In this short story "The Use of Force" by William Carlos Williams we come along a doctor who is being called on house visit. Once he arrives he is being greeted by the parents of a girl. They seem like nice caring people. from the symptoms that the parents describe he suspects that the patient may have diphtheria. The girl does not say anything nor lets the doctor examine her throat. After numerous please by her parents and the doctor himself she still refuses the observation. With no other choice the doctor and the girls father use force to open her throat. Its not easy but after numerous tries they do succeed. It turns out that the girl is seriously sick.
I don't know what the exact meaning of this story might be, but i think that the author is trying to show that sometimes the use of force is necessary for the persons own good. In this case that may have saved this girls life.
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If the doctor had left and not forced the issue, the girl could have died. But the doctor could have left for a few hours and let everyone calm down, then he would try again to look at her throat. Was diptheria curable back when this story was written? Or is the girl going to die anyway?
I believe it is treated, not curable. So, she might have still had the chance to live. O feel that if the doctor did leave, she could of died. As the doctor stated in the reading, he lost two other patients because of not being forceful(to himself) about this, so he knew if he left, he wasn't coming back.
I think this is a kind of story that makes us think harder to get something out of the story. It is because the theme is too subtle to catch on the surface level.
After reading this, I bacame much more interested in the title, "the use of force." It might be helpful for you to think about the title. What do you define the force in this story? Is it just physical? How does occupation create force? Who has force?
Yes--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 thhose various "forces" characterized?
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