Siddhartha Mukherjee's 'The Emperor Of All Maladies'

I chose to write an essay about the “Topic of Cancer” by Christopher Hitchens. In this short autobiographical essay, Hitchens discusses his experience with Esophageal cancer. Just one day after lanching his book “Hitch-22” Hitchens was made aware of his illness, where he later describes the news as “taking me from the country of well, to the stark frontier.” It was then he chose to write about his experience for the purpose of documenting the changes that he, and his body were about to go through with chemotherapy, and also for the purpose of contemplating his current situation. The reason that I chose this story is because of my own personal experiences that I have had with many loved ones in my life. There is one case in particular that stands out in my memory, among the rest. It was when my friend of many years discovered that he had a very rare form of brain cancer. Soon after undergoing chemotherapy, he lost his battle. There are many people that believe chemotherapy at any stage is the best, and often times, the only way to cure cancer, yet others claim that chemotherapy is not the answer at all. A close analysis of recent statistics can settle this debate.

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee is not just a book about cancer; it is a story about one disease’s ability to change the course of humanity. My father handed me the book when I was thirteen, and it changed the way I thought about medicine. This new perspective complemented my fascination with maps, which allowed me to understand the many places and people I could never see. After years of flipping through atlases and reading about cancer in my father’s office, I realized the remarkable role doctors have had in pushing the progression of the human race. I quickly became infatuated with medicine and its impact on the world. From stepping into the emergency room at my local hospital to see the effect of medicine on people first-hand to presenting a website about

Here Siddhartha is demonstrating that he is the only one that matters when it comes to thoughts of who he is, and only his opinion of himself matters. Acceptance and the ability to look into himself will lead to that road of happiness. Also, to be minimalistic as to if there is nothing to be needed then it is not. This is something many people should take into consideration as to stay away from being materialistic.

From the beginning, Engelberg shows the struggle between the life threatening nature of cancer and dealing with

Throughout life, many individuals experience difficulties due to growing up in everyday life. While going in depth of the human life, it is discovered that there are many diseases and disorders that affect humans’ everyday functions. A very popular disease that has traumatically affected the human body is cancer. Cancer is a disease that spreads throughout your body in many ways. The purpose of cancer is to attach to a blood cell in your body and cause a plague within itself, causing the body to initially shut down and die. This disease contains many forms and have many causes to it. However its main goal is to destroy the human body.

Cancer, Is a disease that has claimed the lives of millions. This disease has no known cure at this time, this disease as many forms, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and even lung cancer. Cancer can be caused from someone’s diets,smoking, or other disease they could have like certain sexual transmitted disease. People’s health habits and how they take care of their self could determine if they would end up with cancer, and the discovering of Henrietta Lacks cancer relating to a disease changed the way cancer was viewed.

Leading causes of death in this world is cancer. Anybody can get it. If you're one hundred years old or a newborn, it doesn’t matter if you are poor or have lots of money. Women and men both can get it. Nowadays, everybody in this world knows somebody who has cancer. It could be a family member or a friend of the family. There can be many family members who have it. One in two men and more than one in three women get cancer in this lifetime(1). Only 5% to 10% of cancer is inherited from one of your parents(1). If you have cancer in your family you can get what its called genetic testing. When you get cancer it can change everything.

This research paper is based on the findings from the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”. What you will read and come to know is nonfiction. I wish I could put the pictures of what I have seen and read together here for you to perhaps get a better understanding. A story based on not Henrietta’s life being that of immortality, but rather cancer cells removed from her body without her knowledge. These were the first cancer cells to reproduce outside of her body. You will come to know about Henrietta, her cancer, her cells, and her immortal life. Perhaps we can all learn to appreciate life in greater means of appreciation after reading and knowing the life and immortal afterlife of Henrietta Lacks. You will learn about a woman, who like us, had a family, and ended up not being able to truly live life to its fullest. Making us all realize just how cancer is and the amazing research that came from being able to reproduce her cells. Not just for cancer but for various other illnesses that plague so many of us. My hope is that you take away from this a better understanding of a time we do not know, for the ups and downs of science and the possibility of immortal life.

