Summary Of The Knife By Richard Selzer
In Richard Selzer’s “The Knife,” the veteran surgeon contemplates the profound power of his most important tool: the scalpel. As he discusses his experience of surgery, Selzer manipulates language with a variety of comparisons that show he understands the technical purpose of his profession even as he views his approach as that of an artist. One of the most consistent images that pervades the essay is that of vegetation and gardens. Fittingly, as Selzer contemplates his initial interest in medicine, he does so as a child in a solarium—an Eden of sorts. He conflates the smell of lilac and chrysanthemums with the “soap and starch and clean linen” of the hospital (97). Paradoxically, he associates the redolence of his innocence (as represented …show more content…
Within this framework, it also makes that he calls the diaphragm of a human a “leaf” (95) and “crack[s] open” a patient’s flesh “like a ripe melon…in springtime” (102). For the veteran surgeon, he finds his own personal Eden in his work—a garden of ever-fascinating flowers and fruits. Furthermore, Selzer extends this metaphor with the image of the Ant and the tumor. The Ant in the surgery room literally brings death and disease, but Selzer refers to it figuratively as the “Ant of the Absurd” (99); in other words, the Ant represents anything and everything that cannot be explained rationally. And for a scientist, reason is everything. Both to save his patient and his own existential identity, Selzer employs another garden-esque verb as he “pluck[s]” the Ant from the operating table. Similarly, the tumor is characterized as “fungoid” (104)—an interloper in Selzer’s garden. A fungus is not a plant, but it grows in the same soil, and like an invading ant, it is unpredictable and must be
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423 Words | 2 PagesChurchill and/or Orwell once said that “[w]e sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm. ”(89 Junger). The quote appears in the book, WAR. This quote from the book, WAR, of the beginning of “Book Two: Killing”. The author, Sebastian Junger, reminds the reader that for citizens of any country to live safely, there will always be service members who stand like brick walls forming the outer layer to protect against invaders.
The Knife Rhetorical Analysis
545 Words | 3 PagesDoctors are infamous for their unreadable writing; Richard Selzer is not one of those doctors. A talented surgeon, Selzer has garnered critical acclaim for his captivating operating room tales, and rightfully so. A perfect exhibition of this is The Knife, a detailed illustration of a surgery. What may seem like an uninteresting event is made mesmerizing by Selzer’s magnificent account of the human body and the meticulousness that goes into repairing it. The rhetorical appeals, tone, and figurative language that Selzer uses throughout The Knife provide the reader with a vivid description of the sacred process of surgery.
Popular 2003 Stiff By Mary Roach Sparknotes
975 Words | 4 PagesEvery 10 minutes, a new person is added to the organ transplant list (organdonor.gov). That’s 144 people each and every day. With the help of human cadavers, those 144 people can be helped and be given the opportunity to a more prolonged life. Mary Roach uses her book to inform people of this and uses different rhetorical devices to convince people to join in on the donation. Mary Roach has always had an interest in science related topics, whether she is experiencing it first hand or is writing about it.
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Selzer's Short Story 'The Knife'
187 Words | 1 PagesThe short story “The Knife” utilizes various forms of diction to strengthen the quality of the text. He uses imagery in order to draw the audience into the story. Vivid phrases, such as “the tight click of clamps” and “the tough fibrous sheet” create a description that resonates with the audience. Selzer uses diction to create the tone and mood of the story. In the opening paragraph, his word choice suggests that the speaker is a murderer; in later paragraphs, it is implied that the speaker is a surgeon trying to save a patient.
Billy Collins Schoolsville Analysis
742 Words | 3 PagesHe could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.
Being Prey By Eckel's And Plumwood Summary
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The Flowers By Alice Walker Literary Devices
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Survival Knife Research Paper
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