"The Use of Force"

Up until now, the name William Carlos Williams always reminded me of the poem, "The Red Wheelbarrow."

so much depends

upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

This poem remains striking to me because of its inclusion in one of my favorite novels, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. The character Adah says, "He wrote the poem while he was waiting for a child to die." Throughout the book, Adah says, "So much depends on ___." It's a theme that runs throughout her narration. However, it is not Adah's odd narrative style which made me think of this poem while reading "The Use of Force." It is the fact that he wrote this masterpiece while waiting for the death of a child.

And so this short story is another child who will probably die, and I wondered how often William C. Williams encountered death in his practice, especially with sick children. Was that his speciality? Did one event with a child scar him forever, or was it many individual patients, sick and dying children, that made at least a theme in both this short story and poem? This connection raised a lot of questions for me about William Carlos Williams and his history.

As for the story itself, I read it twice over and was still puzzled. It's short; its plot development consists of a single scene where a little girl fights a doctor while he tries to examine her. My first puzzlement was whether a not the little girl was scared because he was a doctor, or if she knew she was dangerously sick and wanted to hide it from the world? And if so, why did she want to keep her sore throat a secret? Did she know deep down that sore throat meant a serious illness and possibly death? Would the doctor's discovery have meant a confirmation of death for her? Children are surprisingly intuitive and precocious, so part of me thinks she understood in a way that the doctor examining her would reveal what she'd been trying to hide--her sickness and possible impending death.

But was she hiding it from herself or her parents? She stubbornly lied to her parents about her sore throat. Perhaps it was she didn't want the doctor to be called at all. I know that all little kids are terrified of doctors. They run away from needles and shy away from the popsicle stick. But I think this little girl's fear ran deeper than the classic little kid hating being poked and probed by a scary man/woman. No one likes going to the doctor, and no one hates a doctor's visit more than a little kid.

The narrator says at one point "I'm here to look at her throat on the chance she might have diphtheria and possibly die of it. But that's nothing to her." At first I was confused, because just a couple sentences later he says she's old enough to understand he needs to look at her throat. I think the narrator was saying she was to young to understand that her life is at stake and that this examination is a matter of life and death. I think the child is more understanding even than that. She comprehends that if she lets him see inside her throat, all will be confirmed and she will die soon. She is more than aware of the deeper meaning of the doctor examining her. She grasps this concept well, so she hides her secret, afraid of death, afraid of her parents, afraid of a stranger who wants to reveal her.

To us, the idea of diphtheria being a killer is foreign. It's not a threat. Diseases like that are on the periphery now, few and far between thanks to immunizations and good sanitation. My great-grandmother's second son died of diphtheria at Christmas; the family had to burn all his Christmas presents after his death (much like the Velveteen Rabbit, come to think of it). It was a tragic event from which my great-grandmother never recovered, even though she lived to be one hundred (she died when I was eight). This story is sad at the end, even if it not specifically stated. Her "tears of defeat" are more from the resignation of what will happen to her rather than the fact that the doctor got the chance to examine her throat despite all her attempts at resistance. One can only guess what happens afterward--her imminent death, probably. "She had been hiding that sore throat for three days at least and lying to her parents in order to escape just such an outcome as this." What outcome is this? Her parents now knowing the truth? The doctor uncovering the cause of her illness? The acceptance that she is seriously ill?

Such a short story, so many meanings, so much like "Hills Like White Elephants."

"Hills Like White Elephants"

I just re-read the short story this morning in order to catch details I didn't see during the first read-through. The first thing I noticed is that the man is called the American, and the girl is simply a girl. Why is she a girl, not a woman? And why is he the American? Does this say something about him with his actions? Is she European? And what's with the name "Jig?"

The American, as he's called, seems like he has a short temper and he's selfish. At least twice in the story he snaps at her, saying "'Just because you say I wouldn't have doesn't prove anything.'" and "'Oh cut it out,'" to her tart comment about absinthe. I remember my discussion about absinthe in senior English. What a drink!

Also, I missed the part of the dialogue about "'We could have all this.'" She says the world isn't theirs anymore. I didn't realize until this morning what that meant. She says that once she gets the abortion, things will never be the same again for them. They could have the fertile and lush green side of the station, but now that she has gotten pregnant, no matter which course they go, they can't live the lifestyle they've been leading. It just isn't possible. She won't be able to enjoy it the same way anymore. You get the feeling she doesn't want to go through the "perfectly natural" procedure where they "just let the air in" (great descriptions in my opinion). She wants to go through with it, as the American says, but he counters with "'I don't want anybody but you. I don't want anyone else.'" Then he repeats that it's "'perfectly simple.'" It seems so selfish that he refuses to raise a child because he just wants Jig. It shows concern only for himself and his feelings, not what will make Jig happy (what is their relationship, anyway? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Travel companions with benefits?) His only concern is his own satisfaction. He knows they "'could get along,'" but that doesn't matter to him. He wants to go on drinking and traveling.

And so the girl doesn't care about herself, or so she says, so she will give in to the American, and continue on even though the world isn't theirs anymore. It won't be the same, because that sort of change and the loss of that chance ruins it forever. Perhaps she doesn't care about herself and instead cares about her child, or maybe just about the American. But what she cares about isn't enough for her to stand up for herself. She's apathetic, willing to give in to anything.

"Hills Like White Elephants"

I read "Hills Like White Elephants" during my senior year of high school. I had read the introduction to the chapter, so I understood that the procedure that "lets the air in" was abortion, which made reading the story a lot easier to comprehend and the symbolism much simpler to identify. However, an analysis of symbolism in the story wouldn't be a reaction, it would be literary analysis, which is just another term for the depressing phrase of "critical reading."

