Analysis Of No Apparent Distress By Rachel Pearson

Rachel Pearson, the author of No Apparent Distress, did not always desire to be a doctor. Originally, she wanted to become a professional writer. She initially tried to pursue this goal by attending the MFA Program at Columbia University. When she needed money to move to New York for the program, she decided to work at an Abortion Clinic. It was here where she learned that she wanted to become a medical student: she heard stories from people who had extreme hardships. Pearson wanted to help these people and learn more of these stories. In the novel Pearson tells many of these stories to highlight the impact of race and class on medical care, and she also relates them to herself which in turn helps the reader relate to the struggles these groups

She makes many mistakes such as failing to find Mr. Rose's cancer and accidently examining a woman's anus. Pearson mentions the fact that her inexperience causes mistakes numerous times during the novel:: after Vanessa's husband Jimmy dies, Pearson writes that "I wish Vanessa and Jimmy had had a more experienced advocate than me...I am just a student... they deserved, as everyone does, a doctor"(204). If Jimmy and Vanessa had a better doctor Jimmy could have survived., but instead they received a rather inexperienced doctor. The fact that almost all of Pearson's patients are minorities and/or poor shows how race and class affect medical care. The reasons for this lack of good care is because many cannot afford better care and hospitals mainly delegate students to care for minority and poor patients. This was highlighted when Dr. Lueke told Pearson she could not participate in cosmetic operations. Those were luxury operations that were only affordable for more wealthy members in society, so only a more trained professional was allowed to do them. By using short stories, Pearson is able to contrast the type of people caring for wealthy whites and other groups. By being short and concise, it is a lot easier for the reader to juxtapose the differences and similarities between the situations in each story compared to if they were long and more