Pauline W. Chen Analysis

For the 14th Annual Writer’s Symposium, Pauline W. Chen was invited to the Point Loma Nazarene University to talk about her book and writing with the host Dean Nelson on April 6th, 2009. The interview was about 29 minutes long and during that time, Chen talked more about her book and her writing, giving the readers a closer look at the author and the book “Final Exam” itself. Through this interview, she shared new information with the audience about her thoughts on the book and practice of medicine. This interview was a good way to fully understand the “Final Exam” and a way for the reader’s to have their questions answered. The audience of this interview might have changed their thoughts or opinion about Chen because I certainly did after listening to this interview.

One event in the book she talked about was her eighty-third organ procurement patient. This procurement patient was special to Chen because “she was like her, was a thirty-five-year-old Asian American women” and so she felt like she was operating on herself (Chen, 2007, p.197). When she was just about to start the operation, the drape fall and Chen could see her breast, and “it was as if she was standing naked after a shower, looking in a mirror” (Chen, 2007, p.199). As the operation continued, Chen found more and more things about her eighty-third procurement patient that resembled herself. In the interview, Chen said, “after the operation, she thought about her own mortality” (Chen, An Evening with Dr. Pauline Chen 2009, 2009) and began to write as a response. This was a powerful moment of time in her life because she faced her own