The Relevance of Edith Wharton’s Roman Fever to the Modern World
According to the World Health Organization, “of the 75 million children under five in Africa a million and a half die each year of pneumonia.” As distressing and sad as this statistic is, it points out the great danger pneumococcus still is to young people in the developing world. It’s in the developed world, but at a time before antibiotics, at a time when acute respiratory ailments posed an even greater but still preventable threat to the younger set that concerns us here and that inspires a deeper look at the full implications of respiratory disease. The WHO goes on to say that acute respiratory infection (ARI) “is one of five conditions which account for more than 70% of child mortality in Africa.” So not only is pneumonia prevalent, it is still deadly. The danger it poses to young people has life-influencing ramifications, ones with an incredible emotional content. Though more treatable now, as we’ll see later, the persistence of pneumonia fits in with the puzzle as it presents itself, since it is linkable to a much more fundamental human ailment.
In Edith Wharton’s “Roman Fever” we also see ailments of a pulmonary and life-changing import. Indeed, the entire story seems shot-through with infection. Wharton writes of Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley, both widowed, both taking their daughters to Rome on holiday as they had been. Their own intertwined histories Wharton describes at the story’s onset as “all of the movings, buyings, travels, anniversaries, illnesses” (emphasis mine) (751). Wharton then begins the tale with illness. It is only as the narrative progresses that we get a sense of how important illness is to become:
Yes; being the Slade’s widow wa...
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...an be treated with antibiotics, it can be treated with aversion therapy or the simple addition of marriage. Other love preventatives such as war and country music are both quite feasible and can actually be very profitable for Western nations, though they seem a little cruel, especially the latter.
Wharton’s “Roman Fever” at the very least points the way; it is a warning that love and pneumonia are inextricably linked, an idea that we’d do well to pay more attention to today when the ease of a high technology lifestyle fosters an arrogance that all the world’s problems have been solved.
Works Cited
Wharton, Edith. “Roman Fever.” Edith Wharton: Collected Stories 1911-1937. New York: Literary Classics 2001. 749-62.
World Health Organization. “Childhood Diseases in Africa” Fact Sheet N 109. March 1996. 14.3.2003
http://www.who.int/inf-fs/en/fact109.html
The book jumps to a distressing story about Peter Los in 1970 in West Germany who became ill due to smallpox. After ten days he was hospitalized but medical staff did not realize he had smallpox, which is highly contagious. Preston gives vivid descriptions of the disease and how it ravages the body. Los survived his illness, but caused an epidemic that killed many others that had become exposed to him. “Today, the people who plan for a smallpox emergency can’t get the image of the Meschede hospital out of their minds.
Hutchinson, Tom “Illness and the hero’s journey: still ourselves and more”, CMAJ. 162.11 (2000):p.1597 web (date accessed).
I am a sassy girl. The Early History of Rome: Books I-V of The History of Rome from its Foundation. Trans. Aubrey de Selincourt. Intro.
Many times in life things are not as they seem. What may look simple on the surface may be more complicated deeper within. Countless authors of short stories go on a journey to intricately craft the ultimate revelation as well as the subtle clues meant for the readers as they attempt to figure out the complete “truth” of the story. The various authors of these stories often use different literary techniques to help uncover the revelation their main characters undergo. Through the process of carefully developing their unique characters and through point of view, both Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway ultimately convey the significant revelation in the short stories, “Roman Fever” and “Hills Like White Elephants” respectively. The use of these two literary techniques is essential because they provide the readers with the necessary clues to realize the ultimate revelations.
4)Rosenstein, Nathan Stewart., and Robert Morstein-Marx. A Companion to the Roman Republic. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2006. Print.
German scientist and satirist, Georg C. Lichtenberg, once said, “Sickness is mankind's greatest defect.” Sickness affects everyone, no matter where one is from or how one lives. Even in today’s world with modern medicine, sickness runs rampant. If one were to think back to when the only cures society had were rituals, a prime example of sickness in a society is England. Recalling the plagues in England, one can easily see the two prominent plagues that struck, along with how they affected English economy and culture.
