Punctuation in "Use of Force" by W.C. Williams

     In Williams' short story, "The Use of Force,"  I was trying to figure out why I thought everything felt so real about it.  I think it was partially because the lack of quotation marks, and the fact that dialogue did not occur each on its own line.  I think this style made the writing seem more like a stream of thought, rather than very structured and calculated language.  By the end of the story, I felt like I knew the doctor, because I had been exposed to his private thoughts as well as his actions in one stream, so to say.  For example, on page 807 we read, "Well, I said, suppose we take a look at the throat first.  I smiled in my best professional manner and asking for the child's first name I said, come on, Mathilda, open your mouth and let's take a look at your throat."  In this manner of writing, we as readers see what the doctor is doing versus what he is thinking at the same time, which I think creates a more "3D" character.   Also, we know the doctor felt he needed to find out if the child was sick for everyone's sake, but we also hear that for the doctor "It was a pleasure to attack her" (808).  What a contrast!  I think maybe the doctor is getting angry because he had already "seen at least two children lying dead in a bed of neglect" (808), which is a statement that not only creates a sense of urgency through the rhythm of it, but shows the reader why the doctor is getting almost panicked in a way.   Seeing the doctor contrast harsh words to describe the sick child such as "little brat" (808), and describing that "she had fought valiantly" to hide her sickness (809) made me think that the doctor was imposing bad descriptors on the child to distance himself from the pain resulting from finding her with the deathly sickness.  The story made me feel hopeless especially when I read the ending line of "tears of defeat blinded her eyes" (809) because though the reader never finds out what happens to any character in the story, we can guess by the word choice that it may be too late for the girl.

Reversal of Expectations and Characterization in "War" by Luigi Pirandello

Probably the greatest success that Pirandello achieved with "War" is the fact that two main characters addressed in this story have come alive so spectacularly. By the end of this short story, the man with the dead son and the woman with the enlisted son have become distinctive characters, even though they share the same pain and emotional turmoil brought about by war. The fact that they are not mere caricatures of soldiers' parents comes directly from the two reversals of expectations - one experienced by the mother and the other experienced by the father who lost his son.

The first reversal, for me, was not as immediately obvious during the first time I read this story. However, the second time around, when I recognized the opposite directions of the mother's and the father's emotional and (almost) ideological shifts, not only did this reversal become more coherent but it also added to the three-dimensionality of the mother's characterization. We met her on page 1260 as a caricature of a mourning mother: "a bulky woman in deep mourning was hoisted in- almost like a shapeless bundle." With the shift of the story towards her stream-of-consciousness musing and her movements on page 1262, ("the words of the traveler amazed and almost stunned her" and "she lifted her head, she bent over from her corner trying to listen with great attention...") I felt a reversal of expectation. The reason for this is the fact that generally, grief consumes us and does not let us listen to rationales, especially one as ideologically driven as given by the "fat man," father of the dead soldier. This gave me a much clearer view of the mother as a real person with a clear mind and not just a mother overwhelmed by grief.

The second reversal of expectation comes forward with a doubling effect on both the father and the mother as characters. For the mother, this is noted explicitly in a short paragraph: "just as if she had hearted nothing of what had been said and almost as if waking up from a dream" (1262) This, on the wake of her ideological epiphany earlier, (knowing that she needs to "rise up to the same height of those fathers and mothers willing to resign themselves") reverts her back onto her grief. However, by this point, this just serves to make her more three-dimensional and not to rebuild her as a caricature as this flash of emotion adds to the conflict within her between ideology for the greater good of the nation and her fear and grief for her child. The effect of this reversal of expectation on the characterization of the father, however, is even more prominent. Before, I viewed him as an ideologically driven man and, even worse, a caricature of government propaganda. However, as noted in the many blog posts before mine, the simple question of the mother, "Then… is your son really dead?" has brought about the outbreak of emotions in this man and "his face contracted, became horribly distorted […] he snatched in haste a handkerchief from his pocket and […] broke into harrowing, heart-rending, uncontrollable sobs." This outbreak of overwhelming emotions is what brings him to life as a character with all-out emotional reactions to the death of his son, void of any trace of his previous ideologically driven rationalization. 

