The Clan Of The One-Breasted Woman

According to the 2008 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau that are approximately 5.9 million people with cancer (Burden, 2010-2015). In Missouri’s population of those with cancer 85 percent are of the white race, 11.5 percent are African-American and 3.5 percent comprise other races with cancer (Burden, 2010-2015). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is taking a closer look into the community of St. Louis as it has an unusual number of rare cancers developed (Nair, V., 2015). North County contains radioactive waste from America’s nuclear weapons program (Nair, V., 2015). Janell Wright a graduate of McCluer North High School class of 88’ found more than 700 cases in four square miles (Nair, V., 2015).

In “The Clan of One-Breasted Women,” it talks about Terry Tempest Williams’s family and how her family generations have breast cancer. She explains that the cause of breast cancer in her family may be due to the nuclear bomb testings that happened during the 1950s in the south west of America, where her family is from. Williams also discusses about the inability of the people to speak out against the authorities about the nuclear bomb testings. Personally, I found this article really interesting because Williams start off with her own story about her family dealing with breast cancer and then she brings up the general idea of nuclear bombing in the south west and the reaction of the people living there. By introducing her text with an anecdote,

In our current society it is established that faith is equated with a type of blind acceptance of all that the church or institution stands for. Having faith is still viewed as a wholesome characteristic, though it is more and more becoming correlated with negative connotation that is commonly attached to a thoughtless, dogmatic approach – an absolute obedience of all tenets regardless of conscious thoughts and appeals. In a similar regard, patriotism has become an exemplar of modern faith because it calls for unchallenged compliance with both the laws of the government and their unjustified actions, especially during times of war. Primarily this absolute-authority mindset was

According to “The Clan of One-Breasted Women,” by Terry Tempest Williams, she discusses how cancer runs in her family. The type of cancer that runs in her family was breast cancer, however her mother, grandmothers, and six aunts all had mastectomies and that lead them to death. Just two of them survive, but they still need to go to chemotherapy and radiation to get check ups. Williams even had her own difficulty with breast cancer and a small tumor within her ribs. She talks about how you can get breast cancer and it’s for these reasons; the risk of percentages with more fatty diets, or getting pregnant after 30 years old.

From surgery to radium exposure to such extremes as radiation therapy, as doctors’ knowledge of the varying types of cancer, and the expansion of medical research regarding cancer has changed, so has the preferred method of treatment. Doctors and researchers dedicated to studying cancer have led to a greater understanding of cancer development; consequently the development of treatments and cures that are more effective, less harmful, have fewer side effects, and in some cases serve to prevent the spread of cancer.

The Cold War, which was considered the “years of maximum danger,” lasted from 1949-1962. This period brought an increasing sense of danger to America because the Soviet Union came into possession of an atomic bomb in 1949; an idea many Americans thought to be impossible unless the Soviet Union had a spy in the United States, which they did. Because the Soviet Union had an atomic bomb, a nuclear war became a reality. In Kenneth Rose’s “One Nation Underground” he told of rising issues associated with the Cold War and the threat of nuclear bombings. The Cold War, in conjunction with the inventions of (total destructive) bombs, generated new dangers, fears, and morality issues among Americans, which led to further increased fears.

With the start of World War II the race for the first atomic bomb started. With Germany under Hitler’s reign, the Nazis began separating uranium to form the first atomic bomb to control the world. The push for the United States build the first atomic bomb began with this knowledge. With the help of several scientists the United States succeeded in building the atomic bomb first. Two atomic bombs were used; a uranium bomb on Hiroshima and a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki. Along with the many deaths were six stages of A-bomb illness which includes acute stages, atomic bomb trauma, A-bomb radiation illness, radiation blood injury at lethal dosage, blood injuries, and secondary radiation illness. Seven unhealed scars were also an effect of the atomic bombs that includes keloids, A-bomb cataracts, leukemia, cancers, chromosome changes, exposure in utero and microcephaly, and genetic surveys. Regulations and guidance were set in place soon after the bombings to protect the people of the world based on the information that was gathered and it has changed over the years based on the new information that was learned. With the use of the atomic bombs in World War II, a lot of pain and suffering was caused, but a great deal of information was learned to help protect future generations from radiation.

Williams begins her essay, “The Clan of the One-Breasted Woman,” by outlining her family’s past experiences of breast cancer. She engages the audience by acknowledging that, “Most statistics tell us breast cancer is genetic, hereditary, with rising percentages attached to fatty diets, childlessness, or becoming pregnant after 30. What they don't say is living in Utah may be the greatest hazard of all.” The last point made in that sentence creates confusion, making the audience want to continue reading. The first part of the sentence elaborates about the risk factors associated along with breast cancer. The second sentence implies that Utah might be a reason for her family’s continuous breast cancer. Generally, a state is not a sufficient rationale for cancer to be diagnosed.