Author Edith Hamilton was born on August 12, 1867 in Dresden, Germany while her mother was visiting relatives. Hamilton started to study Latin at the age of seven, memorized passages from the Bible and could also recite poetry. Even as a young girl, she was a "natural storyteller. " She was determined to get a good education. After receiving her B.A. and M.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 1894 she studied the classics in Germany.
In Camus' The Plague we recognize that the plague took away peoples health on both a physical and mental level. Yet despite this, it generally left ones capacity to love, in an excellent condition. Although not everyone remained able to love like they did prior to the infestation of the pestilence, most endured the emotional challenges, and upheld, if not strengthened their desire for human affection.
A constitution is a written document that sets forth the fundamental rules by which a society is governed. Throughout the course of history the United States has lived under two Constitutions since the British-American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776. First in line was the Articles of Confederation (1789-1789) followed by the Constitution of United States of America (1789-present). The Articles of Confederation was the first formal written Constitution of America that specified how the national government was to operate. Unfortunately, the Articles did not last long. Under the words of the Article’s power was limited; Congress could make decisions, but had no power to enforce them. Also the articles stated that Congress was denied the power of taxation meaning the national government was given no money to regulate federal spending. Money could only be requested from the states and states had the ability to not guarantee the request. Among the lack of enforcement and taxation was the denied power to regulate commerce trade for the national government in other words the federal government could not build a strong economy. All these factors and others included lead to the fall of the Articles of Confederation. Guiding towards Constitutional Convention, where the present day Constitution was written and signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present on September 17, 1787. This paper discusses why the Founding Father’s designed the Constitution as they did and how this design has affected our system today.
This piece of writing gave more and deeper understanding how other facts have effects on our life as procrastinators. In this research, I came to very important information. This new idea I never imagined that was connected to my behavior as a procrastinator which was "Procrastination is a psychological phenomenon that extends broadly in society. Ferrari, O’Callahan, and Newbegin (2005) reported that 61% of the population display some form of procrastination, of which 20% do so in a chronic manner (e.g., routinely late for deadlines and postponing impor-tant tasks daily or weekly)" (Mun ̃oz-Olano, J. F., & Hurtado-Parrado, C. 2). As I mentioned before procrastination is not the same as laziness. Procrastination has to be with our psychological
... J.P.V.D. Roman Women: Their History And Habits. New York: The John Day Company, 1963.
“I’ll do it later this week, I have time” some of the most commonly used words for procrastinators. Individuals who are procrastinators sometimes feel they work best under pressure, giving them a way to self-sooth themselves when facing reality of the work that lies ahead. Many procrastinators have very busy lives, such as working full or part time, others are juggling family life with kids in addition to work. It seems as if finding the balance between their everyday lives while attending school are for many a recipe for disaster. Those who leave work until the last minute are really never able to find the time to accomplish the work. If we take procrastinators for face value we ca...
In Ancient Rome, the health of the people depended greatly on their surroundings. Since there was limited action that could be done to treat and cure illness, the people of Rome were required to be aware of the risks of illness so that they could maintain their health. Although the Roman people did not have the utensils that we have today, the Romans used all of their given resources to treat and cure what they could. Due to the lack of modern day technology and equipment, Ancient Rome’s wellness differed greatly from that of today. The causes and preventions of illness, as well as the remedies for illnesses, were cared for and acted upon in various ways due to the available recourses.
The Doctors ' Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignác Semmelweis. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2016, from http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/view/12179
Have you ever started working on an essay or research paper and instead finding yourself looking at YouTube videos on how to tie your shoes with no hands? Well, you’re procrastinating. We’ve all been victims of this temptation to put off stuff until the last minute. Believe it or not, procrastination has become a serious problem over the years, not only in teens but kids and adults as well. Ideally there are three basic types of procrastination, there are the arousal types, the avoiders, and the decisional procrastinators (Marano). We will be looking at how these three different types of people use procrastination to their advantage and how it affects their social abilities, mental state, and physical health.