Judging from the other reviews, the awards, and multiple accolades Thom Jones's writings, and "The Pugilist at Rest" in particular, have received, I am apparently in quite the minority. But here goes: I found an inherent falseness and overwritten emotion throughout the stories. Jones too often tells the reader what he/she should be feeling instead of letting the reader respond sans prescription. Case in point: "I Want to Live!" The son-in-law is the "good guy" (obviously the author -- tacky) who gives the dying woman Schopenhauer to read and narcotic medication to ease the unbearable pain no one else will even acknowledge. This revitalizes the woman in the extreme (I believe she thanks God for her son-in-law at some point, which struck me as the author thanking God for the character of himself as he portrayed himself in the story -- again, ooh, tacky). Obviously, Jones digs Schopenhauer and through the character of the woman tells us that philosophy from just the right guy will turn it all around for us as we are dying an excruciating death. Please. This situation probably "actually happened" just this way in Jones's life, but it doesn't mean the recounting of it reveals the truth. I also found technical medical error in the description of the effect of certain drugs on the woman's pain. I have to paraphrase re: the effect of methadone, something like "circles of orange orgasms blossoming through her body." Methadone has a long half-life; taken orally, as in the story, it would take a long time to take effect. Methadone works as a slow build toward pain relief -- good relief, but hardly orgasmic -- as opposed to an injection of morphine, for which an orgasmic description would have been appropriate.
I always looked at death as such a sad thing that is eventually going to occur to everyone. However, after reading this book, it made me realize death can actually be a beautiful thing. Death allows a person to go to a next life, one where they will be loved and others will be there for them. It was interesting to be able to read about stories that these hospice care workers witnessed themselves. I have experienced a few deaths within my life and I never coped with them very well. After reading this book, I honestly believe I will be able to look at the positive side of death and be able to deal with my emotions better. I can also help others surrounding me deal with a death that they are experiencing. This book was filled with information that I loved learning. For example, I never knew that a dying person can choose a time to die. The thought of this never occurred to me before. I always thought that when it was someone’s time to go, they had no choice. But, a dying person can “put off” passing on until they see a certain person or event that has great significance in their life. Nevertheless, there are still people who will wait to die until they’re all alone in the room. This book makes you think of real life situations and think what you would do in them. Taken as a whole, it was a very in depth book that changes the way you would naturally perceive
Diane was a patient of Dr. Timothy Quill, who was diagnosed with acute myelomonocytic leukemia. Diane overcame alcoholism and had vaginal cancer in her youth. She had been under his care for a period of 8 years, during which an intimate doctor-patient bond had been established. It was Dr. Quill’s observation that “she was an incredibly clear, at times brutally honest, thinker and communicator.” This observation became especially cogent after Diane heard of her diagnosis. Dr. Quill informed her of the diagnosis, and of the possible treatments. This series of treatments entailed multiple chemotherapy sessions, followed by a bone marrow transplant, accompanied by an array of ancillary treatments. At the end of this series of treatments, the survival rate was 25%, and it was further complicated in Diane’s case by the absence of a closely matched bone-marrow donor. Diane chose not to receive treatment, desiring to spend whatever time she had left outside of the hospital. Dr. Quill met with her several times to ensure that she didn’t change her mind, and he had Diane meet with a psychologist with whom she had met before. Then Diane complicated the case by informing Dr. Quill that she be able to control the time of her death, avoiding the loss of dignity and discomfort which would precede her death. Dr. Quinn informed her of the Hemlock Society, and shortly afterwards, Diane called Dr. Quinn with a request for barbiturates, complaining of insomnia. Dr. Quinn gave her the prescription and informed her how to use them to sleep, and the amount necessary to commit suicide. Diane called all of her friends to say goodbye, including Dr. Quinn, and took her life two days after they met.
All in all, the story was rather sad but eye-opening. I believe Porter’s approach to writing this story allowed readers to reflect back on their own lives and examine both the good and not-so-good times. It shows people not to just live life through the motions, but rather, to look at it as beautiful journey as no one wants to end up like Granny Weatherall and realize that with she never really lived.
There were many accounts of what happened in Prineville on that fateful day in 1882, in Reign of the vigilantes, William Thompson told a very different account of the events of vigilantism that occurred on March 15, 1882 Thompson bent the truth to protect himself.
One of the most disturbing trends in American policing in recent years has been the militarization of police weaponry and tactics. In his new book, “The Rise of the Warrior Cop”, author Radley Balko traces the roots of American law enforcement from the constables of colonial times to present day SWAT teams and special response units. With the high controversy surrounding the “war on drugs” and the “war on terrorism,” policymakers have signed off on a dangerously aggressive style of policing that too often leads to unnecessary deaths and injuries. Some people say that modern law enforcement is on a collision course with our Bill of Rights and is unconstitutional. In the book “ Rise of the Warrior Cop” the author talks about how modern day policing are adapting mostly all military tactic. These wars are more than just metaphors designed to rally public support and secure all the money they can to support these programs. They change the way we think about what the police do. Wars mean shooting first and asking questions later. Wars require military tactics and weaponry. Wars mean civilian casualties. Are we at war with our own people?
