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Summary Of The Art Of Surgery By Richard Selzer

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In the essay “The Art of Surgery” by Richard Selzer, explains the value of writing and how it may allow us to form a realization within the meanings of pain, love, redemption, loss, and happiness. The power of writing allows one to escape their surrounding reality, and engage in a whole new world to express their own ideas, emotions, and thoughts. The reasons to why we may write can be various for any individual. I believe that writing can have both positive and negative consequences, to allow us to see why we may choose to write. Some of the positive outlooks of writing may include; understanding more about oneself, moving on from past situations, and learning more about the environment that surrounds us. Some of the negative outlooks of writing …show more content…

Throughout the essay, Selzer is trying to discover the complexities of the body, and recognize the sanctity of the human existence left on this earth. By being able to write about his experiences; he allows himself to comply the truth of each operation. In paragraph 8, Selzer states “So I have learned that man is not ugly, but that he is beauty himself”, meaning that within his own writing and career, he has realized that we all have our own strengths and weaknesses. By those strengths and weaknesses, Selzer communicates the ways in which the power of writing may introduce many values of both reality and individualism. Also, through this scheme of realization; Selzer describes that “yet he may continue to pretend at least, that there is nothing to fear, that death will not come, so long as people ask it of him.” Selzer has recognized the truth of all of his operations. Within the operations that Selzer has endeavored, he has realized that sometimes we may fear the face of death. However, within those moments we must realize the quality of life and enjoy what is given to us in the …show more content…

Also, the words within the writing encourages the reader to feel as though they are the actual individual in a particular situation engaging as the main character of the story. Throughout paragraphs 11-15, the description of the operations becomes highly unrealistic and shockingly unimaginable. Within paragraph 11, Selzer describes that the larva of the fly is seen as a “Mayan devil”; which can elaborate to an evil, and unrested spirit. Also in paragraph 11, Selzer states that “with an abrupt moist plop the extraction is complete. There, writhing in the teeth of the clamp, is a dirty gray body, the size and shape of an English walnut.” As the operation had finally hit a halt, the larva of the warble fly represented the weakness of evil within the world. Even though we may all have evil built within us, we can all stand a chance to make a change. Selzer’s intentions in presenting such graphic details was to let the readers make a prediction on what that operation resembled within the real

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