"The Use of Force"

Death is not picky

The short story “The use of force” has multiple themes that can be mentioned. The first one and most obvious is the sickness that does not discriminate. I know that rich people, even on those times had a huge advantage over the poor when it came to treating diseases, but if it became so complicated that not even science was advanced enough to treat it, then no money could save you. This is how I see the family in the story: I do not know well if they were rich, but all I know is that they had money enough to ask a doctor to go to their home to treat her daughter and had some amenities there. We see in the story how the daughter contracted a disease presumably untreatable and mortal, which supports that not even the rich were safe from dying from a bad disease.

Another related theme of the story is the illness in the time, which, in fact, was not that long ago. We notice in the story how one of the parents say that a lot of kids at school were sick with diphtheria and that is why they were afraid that their daughter had it too. An interesting part of the story is how involved was the doctor with his patients in a way and how he was so willing and desperate to stop the disease, but his hands were practically tied to his back with this. He was so involved and desperate that he was totally willing to use his physical force for the greater good of the patient, as happened to the story. We can also see the frustration when he couldn’t do anything for the patient. Personally, I did not like that he used his strength on the girl but it was still good that he cared so much. I believe that the doctor did the right thing because it was part of his responsibility to try his best to save the girl's life, and also, he was desperate and feeling frustrated. Anyways, that does not justify the method he used and he totally did not use the right method.

What really got my attention was Mathilda, the couple’s daughter. She knew she was sick all the time but I must say she was very innocent. It is as if the thought that if the doctor could not certify the diphtheria then she did not have it. We may think that it is ridiculous, but it is the way some people think in real life, although in a smaller scale. Mathilda’s character really impressed me a lot and it hurt me how in the end, she realized her whole world was falling apart and there was nothing her family or her could do to stop it. It really was a pessimist story.

The story was short but it was really good and it made you know and feel what the characters felt in the situation, it really was as if you could be in their shoes for moments of the story, which says a lot of the author's quality.