Thus, with two well-placed reversals of readers' expectations in a 3-page story, Pirandello has brought two characters so spectacularly to life that they have made the wounds of war cut deeply into readers' minds and made us sympathize with not just the two main characters, but anyone who has been forced into a situation similar to theirs.

In Response to "The Use of Force" by William Williams

The short story"The Use of Force" by William Carlos Williams provides an interesting take on authority in society.  At first, my preconceived ideas about the gentleness that pediatricians treat their child patients with were still intact.  This notion was helped along by the description the doctor gives of the child as an "unusually attractive little thing" with "magnificent blonde hair" (1590), and by the way he resents the parent's suggestion that he might be there to hurt the child (1591).  My misconceptions about his character lasted all the way until he admits that he "had grown furious" at the child (1592).  Up until this point, the so-called use of force had only been for the child's benefit, to get a diagnosis, but at this moment, the motive for the use of force becomes two-fold: for the child's benefit and for the doctor's pleasure.  The doctor is now trying to force the child's mouth open for the pleasure of overpowering the child as much as for her own good.  He takes pleasure in attacking the child, but since he is the only one who knows this, his behavior is still acceptable.  Because he holds a position of authority, he is allowed to continue his aggressive attack on the child.  Imagine if any other person but a doctor had tried to do that, and how different the reaction of the parents would have been.  However, because they trust the doctor to do his job, they are willing to let him force their daughters mouth open while is screaming and bleeding, again, only because he holds a position of authority in this situation.  There is an ironic moment when the mother asks the screaming girl "Aren't you ashamed to act like that in front of a doctor?" (1592).  However, the real shame lies in the doctor's behavior towards his patient to whom he is supposed to do no harm.  I was very surprised that the story ended with the child's feelings and not the doctor's.  Is he triumphant that he has reduced her to "tears of defeat" or does he regret his use of force (1593)?  I think the message that Williams conveys with this story is that authority allows the use of force to change from a selfless desire to help another to the selfish desire to conquer another without consequence.

Reflection on “War” by Luigi Pirandello

 If I had to describe how this short story made me feel in one word I would say surprised—surprised by the confrontational conversation that takes place inside the “stuffy and smoky second-class carriage,” surprised by the competitive dynamic between the characters as they try to quantify each others losses, surprised by how relatable the feelings of loss were to me even though I have never come close to experiencing that level of pain, surprised by how real the setting felt despite it being so foreign, and surprised by how despite the strange behaviour of the parents, their behaviour felt simultaneously oddly familiar. It was only at the end when Pirandello writes “and, to the amazement of everyone, [he] broke into harrowing, heart-rendering, uncontrollable sobs,” did I realise why this was—“War” is ultimately a reflection on the human condition. Pirandello’s view of human nature is a sad and lonely one. Through his depiction of the scene in the carriage, as parents argue who is in the worst position, Pirandello shines a light on our inherently competitive nature. The loss of their sons, something that should bring these strangers together, ultimately tears them apart. Pirandello confronted me with the sad reality that we are often blind to our common humanity because our instincts have become to focus on our differences as opposed to our similarities. It feels strange to describe the final moment in this short story as beautiful but that is what it is. For in this moment where the man breaks down, “to the amazement of everyone,” they are reminded not only of their commonality, but also that no cause, no justification, no duty to a "country" will make the loss of a child any less heart breaking and profoundly painful, and that is a sentiment they can all share.

Response to "The Use of Force" by William C. Williams

The Doctor and The Use Of Force

The Doctor in this story by W.C. Williams is a peculiar character. Initially I thought that he was just a doctor checking on a patient because this is his job, I did not have any particular sense of his character and I did not suspect that anything was out of the ordinary. The family was silent and worried as he came to their house and were waiting for him in the kitchen where the father was holding the girl, Mathilda. 

The Doctor talks about the girl as a child for "advertising leaflets" and "unusually attractive thing". He also compares her to a "heifer". It's really disturbing that an old man describes a child this way, but I let this go because I thought "ok, that could just be an external description without anything more there". But then things become weird.

