Worst Diseases Were Best Avoided By Distance From The Tropics

1 b) PERTH
One of the most important events placed in the story was Emanuel and his family’s move from Singapore to Perth. His job in Singapore is filled with daily risks and every time he left, he doubted his return. On his first day of being a waste-disposal engineer he gained a crescent-shaped cut on his hands, his immediate thought was one of disease and infection. He soon after doused it with disinfectant, and although that day a disease had not entered his body, a longing to escape the constant fear and filth had. Later his three children were born and were instantly immunized, as he knew the fear would soon grow in them too. However the, “worst diseases were best avoided by distance from the tropics.” This shows how relevant his move

When he was a child in Singapore, the war limited his food and water supply causing childhood malnutrition. As he lived in an undeveloped and tropical country, disease was also always a lurking threat to him along with the fact that tropical diseases were not unheard of in his family. At last, the disease he acquired did not stem from the unhygienic tropics or his genetics, but from the malnutrition, he had suffered from during the war when food was a limited joy. This shows how important it is as the events in the book either resulted in his disease or whee caused by his disease. The disease was drawing his death closer and his symptoms were advancing, causing “his body and speech to shake, or freeze up”, and his words and “memory to slur from the disease.” “He may have only a few days left.” This shows the importance as the disease caused the biggest event of all, death. The disease he’d been trying to run from his whole life had finally caught up with him and is now a defining event in the

When Emanuel first moved to Australia, he was the first of his kind, stood out amongst the crowds. Of course, his differences came along with ignorance; comments on his appearance or being treat differently. One of the many displays of prejudice in the story was during the early stages of his move when the police violently shoved him against a wall and accused him of being the boong (an offensive term for an aboriginal) who robbed the deli purely based on his dark skin. “I’m not aboriginal,” “You’re a dripping blackie.” That night he cried just a little “for all the aboriginals and other people with dark skin.” One day, “Asians will be rewarded for what they bring to this country,” he wife stated at the time, “It’s getting closer dad, I know it is.” This same line is repeated again at the start and end showing that the topic is relevant all throughout* the story. To conclude, prejudice is a leading factor in the story and has clear relevance to the