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The Invisible Kingdom Chapter Summaries

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The Invisible Kingdom is a book about the author, Meghan O’Rourke, and her journey of being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. She walks through specific moments in time when she was at her worst, in addition to giving the reader a further understanding of the medical terms she uses and the current research there is about these terms. This helps the credibility of the book as she has experienced what it is like to live with this type of disease, and she has done exponential research on every point she talks about. Ultimately, O’Rourke could be considered biased because of the fact she is giving a personal story and only from her standpoint. She did not interview the doctors helping her and obtain their side of the story. This book takes …show more content…

For instance, O’Rourke explains her specific story throughout the entire book, bringing in examples of how she was discriminated against and treated differently compared to her fellow males. This piece of evidence is important in helping the readers understand how significant of an issue discrimination is in society. Near the end of the book, O’Rourke explains that if she had been diagnosed with Lyme Disease earlier, she would not be suffering, at lease not to the extent that she is today. This forces the reader to think deeper on how discrimination and not trusting the patient can ultimately change their lives forever. Additionally, O’Rourke uses statistics, specifically when talking about physicians refusing to care for specific individuals, and when she talks about different treatment men vs. women receive in emergence departments. This is the strongest piece of evidence as the author is providing researched facts to support her argument. Finally, O’Rourke employs stories of those around her who have also witnessed or experienced discrimination in the medical field. All in all, O’Rourke does an excellent job of backing up her argument with the use of her own experiences and other individuals’ experiences together with convincing …show more content…

She starts with when she first noticed pain in her early twenties and ends the book with how her life has been currently. As for splitting up the book, she has three main parts. For example, the first section is called “Obstacles” which holds chapters one through nine. This section focuses on O’Rourke’s experiences before doctors believed her pain was serious. In addition to her personal experiences, in this section O’Rourke spends a chapter breaking down what an autoimmune disease is and how it affects the lives of those suffering with one. In the second section titled “Mysteries”, O’Rourke explains the unknown information associated with autoimmune diseases along with her path to finding the doctor who would diagnose, and ultimately help her. She starts off by talking about past stigma associated with autoimmune diseases and identifies how some people convince themselves they are sick or sicker than they are. Overall, this section of the book excellently identifies the naysayers while giving compelling evidence on why the author agrees with her side of the argument. Finally, the third section of the book is labeled “Healing”. In the last few chapters O’Rourke ends with how her life is currently. She talks about her experience with becoming a mother, her father’s experience with cancer, in addition to how her disease still affects her

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In the first section, he gives numerous examples of how normal his life was before the diagnosis. He recounts his childhood and his beginnings of how he loved to read because of his mother. He tells of when he would stay out late reading in the starlight to come home to his mother worried that he was doing drugs, but “the most intoxicating thing I’d experienced, by far, was the volume of romantic poetry she’d handed me the previous week” (27). He continues with all of his life before cancer, but when he gets the results he says “One chapter of my life seemed to have ended; perhaps the whole book was closing” (120). The rest of the book, the closing of his book as he calls it, focuses on examples of how cancer changed his

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Blair describes the frustration of self-medicating and not receiving the support she needed from others who dismissed her pain as "normal". She talks about how she suffered in silence and felt alone. This resonated with me and reminded me of my own struggles with invisible illnesses. Like Blair, I've been told by others that my pain is "all in my head" and it's been a struggle to get the support I need. Blair's story also highlights the stigma that can come with a diagnosis.

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She also talked about how she got over it by using her work as a way to pay her respects to him. She used her thoughts and memories from young to put her all into writing about her father in her book. I teared up a little hearing her read from her book and also explain her thoughts on writing about her father and her family. My mom died last year and I often have thoughts about writing a book or piece dedicated to her. I think about what I would write and how

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Her book, The Cancer Journals, is about her battle with breast cancer, and her struggle against fear. Her struggle to be fully seen, understood, and visible. For me, one of the most profound sentences she penned seems relevant for us today. – She wrote “Silence has never brought us anything of worth.” SILENCE IS THE ENEMY.

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She dealt with family issues at a young age. When she was only sixteen, her grandmother passed away from lung cancer, and the repercussions of her grandma's death were horrendous. The family fought over materials, rather than mourn the one they lost. This time was immensely difficult, but a very pivotal point in her life. In this moment, she became the person we all know and love today.

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She has no memory of an entire month in which she was entirely under the influence of her inflamed brain (Callahan, 2012, pg.41). Therefore, a large section of this book is told from the perspective of an unreliable source, but this does not detract from this engaging novel’s message or

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My memoir, like mentioned previously, is about my life long battle with an auto immune disorder and later how it shaped me to be on the path I am today. Not understanding your disorder was a very difficult thing to process as child. To this day I’m still learning about the disorder. The memoir reflects a specific memory of me struggling with the concept of taking medication and why I was not like my siblings, but has a positive twist that leads me to my destiny.

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This quote shows that even though Mairs sometimes has difficulty accepting her illness, she knows that there is a growing acceptance of people who must deal with the difficulties that she faces. This ultimately lends a hopeful and positive tone to an otherwise serious and depressing section of her essay. This contrast in tone, but general feeling of hope is key to the type of emotions that Nancy Mairs is trying to educate her readers about. Mair is successful in using multiple rhetorical strategies to connect with the reader.

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Everything from how her interactions with her family to her perception of her environment and how it evolves throughout the story allow the reader to almost feel what the narrator is feeling as the moves through the story. In the beginning, the only reason the reader knows there may be something wrong with the narrator is because she comes right out and says she may be ill, even though her husband didn’t believe she was (216). As the story moves on, it becomes clear that her illness is not one of a physical nature, but of an emotional or mental one. By telling the story in the narrator’s point of view, the reader can really dive into her mind and almost feel what she’s feeling.

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