What information is surprisingly left out? Why do you think the author didn't
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CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
Williams
The Use of Force
483
12
Saturday evening shopping trips with his aunt compare to his experience at Araby
early twentieth-century Dublin, Ireland (par. 5). How does the boy's experience on
(par. 25)? What makes the experiences so different?
3 This story is saturated with the culture of Dublin, Ireland, particularly its Catholicism
and its attitudes about gender and sexuality. How are these or other important cultural
influences expressed in the story? To get started, take a look at paragraph 2.
23
your
Nothing doing
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let me see.
William Carlos Williams
The Use of Force
15
hurt you.
24
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25
Library of Congress, Prints &
Photographs Division,
LC-USZ62109601
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS (1883–1963) is one of the most
important poets of the twentieth century, best known for his long
poem Paterson (1946–1958). He also wrote essays, plays, novels,
and short stories. “The Use of Force” was initially published in
The Doctor Stories (1933), a collection loosely based on Williams's
experiences as a pediatrician.
the child again.
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1
They were new patients to me, all I had was the
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floor.
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2
Well, I said, suppose we take a look at the throat
grew more and more abject, crushed, exhausted while
first. I smiled in my best professional manner and asking
for the child's first name I said, come on, Mathilda, open
she surely rose to magnificent heights of insane fury of
r mouth and let's take a look at your throat.
effort bred of her terror of me.
The father tried his best, and he was a big man, but
Aw, come on, I coaxed, just open your mouth wide
the fact that she was his daughter, his shame at her
behavior and his dread of hurting her made him release
and let me take a look. Look, I said opening both hands
her just at the critical times when I had almost achieved
wide, I haven't anything in my hands. Just open up and
success, till I wanted to kill him. But his dread also that
she might have diphtheria made him
Such a nice man, put in the mother. Look how kind
ell me to go on,
go on though he himself was almost fainting, while the
he is to you. Come on, do what he tells you to. He won't
mother moved back and forth behind us raising and
lowering her hands in an agony of apprehension.
At that I ground my teeth in disgust. If only they
Put her in front of you on your lap, I ordered, and
wouldn't use the word "hurt" I might be able to get
hold both her wrists.
somewhere. But I did not allow myself to be hurried or
But as soon as he did the child let out a scream.
disturbed but speaking quietly and slowly I approached Don't, you're hurting me. Let go of my hands. Let them
go I tell you. Then she shrieked terrifyingly, hysterically.
As I moved my chair a little nearer suddenly with Stop it! Stop it! You're killing me!
one catlike movement both her hands clawed instinc-
Do you think she can stand it, doctor! said the
tively for my eyes and she almost reached them too. In mother.
fact she knocked my glasses flying and they fell
, though You get out, said the husband to his wife. Do you
unbroken, several feet away from me on the kitchen want her to die of diphtheria?
Come on now, hold her, I said.
Both the mother and father almost turned them-
Then I grasped the child's head with my left hand
selves inside out in embarrassment and apology. You and tried to get the wooden tongue depressor between
bad girl, said the mother, taking her and shaking her by her teeth. She fought, with clenched teeth, desperately!
one arm. Look what you've done. The nice man...
But now I also had grown furious—at a child. I tried to
For heaven's sake, I broke in. Don't call me a nice hold myself down but I couldn't. I know how to expose a
man to her. I'm here to look at her throat on the chance throat for inspection. And I did my best. When finally I
that she might have diphtheria and possibly die of it.
got the wooden spatula behind the last teeth and just the
But that's nothing to her. Look here, I said to the child, point of it into the mouth cavity, she opened up for an
we're going to look at your throat. You're old enough to instant but before I could see anything she came down
understand what I'm saying. Will you open it now by again and gripping the wooden blade between her molars
yourself or shall we have to open it for you?
she reduced it to splinters before I could get it out again.
Not a move. Even her expression hadn't changed.
Aren't you ashamed, the mother yelled at her. Aren't
Her breaths however were coming faster and faster. you ashamed to act like that in front of the doctor?
Then the battle began. I had to do it. I had to have a
Get me a smooth-handled spoon of some sort, I
throat culture for her own protection. But first I told the told the mother. We're going through with this. The
parents that it was entirely up to them. I explained the child's mouth was already bleeding. Her tongue was cut
danger but said that I would not insist on a throat exam- and she was screaming in wild hysterical shrieks.
ination so long as they would take the responsibility. Perhaps I should have desisted and come back in an
If you don't do what the doctor says you'll have to hour or more. No doubt it would have been better. But I
go to the hospital, the mother admonished her severely. have seen at least two children lying dead in bed of
Oh yeah? I had to smile to myself. After all, I had neglect in such cases, and feeling that I must get a diag-
already fallen in love with the savage brat, the parents nosis now or never I went at it again. But the worst of it
was that I too had got beyond reason. I could have torn
were contemptible to me. In the ensuing struggle they
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3
6
7
fever. She had magnificent blonde hair, in profusion.
