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Diphtheria In The Short Story Use Of Force

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Diphtheria was a very serious disease that was discovered in 1921. In the short story “Use of Force”, a young girl struggles with being honest to her parents. She had a serious disease and thought that if she pretended it wasn’t there, then no one will know. She feared the consequences of what could happen if her parents found out the truth. The fear of death is shown throughout the story by the authors use of descriptive language and metaphors. The author uses descriptive language to give the readers a better image of how and why the young girl was acting the way she was. In the story, the author gave the readers the image that the young girl didn't care about what could happen to her because of her diphtheria. She cared more about her parents not finding out about it because she feared …show more content…

She didn’t want her parents to find out about a disease she knew she had because she didn’t want to face the consequences. The author uses a metaphor in paragraph 14 to describe her actions, and it says, “As I moved my chair a little nearer suddenly with one catlike movement both her hands clawed instinctively or my eyes and she almost reached them too.” This illustrates the levels the young girl was willing to go so that her parents won’t find out about her diphtheria. The doctor was trying to do his job, but the young girl was making it hard for him because she didn’t want to face the consequences. The short story by William Carlos William, the “Use of Force”, was a story about a young girl who refused to tell her parents the truth. She wanted to avoid the consequences, but little did she know that lying has consequences in general. She was aware that she had diphtheria, but she didn’t want her parents to find out because she didn’t want to go to the doctor. That caused her to be self-destructive. If you were in her place, what would you have

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