C. If a patient does have cancer and it is detected in the early stages there is a greater chance of recovery.

Whether it’s living or interacting in a new environment surrounded by unfamiliar and distinct people, one may feel culturally out of place. That is exactly the theme Jhumpa Lahiri describes in each of her stories, “Interpreter of Maladies,” “Mrs. Sen’s,” and “The Third and Final Continent.” In “Interpreter of Maladies”, we get a clear picture that the Das family, who are Indian-American, are the ones displaced here. We can see this throughout the behaviors that the Das family expresses in their trip around India, while Mr. Kapasi, an old Indian man, guides them through their journey, taking them to see India’s historical landmarks. In “Mrs. Sen’s,” the one culturally displaced is Mrs. Sen after being forced to leave India to go to America because of her husband’s job. Mrs. Sen has not gotten used to the American culture and misses her native land very much. Lastly, In “The Third and Final Continent,” the narrator, a young Indian man, handles his displacement very well. Starting with an arranged marriage in which he barely even knows the woman that he is getting married to, he leaves shortly after to establish a living in the U.S. where he finds the culture to be very distinct. Overall, Lahiri expresses the theme of how the characters in each story cope with their cultural displacement facing many obstacles and challenges.

Sunglasses, not only worn for protection from the sun, are also used for other reasons. Some are unrecognizable in sunshades and can even hide their true selves. Ultimately, sunglasses can even hide one’s shame. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story, Interpreter of Maladies, Mrs. Das, a major character, is portrayed as a distant woman that searches for romance in all the wrong places. Throughout the story, Mrs. Das rarely removes her sunglasses. The symbol of Mrs. Das’s sunglasses represents the detachment from her own family, the potential bond breaking secrets she hides from them, and the inevitable guilt she feels.

“Topic of Cancer” by Christopher Hitchens is a depressing and absorbing essay, his use of pathos and his euphemisms were amazing and sneakily used. Christopher Hitchens studied at Harvard which showed he was a talented writer and user of the English language, and attacked many sources of media, following extremes such as writing critical pieces on Bill Clinton and Mother Teresa which he felt very negative and strongly on. His purpose of this piece was to describe his life changing illness, and try to connect with the reader on an emotional level that was unmatched.

To begin with, I will look at what cancer is. I would like to look at cancer as a disease and the social determinants of this perspective. I would then like to investigate cancer as an illness and look at the narrative of this experience including its social determinants. Finally, I will address the differences and similarities between the two.

Cancer. We all know someone who has suffered from it or has passed away because of it. Cancer now affects one in every three people, and is the second highest cause of death in the United States. For decades, the medical community has been on the hunt for a cure for cancer, and have been subjected to intense ridicule from the public because of a lack of progression toward a possible cure. In recent years, many scientists, doctors, researchers, and the general public have come to believe that the cure for cancer is being suppressed because of this lack of progress. Those who say it is suppressed claim that the drugs used to treat cancer actually cause cancer, making a patient sicker and sicker. As a result, the patients are forced to spend

“The Emperor of All Maladies” captured the whole essence of cancer. This book gave a very good narrative of the historical record of cancer, the scientists and important public figures who contributed to the fight against a disease that has so much caused despair, pain, disfiguring of the body and worst of all, death. Cancer is seen as the abnormal growth of cells. A normal cell becomes cancerous when there is a defect in the regulation of its growth. Cancerous cells also tend to be elusive and resistant to treatments. Numerous attempts have been channeled into demystifying the nature of cancer. Some of these attempts proved abortive while a few served as a harbinger of hope. Cancer have proved to be part of our genetic makeup, hence, total eradication of it remains a future accomplishment.