex feelings, few of which, I'd guess, had much to do with me" (273).

"I gave you cancer" (287).

"Although my parents talked seriously about get a divorce, they never did" (301).

"She couldn't talk and neither could I. I had been screaming for so many hours that I, too, was voiceless" (306).

Comments......

The Body in Pain by Elaine Scarry

Quotes:

"Physical pain does not simply resist language but actively destroys it, bringing about an immediate reversion to a state anterior to language, to the sound and cries a human being make before language is learned" (4).

"we do not 'have feelings' but have feelings for somebody or something, that is love of x, fear is fear of y, ambivalence is ambivalence about z" (5).
          ambivalence- uncertainty or fluctuation

"groups are among those that together express the sensory content of pain, while certain other word groupings express pain's affective content, and still others its evaluative or cognitive content" (8).

"with which he or she can hear the fragmentary language of pain, coax it into clarity, and interpret it" (6).

"When heard in isolation, any one adjective such as 'throbbing pain' or 'burning pain' may appear to convey very little precise information beyond the general fact that the speaker is in distress" (7).

"the language must at once be characterized by the greatest possible tact (for the most intimate realm of another human being's body is the implicit or explicit subject) and by the greatest possible immediacy (for the most crucial fact about pain is its presentness and the most crucial fact about torture is that it is happening)" (9).