Composing a story is not just about writing down ideas and events. The true art of writing is an intricate and timely process. Convincing the reader of your beliefs and opinions goes beyond actual facts and data. In the 1600's a man named Roberto de Nobili recognized this situation and discovered the rhetorical triangle, which is still commonly used today (Faigley 5).. The rhetorical triangle consists of three key structural terms that must be evident in a story to enable the reader to comprehend and trust the writer. The three tactics of persuasions became ethos, pathos and logos. The Clan of One-Breasted Women, by Terry Tempest Williams describes the tale of a young girl's family being affected by breast cancer and how it has greatly

How do you like one-breasted women? Many people are probably asking what the heck I’m talking about, but just think about all the women losing their breasts in the fight against breast cancer. To even imagine all the bravery accomplished by those many acts to save a life and then the others that are shown in the article, The Clan of One-Breasted Women, by Terry Williams now that’s something most of us can’t even do. The article is great at showing the courage of many women who thought that the US government was cheating them and more than likely showed many people, like myself, how much it takes to stand up for what one believes. Williams starts by the common statistics of breast cancer

In Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge, death slowly claimed almost all of the women of her family. Death took Williams’ family members one by one just one or two years apart. In every case, the cause was cancer. Williams insisted in the epilogue that fall-out from the 1951-62 nuclear testing in Utah brought cancer to her family. Because there are many other causes of cancer, such as genetic and environmental factors, it is hard for one to insist that nuclear fall-out causes cancer. Therefore, it is important to find out how and why

It is now known that radium, shown in figure 4, is a potent carcinogen (a substance the cause’s cancer (Wilbraham, Staley, Marta, & Waterman, 2005)). It emits a form of ionizing radiation which “includes electromagnetic radiation (e.g., gamma rays and X-rays) as well as particles (e.g., alpha particles, beta particles, high-speed neutrons, high-speed electrons, high-speed protons, etc.)” (National Library of Medicine, n.d.). Acute studies have been done on the effects of radium exposure on the human body by organizations like the Geneva World Health Organization, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and Monographs on the Evaluation of the Carcinogenic Risk of Chemicals to Man. As a result of their findings, The National Library of Medicine states that sufficient evidence has been provided showing that prolonged exposure to Raduim-224, Radium-226,

The nature of the Atomic Bomb created a global and theoretical set of stakeholders that few other ethical dilemmas reach. In many ways this use of nuclear technology created the Cold War and the global fear of a nuclear Armageddon. At that time every citizen of the globe feared how the use of nuclear weapons would harm them and their world. The future is also a stakeholder in this conversation. The effects of nuclear fallout were not well understood at the time. Nuclear aftermath could last for decades and even longer, effecting the health and livelihood of all living things for generations to come. The information that could be collected and research opportunities created after a nuclear weapon detonation would be studied for centuries and will change medicine and research forever. Future citizens and scientists were also stakeholders in this decision.

In 2007, it is predicted that almost 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the United States (Pickle et al., 2007). More than half of these cancer patients will undergo the use of radiation as a means for treating cancer at some point during the course of their disease (Perez and Brady, 1998). Cancer, a disease caused by an uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells, affects millions of people around the world. Radiotherapy is one of the well known various methods used to treat cancer, where high powered rays are aimed directly at the tumor from the outside of the body as external radiation or an instrument is surgically placed inside the body producing a result of internal radiation. Radiation is delivered to the cancerous regions of the body to damage and destroy the cells in that area, terminating the rapid growth and division of the cells. Radiation therapy has been used by medicine as a treatment for cancer from the beginning of the twentieth century, with its earliest beginnings coming from the discovery of x-rays in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen. With the advancements in physics and computer programming, radiation had greatly evolved towards the end of the twentieth century and made the radiation treatment more effective. Radiation therapy is a curative treatment approach for cancer because it is successful in killing cancerous tumor cells and stop them from regenerating.

Unlike high dose of gamma radiation, a small dose of radiation had a significant and negative effects on the victims in China. This study strongly proved that gamma radiation negatively affected the health because the accidental Ir-192 gamma radiation caused a variety of cancer even with small doses of radiation: .05 - .65 Gy (Li). Iridium 192 is a radioactive isotope that has a half-life of 73.82 days which means that these radiations may occur rapidly. Also, the victims who were exposed to this radiation had limited knowledge that certain machinery expelled the gamma radiation (Li). 54 people were conducted on a 10-year test to check their health. The method was very simple because the researchers gathered and then studied blood samples, bone marrow, and their T cell subsets (Li). The results revealed basic clinical symptoms such as an increase in dizziness, fatigue, memory loss, insomnia for 90.7 % of the people in the first month, but as time passed by, the study