Parallels Between the Political and the Personal

Throughout the narrative, the author creates and defines parallels between his personal experiences (specifically: what he went through during his son’s illness and death) and his political ones (specifically: what he went through while assisting in the attempted resolution of a trio of international conflicts). These parallels are sometimes quite deliberately and explicitly, as when the author states that the untried treatments being used in Beau's are similar in intention and experience to the untried techniques being used against ISIL in Iraq. On other occasions, these parallels are drawn through implication or juxtaposition, such as when the author uses parallel language and structure to suggest parallels between Beau's medical treatment and the situation in Ukraine.

In both sorts of circumstances, whether defining parallels directly or through implication, the author’s essential message – his argument, or commentary, or analysis – is the same...