As the Doctor proceeds to the examination and mainly due to the child's refusal to receive the exam and the dreadful sense of fear that the implication of diphtheria's infections created a tense situation between the characters. The Doctor starts saying things like "I had already fallen in love with the savage brat", "I wanted to kill him [the father]", "It was a pleasure to attack her". These ambiguous statements make the relationship of the Doctor and the patient really complicated. 

The Doctor is clearly charged with power through his position as the authority figure in the room. The parents are scared of the decease and are ready to do everything for their child. The Doctor is their only solution and in their eyes he is better. At this point we should note that this is a first person account of the events. Hence the Doctor is aware of the impact that his presence has in the room. He uses force to do good. But then he admits that he's enjoying using force. It really complicates things and makes this Short Story extremely interesting. 

When finally the Doctor discovers the girl's "secret" and confirms that she has diphtheria things complicate more through the way that the narrations ends. I don't know what do think about his intentions to use force. Yes, there was a possibility that the girl was sick so the stress to examine her was major, but he took pleasure out of it. When he sees that the girl has mucus in her throat and that she was binding it from her parents and him there's a connotation that the girl knew the implications of her disease so this makes her more than a stubborn and immature child.

It's is really effectively done, especially considering how short the story is. The importance of the disease and the emotions in the room are communicated through the writing. 

"The Use of Force" by William Carlos Williams

The first thing that attracted my attention when I read this short story was the absence of quotation marks. As a result, the dialogue and the narration (which also includes the narration thoughts as this short story was written in the first person's point of view) were not distinguished from one another. This omission of quotation marks created ambiguity. For an example, "Don't call me a nice man to her. I'm here to look at her throat on the chance that she might have diphtheria and possibly die of it," may be the doctor's thoughts or the continuation of his speech to Mrs. Olson. Even though I could never pinpoint if the phrase was his thought or his speech, I was introduced to his character and how he viewed the situation.

The use of the first person's point of view was advantageous as I could read into the protagonist's thoughts, but it also made the scene unreliable. It was only viewed from the doctor's point of view, making the doctor's character unreliable as well. The whole scene might even be his imagination! If I were to judge the scene with my stereotypical thoughts towards a doctor, I would not have imagined that he would speak or think as he did in the short story. Furthermore, I was not introduced to the insights of the other characters. Even the interpretation of the girl's thoughts were through the doctor's mind!

The doctor's character was very developed in this short story. His character extended beyond the stereotypical all-good doctor. I was introduced to the insight of the protagonist as a doctor. Despite his noble job, he did not like to be called him a "nice man". He separated himself from his work as he smiled in his "most professional manner". Even though the act of treating patients and curing them of their diseases was "nice", he wanted to keep that entirely professionally. Deep inside, he thought, "It was a pleasure to attack her."

Response to “War” by Luigi Pirandello

This short story affected me more dramatically than almost any other that I’ve read in the class so far. Strangely, I didn’t feel that emotionally connected to the piece in the initial stages of the story, though the content of sons going off to war and parents visiting them for the last time before they do so was obviously serious and heartbreaking. What I found so fascinating about this story’s affect on me was that it coincided directly with the characters’ emotions in the final moment when the wife asked her fellow passenger, “Then… is your son really dead?” (Pirandello 1262). Pirandello had built the tension of the passenger’s emotional breakdown throughout his speech to the other people on the train, highlighting the ways in which his physical appearance contradicted his words. The man states, “because my son, before dying, sent me a message saying that he was dying satisfied at having ended his life in the best way he could have wished. That is why, as you see, I do not even wear mourning…” (1262). Yet just after that Pirandello writes, “He shook his light fawn coat as if to show it; his livid upper lip over his missing teeth was trembling, his eyes were watery and motionless, and soon after he ended with a shrill laugh which might well have been a sob” illustrating that in fact he does grieve, and that all that grief lies just below the surface (1262). When the mother in the story asks him the ultimate question, the grief is triggered and, as Pirandello states, the moment of realization occurs. The man realizes that his son is dead and that no amount of philosophizing can reduce the pain of that. In the moment the man realizes this and crumbles, I felt the sharp pain as well. I was heartbroken when he was, and in a truly masterful feat of Pirandello’s, I was somehow blindsided by it.