One of those picture children often reproduced in
advertising leaflets and the photogravure sections of
the Sunday papers.
She's had a fever for three days, began the father, and
we don't know what it comes from. My wife has given her
things, you know, like people do, but it don't do no good.
And there's been a lot of sickness around. So we tho't you
better look her over and tell us what is the matter.
As doctors often do I took a trial shot at it as a point
of departure. Has she had a sore throat?
Both parents answered me together, No ... No, she
says her throat don't hurt her.
Does your throat hurt you? added the mother to
the child. But the little girl's expression didn't change
nor did she move her eyes from my face.
Have
you looked?
I tried, said the mother, but I couldn't see.
As it happens we had been having a number of
cases of diphtheria in the school to which this child
went during that month and we were all, quite appar-
ently, thinking of that, though no one had as yet spo-
ken of the thing.
my daughter is very sick.
When I arrived I was met by the mother, a big star-
tled-looking woman, very clean and apologetic, who
merely said, Is this the doctor? and let me in. In the
back, she added. You must excuse us, doctor, we have
her in the kitchen where it is warm. It is very damp here
sometimes.
The child was fully dressed and sitting on her
father's lap near the kitchen table. He tried to get up,
but I motioned for him not to bother, took off my over-
coat and started to look things over. I could see that
they were all very nervous, eyeing me up and down dis-
trustfully. As often, in such cases, they weren't telling
me more than they had to, it was up to me to tell them;
that's why they were spending three dollars on me.
The child was fairly eating me up with her cold,
steady eyes, and no expression to her face whatever.
She did not move and seemed, inwardly, quiet; an
unusually attractive little thing, and as strong as a
heifer in appearance. But her face was flushed, she was
breathing rapidly, and I realized that she had a high
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31
4
9
10
11
21
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484
CHAPTER 10 Analyzing Stories
in
Мо
of
32
tiv
back of her teeth and down her throat till she gagged,
And there it was—both tonsils covered with membrane.
She had fought valiantly to keep me from knowing her
secret. She had been hiding that sore throat for three
days at least and lying to her parents in order to escape
Now truly she was furious. She had been on the
defensive before but now she attacked. Tried to get off
her father's lap and fly at me while tears of defeat
blinded her eyes.
the child apart in my own fury and enjoyed it. It was a
pleasure to attack her. My face was burning with it.
The damned little brat must be protected against
her own idiocy, one says to oneself at such times. Others
must be protected against her. It is a social necessity.
And all these things are true. But a blind fury, a feeling
of adult shame, bred of a longing for muscular release
are the operatives. One goes on to the end.
In a final unreasoning assault I overpowered the
child's neck and jaws. I forced the heavy silver spoon
ano
just such an outcome as this.
34
mc
ano
33
Tu
ANALYZE & WRITE
w
t
Use the following questions to begin analyzing “The Use of Force":
1 This story is told from the doctor's point of view. How does he justify his use of force?
What are the pros and cons he weighs in using it? To get started, look in particular at
paragraph 34.
r
2 How do the sexual overtones of the story – for example, in the doctor's describing the
girl as “an unusually attractive little thing” (par. 4) and admitting “I had already fallen in
love with the savage brat” (par. 22) — affect your understanding and judgment of the
doctor's and the girl's behavior?
3 Because this story came out of the era of the Great Depression, you might expect it to
say something about the impoverished material conditions in which people lived at the
time and how these hardships affected them. Are these expectations borne out? What
seems to be the economic status of the family and the doctor, and how does class
affect what happens in the story? To get started, take a look at paragraphs 2 and 3.
101 ANALYZING A SHORT STORY 20 pts.
3 Page
Write a three page essay explaining and justifying your interpretation of one of the
following short stories:
"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
"Araby" by James Joyce
"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid
"The Use of Force" by William Carlos Williams
Consider theme, use of symbolism, use of language, irony, character, allusion.
Ask yourself questions to arrive at a thesis.
Examples: Is Mrs. Mallard's heart disease physical, spiritual or both?
Does Kate Chopin think marriage is a trap?
How does Joyce use language to convey the boy's youthful
idealism to contrast it with the reality of his life?
What is revealed about the narrator of "Girl"?
Does using force, even for a good reason, cause corruption?
There are more suggestions for analysis at the end of each story.
You must prepare a formal outline from the first draft of this paper.
MLA citation must be used both in integrating quotes and paraphrases into the body of
the essay, and in compiling the mandatory Works Cited Page, which should be on a
separate sheet, attached to the back of the essay. FORMAL STYLE IS MANDATORY:
no "q" or "you". The student essays provide examples of correct citation, both in the
essay and for the work cited (the story).
Extra Credit (two points): Find one secondary source (the story itself is your primary
source). This source must be from accepted works of literary criticism, author biography
or reputable sources in a field related to your interpretation, e.g., psychology, ethnology
etc.
Two copies of the first draft, with scratch outline and invention stapled senaratoh
due Moun
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