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In this section, you will see some of the work that Isabella Wright did in developing her essay analyzing the story “The Use of Force.” Using the Guide to Writing in this book, Wright chose the suggestions for interpreting character to guide her analysis of the story. As you will see,
she annotated a portion of the story focusing on the doctor’s first attempts to examine the young patient’s throat;
she wrote to explore her annotations on the passages;
she listed ideas for formulating her tentative thesis statement.
You will be able to infer from her invention work how her ideas came to form the thesis she developed for her final essay.
Annotating
Wright annotated paragraphs 12–22 of “The Use of Force” as she reread them with the suggestions for analyzing character in mind. The annotated passages are reproduced here. Notice the diversity of her annotations:
In the text itself, she underlined key words and circled words to be defined.
In the margin, she defined words, made comments, and posed questions. She also expressed her tentative insights, reactions, and judgments.
smile really sincere?
12
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.
13
Nothing doing.
he’s trying to come across as unthreatening
14
Aw, come on, I coaxed, just open your mouth wide and let me take a look. Look, I said opening both hands wide, I haven’t anything in my hands. Just open up and let me see.
mother’s politeness continues
15
Such a nice man, put in the mother. Look how kind he is to you. Come on, do what he tells you to. He won’t hurt you.
not willing to promise he won’t hurt girl
16
At that I ground my teeth in disgust. If only they wouldn’t use the word “hurt” I might be able to get somewhere. But I did not allow myself to be hurried or disturbed but speaking quietly and slowly I approached the child again.
unlike parents, child showing her true self
17
As I moved my chair a little nearer suddenly with one catlike movement both her hands clawed instinctively for my eyes and she almost reached them too. In fact she knocked my glasses flying and they fell, though unbroken, several feet away from me on the kitchen floor.
parents very embarrassed—
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18
Both the mother and father almost turned themselves inside out in embarrassment and apology. You bad girl, said the mother, taking her and shaking her by one arm. Look what you’ve done. The nice man . . .
Rude. Is he really saying this? No quotation marks
possibly deadly infection
19
For heaven’s sake, I broke in. 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. But that’s nothing to her. Look here, I said to the child, we’re going to look at your throat. You’re old enough to understand what I’m saying. Will you open it now by yourself or shall we have to open it for you?
he’s losing his patience
battle of the wills as much as a physical battle?
“her own protection”— he’s trying to justify his actions
20
Not a move. Even her expression hadn’t changed. Her breaths however were coming faster and faster. Then the battle began. I had to do it. I had to have a throat culture for her own protection. But first I told the parents that it was entirely up to them. I explained the danger but said that I would not insist on a throat examination so long as they would take the responsibility.
21
If you don’t do what the doctor says you’ll have to go to the hospital, the mother admonished her severely.
Now here’s a sincere smile!
hopeless
struggle has transformed him—
22
Oh yeah? I had to smile to myself. After all, I had already fallen in love with the savage brat, the parents were contemptible to me. In the ensuing struggle they grew more and more abject crushed, exhausted while she surely rose to magnificent heights of insane fury of effort bred of her terror of me.
As you can see, annotating this section of the story with the suggestions for analyzing character in mind led Wright to notice how much the doctor’s direct, and sometimes rude, manner is butting up against the parents’ politeness and embarrassment over their child’s behavior.
Examining Patterns in the Story
Following the instructions for generating ideas by moving from details to general ideas (p. 460), Wright explored a pattern of contrast she saw between the doctor and the parents in the story. Here is what she wrote:
From the start of this scene, it feels like the whole experience between the doctor and the family is going to go from bad to worse. The doctor’s smile feels forced, almost as if he’s warning the little girl that she’s in for an unpleasant time. The parents’ attempts to smooth things over do nothing but irritate him, and he’s actually angered by being referred to as a “nice man.” It’s as if he has no time for the social conventions so important to the parents; these rules mean nothing to him, much less to the girl. In some ways, the doctor and the girl seem more alike than the doctor and the parents because he and the girl are showing their true selves. For that reason, maybe he even respects her more than he does the parents. The longer the two of them struggle, the more he seems to admire her. From the parents’ and the girl’s point of view, the experience is pretty clearly a bad one, but perhaps there’s something freeing about it from the doctor’s perspective.
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As Wright wrote about the contrasts between the characters, she became increasingly confident that she not only had an interesting idea but also had one she could find support for in the story.
Listing Ideas
Wright tried out the activity on listing ideas from the Ways In feature on p. 460. In doing so, she drew on both her annotations and on the exploratory writing she did about the doctor and the family (above):
The doctor comes across in a bad light: He’s rude and impatient and able to justify the use of force against the girl.
He has no time for the social conventions upheld by the parents.
He’s more annoyed than flattered by the mother’s compliments and attempts to smooth things over.
In this way, maybe he is more like the little girl than the parents.
They both seem to be showing their true selves.
In the end, it’s hard to condemn the doctor.
His break with social conventions feels freeing—
From these ideas about the doctor’s behavior and how his views about social conventions differ from those of the parents, Wright was able to devise the thesis statement she eventually used in her essay.