Deborah Blum The Poisoner's Handbook Chapter 15 Analysis

Form Analysis of Chapter 8 of The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum
Deborah Blum is portraying the idea that things that seem safe or even beneficial can actually be very dangerous. She supports this idea with various elements of form throughout chapter eight of The Poisoner’s Handbook. Elements of form used in chapter eight to support her idea include completion, choice of form, outside sources/ flashbacks, and active details.
The completion of the chapter is used by Blum to support the idea that seemingly harmless things can be very dangerous. Throughout this chapter, people are using Radium, a radioactive element, as though it is beneficial to their health. People begin to get sick and die due to ingesting the dangerous substance that erodes bones and tissue. Near the end of the chapter people begin to realize that Radium is actually very dangerous, and it should definitely never be consumed. The woman who discovered Radium, Marie Curie, began touring to spread awareness about Radium and its health risks. The chapter nears its end when “ [Marie] died in 1934 of aplastic anemia” (Blum 192). Her Anemia had been caused by the element that she had discovered. The chapter closes as

The form of a book with many chapters is used in The Poisoner’s Handbook. The different chapters in the book allow for separation between the poisons. All of the chapters come together, grouping the poisons together under one set of covers. Several of these poisons are seen by the public as being good, or safe. Along with Radium, Arsenic, Chloroform, and wood alcohol are poisons that were very commonly used in the early 1900s. These common poisons were used often and were well known by the public, even though they posed a huge threat to anyone who came into contact with them. The form of a novel with chapters does a good job of grouping all of these common, but extremely dangerous poisons