Finuala Dowling's poem, "To the Doctor who Treated the Raped Baby and Who Felt Such Despair," features contrasting settings. The one, constant setting is an African hospital emergency room where a doctor struggles physically and emotionally with saving an infant who was raped. This setting represents the grim reality that some people in the world are the epitome of evil and victimize the most innocent of all humanity.
The other setting rotates from various...
Finuala Dowling's poem, "To the Doctor who Treated the Raped Baby and Who Felt Such Despair," features contrasting settings. The one, constant setting is an African hospital emergency room where a doctor struggles physically and emotionally with saving an infant who was raped. This setting represents the grim reality that some people in the world are the epitome of evil and victimize the most innocent of all humanity.
The other setting rotates from various locations, but they are all safe and peaceful places where babies and children are being raised surrounded by love and protection. For example, "when the bleeding baby was admitted to your care faraway a Karoo shepherd crooned a ramkietjie lullaby in the veld" shows the reader that far away from the operating room, another baby was being cared for and sung to. As the baby is being "stitched," in a safe bed in a safe home, another baby is being read "another chapter of a favourite story."
The effect of these contrasting settings is to support the overall idea that humanity is generally kind and compassionate and that one horrible crime against a child is not indicative of the whole world. To the doctor, people seem evil at this point, but hopefully he will later realize that most people are good.
No comments:
Post a Comment