Struggles & Perceptions of Others Change the Thinking Process

The novel “Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures” by Vincent Lam takes the readers through experiences that occur from being a physician. A physician, undoubtedly has a very difficult and stressful job as it is another person’s life in their hands. Vincent Lam’s short stories come straight from his own experiences and the barriers encountered to obtain a status in the medical field. The novel starts off with Vincent Lam going through the personal lives of Ming and Fitzgerald along with a few of their colleagues that grind through medical school to become a physician. It is evident throughout this novel that these physicians face a lot of ethical dilemmas. Physicians typically have to handle patients throughout their day, it disengages them from their personal life making room for obstructed thinking. From whole-hearted scenes to dark humorous scenes, this novel allows the reader to experience a physician’s life virtually. It also presents the great struggles experienced due to perceptions of others and one’s own desires to feel a certain way. Relationships often become obstructed as the desires of an individual becomes conflicted with the perception of culture and family views.
To begin with, this novel does an outstanding job at developing each character in the first three chapters. As the first chapter develops, readers are immediately introduced to Ming and Fitzgerald’s love connection. In order for Ming to get Fitzgerald’s attention, she attempts to make their encounter coincidental. The author expresses these feelings of Ming by narrating “She [Ming] didn’t want to wait outside for him [Fitzgerald], preferring it to be very coincidental that she would leave the room at the same time he did” (2). It is important to realize that the...

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...individual completely rules out the factor that is looked down upon.
Throughout the novel, readers were exposed to many factors that engage with a physician’s life. Humans value love, respect and honesty in a relationship. No matter the hardships, a relationship is indeed the resource to overcome a conflict. Conflicts may also arise from the relationship itself, however, it does not mean to give up. Perceptions of others change an individual’s decision-making process and in turn may lead that individual down the wrong road. It is evident on a daily basis that relationships often become obstructed as the desires of an individual becomes conflicted with the perception of culture and family views. "Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures" by Vincent Lam displayed to the reader, in-depth, that life has its struggles. Never give up, because giving up will lead to a dead cause.