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A Wake Up Call In Susan Sontag Short Story, The Way We Live Now

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A Wake Up Call In Susan Sontag Short Story, “The Way We Live Now” During the 1980’s, the epidemic of AIDS was common among small gay communities, but soon it began to spread rapidly. Many organizations and activists continued to educate young people to protect themselves. In ‘The Way We Live Now,” Susan Sontag uses life and death to help readers follow the life of a man dying from AIDS. The story mainly focuses on his friends being concerned about his disease. The story is told in the form of conversation, mentioned and whispered by his friends while he is sick in a hospital bed with AIDS. In the beginning, the author uses theme to capture the narrator’s friends realizing that he is keeping a secret from all of them. He tells each friend something different, so when they come together they share what he has said to them. It states, “At …show more content…

One friend said, “we are all side effects, but we’re not bad side effects, Frank said, he likes having his friends around, and we’re helping each other, too; because his illness sticks us all in the same glue.” (p.590). This indicates how AIDS has changed their lives and how they perceive one another. They realize they have to be by the narrator's side no matter what happened to him. They also realize they have to help each other to form a strong friendship in order to have a stable life. Lastly in “The Way We Live Now,” Susan Sontag also uses uses language to bring the story to life. The conversations that the friends have among each other that helps readers picture a real situation and about the details occuring. The character diagnosed with AIDS is not named and his disease isn’t either. His friends try to encourage one another and be realistic on the fact that anyone can get ill from a disease especially

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