Mountains Beyond Mountains Summary

Almond faced many long, cold nights as a traveling doctor in the mountains of West Virginia. He would travel lengthy routes to get to his patients in his little rag top jeep. There would even be times when he would have to get out of his jeep and walk, or row to the patients home. Dr. Almond would receive frantic calls from families in the middle of the night, and he’d spring out of bed to try to get there as fast as he could. Doctors who did house calls get little rest; they had worked all day and then got up in the middle of the night to go help a patient. “Just as one day has ended, another one has begun. And thus it goes, day in, day out, for many of our friends who earned the title “Doctor”, and all that word portends.”

Reyna Grandes’s Across a Hundred Mountains was written in 2006, it is a stunning and heartfelt novel about migration, loss and discovery. It was published by Washington Square Press and its two hundred and sixty-six pages will captivate the reader from the beginning. The novel depicts the desperation of undocumented immigrants who make the dangerous journey across unfamiliar land to reach the border for “El Otro Lado” (the United States). The author, Reyna Grande gives the reader a glimpse of the everyday struggles these families are faced with and the heart-wrenching decisions made in the pursuit for a better life. There are different themes in this novel, they range from fractured family ties to heartbreaking poverty affecting the family and how religion is used to seek relief from these events. Therefore, an evaluation of the novel will be made on the social issues affecting these individuals, the challenges they face, and apply the ecological perspective along with its strengths. Lastly, an explanation will be given in which a social worker can help to address the issues that affect these individuals.

Dr. Farmer understood that their horrid living conditions would have to change in order for his patients to heal. Dr. Farmer knew that Haiti itself would be unable to make this transition, which is why relying on the wealth, generosity and action from others around the world, to provide adequate necessities for the Haitians became such an important task. When his patients were given a better quality of life, they began to maintain health. For most Americans, we would be unable to fathom the undesirable living conditions, but at the same time understand why diseases run rampant in such an awful economic environment. Without the interdependence of the wealthy around the world and humanitarian belief that we are all human and deserve to be treated with equality, compassion and love, Dr. Farmer may not have been able to succeed as well as he did in Haiti. Kidder (2003) states “You want to see where Christ crucified abides today? Go to where the poor are suffering and fighting back, and that’s where he is (pg. 79).”

In “The Mountain” Eli Clare addresses the plight and disadvantages of the disabled in society using a metaphorical mountain and her own climbing supercrip experience. In the opening metaphor section Clare explains how the little sympathy the empowered and able have for the disabled. With the supercrip section, Clare asserts that when stories of crippled people “overcoming” their disabilities gain publicity they simply support and reinforce stereotypes, continuing the discrimination of the disabled community (Clare 1999). Due to her cerebral palsy, Clare cannot finish her hike with her friend Adrianne to the top of Mount Adams. Following her disappointment, Clare considers the difference between impairment and disability. According to the article, an impairment refers to the objective inability to accomplish a task resulting from a faulty limb or bodily function. On the other hand, a disability is a product of a structures refusal to account for the impaired (Clare 1999). In the final section titled “Home,” Clare reminisces on the depressing parts of his life: his father raping him, the inconsiderate and harsh slurs, and his impairment. Then, he ponders the body as a home and its functions. Finally, he accepts that he will never be able to call the mountain home, but yearns for a society where ableism is absent, the concept of the supercrip is extinct, and the impaired can live normal lives (Clare 1999).

I believe in people (Berstein 19). I believe there is good in every human being because of the choice we have between right and wrong (19). In “The Mountain Disappears”, Leonard Bernstein tells us that it is what we choose to do with that free will is what defines us. Something that we need to believe in is love. Love is a commitment and teaches us how to be passionate about something that makes us a better person. I believe that every single one of us has the ability to change and that when we change, we have great potential (19-20). Everyone has the potential to make a difference in the world. I believe in the attainability of good (21). We all have it, so why don’t we use it?

The phrase "all suffering isn't equal" can be understood in a myriad of ways. The idea of suffering can be different depending on a person's mentality or even the conditions they live in. An example would be that a person with an adequate living environment can complain about eating the same type of meal for a whole week, while for an another person who doesn't not have that luxury, may be suffering from having no food at all. While everyone suffers, it is how they are suffering that divides our true understanding of it. Connecting to the book, this phrase relates to the differences on how both the rich and poor can suffer. In Mountains Beyond Mountains Paul Farmer believed that poor undeveloped countries didn't receive the best medical care

When discussing the Jesuit values in his article “From the Mountain to the Hilltop”, Fr. Larry Gillick, S.J., states that “there is much darkness in the world, but it is better to light one candle than to curse the dark”. Gillick is discussing the Jesuit value of Forming and Educating Agents for Change. It’s better to be a light for just one person, make the world a better place for just one person, then continuing in the darkness and the chaos. According to this Jesuit value, the world, a school, a town, a life, should be “better” for someone having been there and been educated enough to want to change the culture.

The story is about a priest who had lost his faith, yet continued to do his priestly duties because he felt obligated to help his people. The priest in the story is somewhat analogous to physicians in the sense that both feel an obligation to help others. In his final anecdote, the surgeon recalls on a time in medical school where he removed botfly larvae from a patient’s arm. He had thought that he’d performed a life-saving procedure, but realized that the problem would have cured itself. In this sense, the surgeon preaches

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.--With the West Virginia University fall camp underway, one of the things the Mountaineers are continuing to work on is the passing game.

The novel Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande is a story about two young girls and their struggling journey to find happiness between two conflicting and distinct worlds: the United States and Mexico. Juana on one side wants to get to the United States, or “el otro lado” as mentioned in the novel, to find her father who abandoned her and her mother after leaving to find work in the US. On the other hand Adelina escapes from her house in California to follow her lover to Mexico. The girls form a bond in the most unexpected of places, a Tijuana jail, and quickly form a friendship that will connect them for the rest of their lives.

“The only real nation is humanity” (Farmer 123). This quote represents a huge message that is received in, Tracy Kidder’s, Mountains Beyond Mountains. This book argues that universal healthcare is a right and not a privilege. Kidder’s book also shows the audience that every individual, no matter what the circumstances, is entitled to receive quality health care. In the book Kidder represents, Paul Farmer, a man who spends his entire life determined to improve the health care of impoverished areas around the world, namely Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world. By doing this the audience learns of the horrible circumstances, and the lack of quality health care that nations like Haiti

8. Do you have sympathy or empathy for the wife of Don Elias, Dona Matilde?

Farmer started his work in Haiti in 1983 while it was under the dictatorship of Baby Doc. Farmer was unable to get a position at the Hospital but he found an alternative way to get into Haiti, Eyecare. Farmer met a woman whose name was Ophelia Dahl. At that point in his life he thought he was going to marry her. Although they never got married, Ophelia and Farmer would always be in each other’s lives since Ophelia becomes the President of Partners In Health. Ophelia is not a doctor nor does she have any medical skills, she is a huge health care advocate. In 1984, Farmer started medical school at Harvard but still spent much of his time in Haiti. Not long before he started medical school, Farmer met a man named Tom White who, for years after meeting, would continually pour money into Partners In Health.

This type of thinking and commitment to “long defeat” is what separated Farmer from the rest of the doctors in that area. Since he

The metaphor of the mountain means that all parts of life age and grow old. The cutting down of trees symbolize getting bald. The metaphor also means that you can retain your knowledge and wisdom when you get older. The mountain can still retain its beauty even though the trees were cut down.