William Carlos Williams 'Short Story The Use Of Force'

Adam Draxler

Professor Joseph Hankinson

English 120

20 October 2015

Medicine Man When someone hears the word doctor, the first thing that comes to his or her mind is a picture of someone who maintains or restores human health. He or she will diagnose and treat human disease, ailments, injuries, pain or other conditions (Emma 2012). In the case of this story, the doctor narrating the short story “The Use of Force” William Carlos Williams uses his social status and professional image as a tool to justify his actions towards his patient. Looking at the way he examines his patient, readers are able to see that blindly trusting all doctors based on their profession can have negative consequences, which might cause a break in the social convention that bounds doctors with the good nature of their profession. The Story opens up with the doctor talking about his first visit to his new patients. The parents welcome the doctor in a very respectful manner. Readers will notice that even though the parents are not familiar with the doctor, they tend to go out of their way in order to show him the utmost of respect due to the nature of intimacy between a doctor and his patient. When he enters the house, the doctor talks about how the parents

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