James Herriot’s If Only They Could Talk
In James Herriot’s autobiographical book, If Only They Could Talk, we see that Herriot has many strong characteristics which help him through his tough, and oftentimes demanding, career. He has a vast knowledge of his practice, as well as his employer and friend, Seigfried Farnon. Herriot has a great sense of humour, and is able to take embarrassment excellently. He also works well in strange, or uncomfortable situations. One of his strong character traits is his adaptability, he is very flexible with his customers, and adapts to their lifestyles. James Herriot’s most endearing quality is his deep passion and concern for his patients.
James Herriot has a tremendous memory of all the signs, symptoms, medications, diseases, and sicknesses concerning animals. This helps him very much throughout his career. He remembers thinking to himself about a horse reference book, “I had gone through it so often in my mind final year that I could recite stretches of it like poetry.”(1) He is able to deduct a patient’s problem without even needing an x-ray, or anything of that sort. In one situation, a bull was in danger of dying, and no one knew what was wrong. Herriot felt the rays of sun on his face and knew then that the bull had sun-stroke, and when asked, the owner told him he had put the bull out to pasture for a long length of time. James Herriot also understood his employer, Farnon, well. He knew when to steer clear, and when to ask him for advice and guidance. Herriot said: “I could read his mind without much trouble.”(2)
Herriot had a wonderful sense of humour, and was always happy to get a laugh, even if it was at his own expense. Once, he was out with another aged veterinarian, Angus Grier, and found himself in quite a predicament. Grier insisted on Herriot coming with him to a cleanse a cow. This was a fairly simple procedure, where you remove the afterbirth still inside the cow. Herriot did not feel he needed to go, thus he said he did not have the proper clothes for the job. Grier was annoyed, but forcefully suggested Herriot put on Grier’s new calving outfit. It was an immense plastic suit of armor, and Grier made Herriot put every part of it on, including the helmet. This was, of course, quite ridiculous just for cleansing out a cow. But Herriot did it, and was the center of attention at the families’ fa...
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... best feeling in the world to him, and that is why he would not have chosen any other profession: “I can’t think of anything in my working life that has given me more pleasure than standing in that pen directing the life-saving jet and watching the bull savoring it.”(10) Another thing that Herriot loved was new-born animals. Especially when he helped deliver them! He was really interested in the cycle of life. I think this also helped keep things going. The fact that every year, it was a new beginning: “I felt utterly content, warm with the memory of the foal trying to struggle on to it’s knees…”(11)
James Herriot has a very strong character, and a very good sense of values. His humour keeps the days light, and jovial, and gets all the not-so-great situations a little bit easier to handle. His expansive knowledge of his job keeps the work somewhat easy, and helps with the hard to solve problems. His adaptability is very useful, as he works with many people, and in many different places. His deep concern, appreciation, and love for his patients, and all animals keeps him doing his job. No matter how hard it gets, he does it for the animals, and this is why he has kept on going.
In her personal essay, Dr. Grant writes that she learned that most cases involving her patients should not be only handled from a doctor’s point of view but also from personal experience that can help her relate to each patient regardless of their background; Dr. Grant was taught this lesson when she came face to face with a unique patient. Throughout her essay, Dr. Grant writes about how she came to contact with a patient she had nicknamed Mr. G. According to Dr. Grant, “Mr. G is the personification of the irate, belligerent patient that you always dread dealing with because he is usually implacable” (181). It is evident that Dr. Grant lets her position as a doctor greatly impact her judgement placed on her patients, this is supported as she nicknamed the current patient Mr.G . To deal with Mr. G, Dr. Grant resorts to using all the skills she
...herapeutic ways to interact with a client. Overall, I believe that I am capable and eager to work with patients like Gerald, but I also realize that I have to keep educating myself, keep up with the ever-evolving management of illness and treatments.
1. Define 'satire' and provide one example of personal or social satire that yoou have encountered. You may use any source for your example:TV, media, news editorials, movies, comedy, etc.
seems as if Reuben will not get his smicha and Michael will never be cured.
Dr. Jey Arthur, of Sutter Memorial Hospital, is an idol when it comes to physicians within a hospital’s Emergency Room. During his shift, the entire atmosphere of the Emergency Room changes. Nurses become more interactive with their patients and the patient’s rooms are no longer filled with misery and hopelessness. From the second the patient is assigned a room, Dr. Arthur is constantly visiting keeping the patient well informed and up to date on what the physicians and nurses are doing and their progress. From my time shadowing Dr. Aurther, not a single patient had lost a smile when he left the room. Beyond the care of the patient, Dr. Arthur has established absolute order with those working in the Emergency Room. Dr. Arthur has made himself
There are many aspects for my mind to conceive while reading the articles why I write by George Orwell and Joan Didion. There are many different factors in triggering an author’s imagination to come up with what they want to write, and why they want to write it. In most writings a purpose is not found before the writer writes, but often found after they decide to start writing.
