Summary:
A brief analysis of William Carlos Williams' short story "The Use of Force," which describes a doctor's thoughts and emotions as he tries to diagnose the ailment of an uncooperative child.
A. Saleh
Williams "Use of Force"
This was a very interesting and emotional short story. The narrator for this story may have been thought of as Williams himself, although in reality the doctor in the story is the actual narrator. Furthermore, Williams is also a doctor in reality and that is probably the biggest reason for him to make one of the main characters a doctor. I feel that the doctor in the story is a normal stressed out doctor with some self control issues. I also feel that he is a person who enjoys being a doctor, whereas some are only in it for the money. He seemed to have deep regard about the child's health. However, the little girl got on his nerves when she did not want to open up her mouth.
His determination to find out the problem with the girl, and the anger he had from her ignorance, resulted him to use some force when it came to opening up the girls mouth. Furthermore, as any normal person would feel, the doctor enjoyed the feeling of insane anger towards the child. When someone pisses you off it feels good to get them back in some way; and that is exactly what the doctor did. On the contrary, at the same time he was expressing his anger, he truly did want to help out the poor, ignorant, suffering girl from the sickness she was hiding. The girl's beauty would have to do with her being to good to open up her mouth. Maybe she knows of how beautiful she is and feels as if she is too good to be forced to do anything. I can't come up with anything better than that. The use of force was needed and was used for two reasons. First of all, the doctor wanted to save the girls life and needed to open her mouth for a proper diagnosis. Second of all, he was pissed off from her being so hard to handle and stubborn.
This is the complete article, containing 334 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
