Empathy In Dr. William Carlos Williams Jean Beicke

In 1938 modern novelist and physician, Dr. William Carlos Williams produces a novel “Jean Beicke” which may well be synonymous with his life, and his disposition with the society that emerged in the early twentieth century. The novel not only confers on the deprived state some of the children entering the pediatric hospital the narrator happened to work at. It also delves into the disposition the narrator (possibly other pediatricians) possesses over the neglectful nature of the child’s parents. Surely, this must reflect William’s worldview from a post-world-war standpoint, where the new generations of children are helplessly starving to the point of death. This degradation in human empathy may have been a direct result of either World

For example, Williams thrust the audience into this novel with the narrator recounting his experience with some of the children he takes care of. At this stage in the story the audience is introduced to the duality (possibly the mental hurtles) the narrator deals with, when both directly interacting and indirectly interacting with his patience. For example, he will get joy from curing them and watching them interact with his staff. Even when they are not around, he will dehumanize them calling them names such as “brats” all the way to “specimens”. This effect makes it unclear the real intentions of the doctor, giving him a passive aggressive person with an escapist personality. It should be worth noting, that just like the children, the narrator along with most of the characters in the story do not possess any definitive attributes; his closest personal relationship he has, a respected physician, is with a character he calls the “ear man”. In some respect narrator has managed to humanize the children more than him or her, giving their name, gender, age, personality, and color (like the color of their

Often-making crude but satirical jokes like the last dialog in the story between the earpiece and the narrator where they say, “For what? Said I. Vote the straight communist ticket. Would it make us any dumber? Said the ear man” . From here, at least one thing is clear the constant arrival of the deformed children complimented by the selfless actions of the staff is wearing on them, yet the press on. Ironically, Communism would go on the rise starting around this era an ideology crudely interpreted as a social club that focuses on collaboration over individual privileges. This particular quote highlights the ironic state the hospital is in now, due to high demand yet impoverished state of the children and sometimes parents that come