I'm sorry; I digress. I love the way Hemingway (wow, that's odd, I said I loved something written by Hemingway) narrates this story. It's objective; reading it is like reading a play. The only insight we get into the characters is through their dialogues and the brief descriptions of their actions. Their feelings, their personalities, their motivations must all be decoded from the conversation between them. It's an exercise in close reading, but more importantly, it's a good way to visualize a play in my head. I saw a stage set, with chairs, a table, a curtain, and maybe a backdrop with the fertile scenery on one side and the barren landscape on the other. And in my mind I went through this play as they spoke, thinking about their gestures, their movements, their body language, and their facial expressions. There are no descriptions of these actions or these looks; you can only decipher them through the dialogue. There is no adverbial or adjectival modification to their statements or their looks. It's just one line of speech after another.

Apart from the play-like narration, this story always hits hard and plucks at the heartstrings. This story was published in 1927, yet this conversation (with the exception of the terminology and setting) could happen today. A man and a young woman, sitting and discussing an abortion would not be an uncommon scene in our modern world. The woman is reluctant, willing to please the man without caring about herself, "'I don't care about me.'" It's such a harsh statement. She doesn't care about herself, and she believes it's the resignation that will make everything "fine." If she does it he'll "'be happy and things will be like they were.'" There's pressure from the man to get the abortion, and while the girl is reluctant and at a crossroads, but she will acquiesce.

If you think about their lifestyle, traveling and trying new drinks and staying at hotels night after night, you can maybe empathize with the girl's wish to slow down, stop, have a life in one place, not full of traveling and frivolous games. It may be fun for a while, but after a time it becomes exhausting and boring. "'That's all we do, isn't it--look at things and try new drinks?" While the prospect of absinthe sounds intriguing, what's the point after a while? How is it fulfilling and meaningful? It's just as barren as the side the couple is sitting on, in contrast with the lush, green other side with a river. You get the feeling the man doesn't really care about the girl. Maybe he loves her, maybe he doesn't. His attempts to convince her that "it's perfectly natural" and they "just let the air in" don't really show much concern for her. He seems to say that he doesn't want her to do get the procedure if she doesn't want it, but without even giving description to his statements, Hemingway makes it clear that the man would rather keep traveling, keep going at a whirlwind pace without the confines of domestic life and a child.

It's a short, powerful, and compact story. Hemingway is sparse with his words, economical to the point that every phrase, every sentence, every description is imperative to understanding. You could read it multiple times and still find news things even though it's so simple and clean-cut. There's no embellishment, no unnecessary detail. Just the pure retelling of a conversation.

"The Country Doctor"

The first thing I had to wonder when I read “The Country Doctor” by Ivan Turgenev is why the story was told not from the source, but from another person who had heard the story. The narrator merely heard and relayed this tale, rather than the doctor himself giving this account. Did Turgenev need to create an image of the doctor that would not be possible had the point of view come from the doctor himself? The narrator supplies few observations throughout the piece, but perhaps these sparse additions to the recounting of the story creates a fuller picture of the doctor, impossible if the narrator could not add what passed before and after. For example, the narrator tells us when the doctor pauses to drink or take some more snuff, denoting which parts of his tale are the hardest for the doctor to repeat. These little moments create a better picture of what the doctor is like, but wouldn't the narration have been better if he could have written it down himself? Or are his speech patterns essential in portraying his emotions? The brief introduction and brief conclusion where action occurs between the narrator and doctor perhaps demonstrate how personal the story is to the doctor yet how quick he is to dismiss it from the pain it brings him.

Nevertheless, the story itself is intriguing. We first see the doctor as a greedy man who wishes he could prioritize patients based on how well they would pay, but to placate himself, he repeats, “However, duty first, you know.” Our sympathies are few for his dreary travel, but the whole tale of his short and desperate love affair with Anna is heartbreaking. There is nothing but overflowing compassion for a man who falls in love with a dying patient, and she returns affection merely because she is on her deathbed.

The way the doctor speaks is short and choppy, yet there are no paragraphs when the doctor speaks or indentations for new speakers within the quotation marks. It almost seems rushed, a sudden flood of feelings and emotions, long repressed, and best shared with a stranger than a close confidante. The doctor tells things out of order, forgets details, and has to backtrack often. Whether this is because the doctor is a poor storyteller or because of sadness. His story is full of ellipses and dashes—constant additions and pauses where he must find the next words. One wonders how long it has been since he has shared this event in his life.

The tale is sad and desperate—a beautiful young girl about to die, who falls “in love” with her doctor (another question of mine—were they actually in love?), the only person who has the chance to cure her but fails to do so (another lament of the doctor that he was too young and naïve to save her). Does she love him because she feels the need to fall in love before she dies? What is her horrible story that she tells him in rushed whispers but he cannot understand? There is a shroud of mystery surrounding the girl and her past circumstances. She seems overjoyed when she learns she is about to die. Her death is tragic, and her love affair with the doctor is fleeting. The doctor claims she had affection for him, but the only reason she loved him is she needed to be in love before dying. She seems to be seeking some sort of redemption, or that she is sacrificing herself in repayment for some type of sin.

And the end of the story is even worse. The doctor probably did truly love Anna even if her love for him came conditionally from circumstances, and now he is married to a woman he dislikes (vaguely reminiscent of Chekhov), and he passes his time playing cards and chewing tobacco, his lost love affair a painful memory.