A Great Fear Of Mine

To begin, I will discuss how Bearing’s cancer and treatment generate pain that then leads to her salvation anxiety. Bearing first experiences physical pain which prompts her to seek a medical opinion. She describes this pain as “like a cramp, but not the same” (27). As it turns out, the pain she felt was ovarian cancer. After her diagnosis, Bearing chooses to undergo an experimental treatment. The medicine used produces nausea, vomiting, fever, and chills (31, 41, 47). After several rounds of chemotherapy, the chemicals kill all of Bearing’s white blood cells leading to her immune system being compromised and further subjection to illness (46-47). With extreme pain as a constant reminder of her death and what follows, it is no surprise Bearing also begins to suffer from salvation anxiety.

In Diane Ackerman’s essay “Pain,” she ponders about the subjectivity in experiencing pain, how to define pain, and its role in human life. She begins by emphasizing that an individual’s ability to endure pain may depend more on culture and atmosphere than on the actual magnitude of the pain. Given that at times humans can forego pain for a spell because of their atmosphere, Ackerman elucidates the importance of surroundings in how one experiences pain by exemplifying her claim through a phenomenon in football players. Ackerman continues her discussion on the disparities in the reception of pain by asserting expectations delineate the painfulness of events. Strengthening her claim that tradition affects pain, Ackerman considers how cultures

Pain is universal. In life, everyone will feel pain; it is inevitable and cruel. Physical or emotional, insignificant or severe, it is there. The pain continues mounting into an unbearable amount of suffering. Suffering that blots out everything of worth, such as family, love, aspirations, and optimism. Hopelessness seizes any will to endure. With no way to subside or control the pain, often one will go to extremes in order to be free of it. Many take their life, in order to escape the horror. Committing suicide is a traumatizing experience for any and all involved. Life is precious. The chance to live is only given once, and cannot be taken for granted. Preventing even a single life from ending early is imperative and obligatory

The theme of the biography The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is withstanding the pain of suffering both mentally and physically. The author portrays how the people felt in a great authentic way. One example of suffering is on page 85, when one of Henrietta’s cousins went to the hospital when she was dying of cancer. Her cousin told Skloot, “‘Lord, Emmet told me years later, ‘Henrietta rose up out that bed wailin like she been possessed by the devil of pain itself.’” Henrietta had had to go through an immense amount of pain if she was screaming about the pain. Another example of going through pain is on page 282, when Henrietta’s sister, Deborah, found a horrifying picture of her other sister that was sent to a mental hospital

As I searched for an editorial to write on, the Op-Ed, “What Our Cells Teach Us About a ‘Natural’ Death,” immediately caught my eye. It may have been due to recent events that left death on my mind, or the alien combination of ‘natural’ and ‘death’. Nonetheless, Warraich’s piece snagged my attention. His article provides an interesting interpretation of death and human relations towards the sore subject, and gives a sound argument to support it.

Each person experiences loss and the pain and grief that coincides with it at some point in their life. Often times, these people gain a new outlook on life, and begin to see the world differently. People change as a result of pain; they think and act differently. Margaret Atwood utilizes characterization through Verna’s presentation, thoughts, and actions in “Stone Mattress” to show that pain changes people.

Any genre of literature can talk about pain. Pain is something that everyone can relate to; therefore, many writers use the theme of pain in their works in order to make a connection with any person who reads it. Some authors may be able to perceive pain better than others and they may be due to their history, or perhaps each genre of literature may be able to equally show pain through its works regardless of what the authors background is. The fact of the matter is, the only way to tell if different authors can show the same amount of pain in their different types of literautre, is to take a look at multiple genres of literature that talk about pain. This paper analyzes John Cheever’s short-story “The Swimmer” (1964), Edwidge Danticat’s non-fiction Brother, I’m Dying (2007), and Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem, “Facing It” (1988), in order to show that different genres of literature can perceive pain better than others.

Thirdly, the poem by Emily Dickinson There is a pain- so utter- reveals how pain causes suffering to the human body and mind. “Her poems suggest a complex view of the relation of suffering to human action and meaning.” (Scheurich, 2007:189). She writes in a manner that the reader can understand what traumatic events she herself had been through and how she manages to release it by writing about

A universal theme that all human beings encounter that triggers emotional and physical aspects is grief. However, different cultures experience bereavement in a variety of ways (Pomeroy & Garcia, 2009). From a priest’s standpoint, Hater (2017) shared how he learned how to cope with death when he spent time with his ill father and during his priesthood. While he remained at his father’s side during his sickness, he stated how the emotional event was like an up and down rollercoaster, but at the end of the journey, the Holy Spirit invites us into a new life, which renews hope. Nevertheless, Hater (2017) discloses how the grief process helps us become stronger and support others who are psychologically and physically suffering from a loss of

Pain is nothing compared to the heartless feelings that are solely accompanied by a safe, meaningless life that is firmly trapped under traditions and that is nothing, but merely an illusion of comfort ornamented by

Pain can take up a person 's life, whether it be mental or physical. Each person is burdened with some sort of pain, some more than others. “Whereas one of the foremost repercussions of experiencing a traumatic event is a crisis of subjectivity, trauma can paradoxically also become the site on which identity is founded” (Wiel). One of the most influential female artists of the 20th Century was one who was burdened more than many others. Frida Kahlo was famous not only for her self portraits, but how she documented her trauma and pain through them.

This was the same patient that I had delivered warm blankets to, that I was face-to-face with earlier before knowing of his condition. At that moment the reality of impermanence hit me. I saw how the incurability of a disease and medicine merged and how real the problems that medicine seeks to resolve truly are. I was thirty feet away from a dying man and five feet away from a doctor trying to wrestle with the man’s eventual death. To many, this experience would have been depressing, a dream-crusher that showed the shortcomings of medicine’s ability to stop death in its tracks. However, this experience of being close to medicine and death at once was an experience that humbled me, an experience that called me closer towards my desire to do all that I can to heal through medicine.

writer’s description of pain in his context is powerful and drives the point behind his main thesis.

Optimism, positivism, practicing faith and hope filled emotions have saved individuals from a lot of life threatening situations, and cause them to suffer less than an individual who engulfs themselves in hopelessness, despair and relinquish all attempts for looking for a healthy positive way. Pain does not only relate to physical

Eula Biss’s The Pain Scale is written metaphorically about pain, both emotional and physical, and what defines pain. Biss presents her composition in the structure of a scale a patient would use to tell a doctor how much pain they are in. The pain is ranked on the scale of zero to ten; zero being no pain and ten being the worst pain imaginable. However, Biss asks the question of how much pain is someone is in. Everyone experiences pain differently so how can you put pain on a scale? Throughout her composition, Biss tries to answer this question with metaphors using style and structure. These two very important parts, both structure and style, are essential in this composition and are something the reader should note while reading this essay.