Summary Of The Cancer Journals By Audre Lorde

Implications for a Power Shift
Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals is an emotional firsthand account of the author’s struggle with breast cancer. It also serves as a critique of the standards of modern medical treatment. It is unsurprising that throughout this book, Lorde is forced to make difficult decisions. Many of these decisions are in regard to her clinical treatment, such as her choice to have a mastectomy and refusal to wear a prosthesis. Throughout her description of the decision-making process, she recounts specific interactions with healthcare professionals. Her retelling of these experiences and interactions implies a great deal about her view of the roles of patients, physicians, and nurses in clinical care. Specifically, Lorde’s

In this portion of the text, Lorde is describing her final decision to have a mastectomy and states, “Whatever I did might or might not reverse that process, and I would not know with any certainty for a very long time” (32). The critical phrase in this passage is “I did.” The phrase itself highlights that Lorde has complete control over what happens to her body. In particular, she does not say whatever she decides to do might have certain effects, but instead references what she does herself. The action is very direct and indicates that she is actually the one manipulating her body through her decision to have surgery, even though the surgeon is the individual physically doing the operation. This instance circles back to Lorde’s depiction of healthcare professionals as tools. For example, consider an individual digging a hole in their yard for a pool and using a backhoe to do so. While the backhoe is physically digging in this case, the individual’s decision to dig and action to utilize a backhoe is enough for them to say that they dug the hole. Based on Lorde’s language in this passage of her narrative, this idea can be applied to the relationship between her and her surgeon. What Lorde “did” in terms of treatment was decide to have a mastectomy and acted to utilize a physician to accomplish this goal. In her writing, Lorde shows that the responsibility and control is totally in her hands because she takes action, but utilizes a surgeon to do