No matter how much he put her through, she kept fighting for her life. I was confused by this because, in my eyes her life was completely over. I did not see how she could ever live a functioning life after all of the things that she went through. I would have thought that this reality would have been a reason for her to give up and choose fiction. Fiction would have been the easy way out of the pain, loses, and suffering that she faces and would continue to face. Then I thought to myself that is what makes humans amazing. Being able to endure the challenges of life and keep going. Originally, I thought she was a fool to keep going then I realized that she was strong. If I was her I would have chosen my reality
The medical profession’s godlike attitude in “The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates this arrogance. The Rest cure that Dr. Weir Mitchell prescribed, which is mentioned in Gilman’s work, reflects men’s disparaging attitudes. His Rest cure calls for complete rest, coerced feeding and isolation. Mitchell, a neurosurgeon specializing in women’s nervous ailments, expounded upon his belief for women’s nervous conditions when he said,
This essay was depressing, but also impressive. There are two characters, and as I mentioned, one is the sympathetic one and the other is the empathetic one. In the essay, It Will Look Like a Sunset by Kelly Sundberg, she takes the disturbing moments of her life, gets a handle on them, and puts them together to create a sense of literature with language and style. She was married, and it was once a love story, like most. But, she then explains why she stayed and endured years of emotional and physical abuse from her husband, Caleb. The first paragraph of the essay starts off beautifully. It says, “I was twenty-six, having spent most of my twenties delaying adulthood, and he was twenty-four and enjoyed reputation as a partier. The pregnancy was a surprise, and we married months later.” (Sundberg, 208) And following that later on, “We didn’t want a church wedding, but our families insisted. Faith was what made marriage sacred. Faith was what kept people together.” (Sundberg, 209) The author creates a connection between her life, faith, and marriage. Expressing that having confidence in her marriage and having trust kept them together. Her pregnancy was a surprise and that also kept them together. Faith is the connection between God and herself. Sundberg mentioned that her and her husband were together two years before he started to abuse her. With him first pushing her against the wall, then two years later, he hit her. Following a year later, he hit her again. Her argument was that her husband wanted to change, so he attended therapy and anger management. Nonetheless, that did not help
In 1892, the “rest cure” was a common practice to treat women with a nervous illness (Stiles). By diagnosing his wife with a nervous depression, the physician-husband would most likely believed that bed rest was the only reasonable treatment. However, as the story progresses we see the narrator plunge deeper into madness and she becomes ever more obsessed with the yellow wallpaper.
Death is something that is sometimes misunderstood and hard to accept. In James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, the reader learns of four deaths that had occurred during the narrator’s life time. One of the deaths that the narrator describes was of his daughter, Gracie. Gracie had died of polio. Originally, she was thought to only have a cold. Four days later, Gracie fell and there was no sound. When Isabel decided to go see, she found her daughter curled up on the floor and not breathing. By the time Gracie found her breath, she let out a horrifying scream. “And when she did scream, it was the worst sound, Isabel says, that she'd ever heard in all her life, and she still hears it sometimes in her dreams. Isabel will sometimes wake me up with a low, moaning, strangling sound and I have to be quick to awaken her and hold her to me and where Isabel is weeping against me seems a mortal wound” (92). From the quote above, the reader can picture the suffering Isabel is under from the lost of her daughter. One can also tell that she has not been able to deal with it completely by her reoccurring nightmares. Losing a child is very hard to deal with. It brings a lot of pain, sadness, but most of all much suffering. It is s...
The author is an award winning journalist, Virginia Morris has devoted her career to research as well as writing about health care, political issues, medical research and related social issues for over two and half decades. After winning the Books for a Better Life Award, the book instantly became the best-selling when first released in the year 1986. An updated edition was published in 2004. She has also the authored ‘Talking about Death’, which came out in paperback in 2004.
Common among classic literature, the theme of mortality engages readers on a quest of coping with one of the certainties of life. Katherine Anne Porter masterfully embraces the theme of mortality both directly and indirectly in her story, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Understanding that all mankind ultimately becomes subject to death unleashes feelings of dread and anxiety in most people; however, Granny Weatherall transitions from rushing to meet her demise in her sixties to completely denying she is on her deathbed when she is eighty. Readers have seen this theme of mortality reverberated over and over in literature, but what makes this story stand the test of time is the author’s complexity. In Katherine Anne Porter’s
Vigilantism is deeply rooted in American tradition (Brown, 1975). Arising in response to an absence of law and order in early frontier regions, and a concern with self-protection and self-preservation, vigilantes were seen as valued members of society. One of the primary reasons for the value of vigilantes is that their jurisdiction began where the law ended (Burrows, 1976; Perry & Pugh, 1989). Moreover, vigilantes partook in behaviors that legal authorities would not, could not, and should not perform (Brown, 1975).
...sn’t a sad story or horrific at all. He lived a long fulfilled life and had an infinite amount of things to show for it, there was nothing to be sad about. While reading De Hennezel this memory really hit me and made me see death how she saw it and how others should too.
...tentially be cured with a one surgery. He uses this story of death to share that life is short. “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by Dogma. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” He uses repetition and parallelism to drive his message home.