Daru, the schoolteacher in a remote area of Algeria, is torn between duty and what he believes is the right thing to do when he is suddenly forced in the middle of a situation he does not expect. He must escort an Arabic prisoner to the nearest town. It is not that Daru has much sympathy for the man; in fact, he does not, and actually finds himself disliking the Arab for disrupting so many lives. "Daru felt a sudden wrath against the man, against all men with their rotten spite, their tireless hates, their blood lust." Unfortunately, Daru loves his homeland, and cannot bear to think of leaving, despite the chaos that is raging around him between France and the Algerian natives. I believe that Daru makes the right choice in letting the prisoner choose his own fate. Daru has reaso...
The short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, by Raymond Carver, is about two married couples drinking gin and having a talk about the nature of love. The conversation is a little sloppy, and the characters make some comments which could either be meaningless because of excessive alcohol in the bloodstream, or could be the characters' true feelings because of excessive alcohol in the bloodstream. Overall, the author uses this conversation to show that when a relationship first begins, the people involved may have misconceptions about their love, but this love will eventually die off or develop into something much more meaningful.
A question I have been asked more often than not, “What would you rather be if not a doctor?” Well, my journey as a doctor has seen a share of crests and troughs, but I will not have it any other way. I am a book lover, and every good read is time saved; I have trekked mountains, and every step brought forth a sense of achievement; I have been recognized for my English debating skills many a time. Every cup held was precious, but none of it so fulfilling and rewarding as another human being trusting you with his breath. This texture of human relationships is unique to this profession, and is probably what makes it sublime to the eyes of a common man.
The meaning of the first stanza is do the things you need to get done because tomorrow the opportunity may not exist. It states this by saying gather rosebuds while you can because that beautiful flower “tomorrow will be dying” (Herrick 385). The next stanza talks about the Sun’s life from dawn to dusk. By describing it’s race against time it is telling a person that there is not much sunlight so make the most of it To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time and Carpe Diem
Albert Camus has his own toolbox of literary devices when it comes to accentuating the theme of The Stranger, one of them being his unique sense and use of secondary characters. Whether major or minor, every character in the book serves a purpose, and corroborates the theme in some form of fashion. Camus describes his secondary characters as foiling Meursault in one aspect or another, and thus, shining light on Meursault’s characteristics. Whether through close connections like familial relationships (Maman) and friendships (Salamano, Raymond, and Marie), or through bonds as distant as people he briefly converses with (Chaplain), or even so much as complete strangers (Perez and unidentified lady at the restaurant), characters that Meursault encounters foil and therefore, emphasize many aspects of his nature. Furthermore, because Meursault aptly embodies Camus’s ideology of Absurdism, emphasizing Meursault through secondary characteristics simply highlights Camus’ doctrine and theme of the book.
The book that I read was called The Stranger written by Albert Camus. The book is globally famous and was translated to many different languages and texts. The original was called L’Étranger which was written in French in 1942. The plot of this story involved a man in his late twenties or early thirties. The man's name is Meursault. In the beginning of the novel, Meursault is notified that his mother had passed away in the nursing home that he occupied her to. Meursault’s income could not afford to take care of his mother any longer; therefore, he put her in a nursing home. Meursault took off of work and went to the nursing home where she passed away to pay his respects and attend the funeral ceremonies. When he arrived at the nursing home, the funeral director brought Meursault to his mother’s coffin. The director asked if he wanted to see her and he quickly replied to keep the coffin shut. Meursault sat in the room and nearly went through an entire pack of cigarettes while blankly watching his mother’s coffin. At the actual funeral, Meursault shows no signs of normal emotion which would normally be induced at such an event.
The movie “The Doctor” is a good example of how communications in the health field work to benefit not only the patient, but the doctor too. In this movie, the main character, also known as Jack McKee, is a heart surgeon. The movie begins by showing how McKee’s attitude towards his patients tends to be inappropriate. Jack jokes about his patients and laughs at their concerns. His home life is also a struggle; his relationships with his wife and son are falling apart. The movie takes a turn when Jack becomes suddenly ill. He begins coughing up blood. He meets with a specialist by the name of Lesley. Tests reveal that Jack has a serious tumor on his vocal cords. He has now become the patient. He begins treatment but the results are not what they expect. Along the way, he befriends a brain tumor patient by the name of June. She will teach Jack how to empathize. He will learn how to feel and communicate not only with his wife and son, but for his patients as well.
The nineteenth century was a time of economic, technologic, and population growth. These changes created problems in everyone’s daily lives. Two examples of things that affected the lives of many were disease and sanitation. Disease and sanitation led to high mortality rates in Nineteenth- Century England. This relates to North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell as it takes place during nineteenth century England and multiple characters died presumably due to disease.
“Spinster” by Sylvia Plath is a poem that consists of a persona, who in other words serves as a “second self” for the author and conveys her innermost feelings. The poem was written in 1956, the same year as Plath’s marriage to Ted Hughes, who was also a poet. The title suggests that the persona is one who is not fond of marriage and the normal rituals of courtship as a spinster is an unmarried woman, typically an older woman who is beyond the usual age of marriage and may never marry. The persona of the poem is a woman who dislikes disorder and chaos and finds relationships to be as unpredictable as the season of spring, in which there is no sense of uniformity. In this poem, Plath not only uses a persona to disclose her feelings, but also juxtaposes the seasons and their order (or lack thereof) and relates them to the order that comes with solitude and the disorder that is attributed with relationships. She accomplishes this through her use of formal diction, which ties into both the meticulous structure and develops the visual imagery.