The
Strange, Isolated Life of a 21st Century Tuberculosis Patient is
written by Natalie Shure, a woman who contracted tuberculosis while
on a Peace Corps trip to Ukraine. Tuberculosis is contracted through
the air, so patients have to be quarantined, which leads to
depression and loneliness. Shure explains the loneliness that she
felt, and how she fought through that loneliness. She uses a lot of
pathos while writing this, as a lot of stories concerning disease
patients often do, because we automatically feel bad for them for
having whatever disease they have. Then they amplify that by showing
how bad it actually is. Shure also uses anecdotes to tell her story.
First she tells how she got the disease, then what happened when she
got home from the trip, and on and on. I think the purpose of the
anecdotes is to really show it from Shure's eyes, how she was just a
normal girl, and then this horrible thing happened. It makes it
easier to connect with her through the way she writes about the
little moments in her life.
But I
don't think her purpose was to make us feel bad. I think Shure's
purpose was just to educate people on how she, and other quarantined
patients feel. The brightest part of this essay was when Shure was
talking about her friend, Ksenia that she had met through the
internet. Ksenia also had tuberculosis, and they really connected
with each other. By talking about their beautiful friendship last,
Shure left the readers with a sense of hope and happiness. She left
the feeling that even if you're in a horrible situation, making the
best out of it is the only thing you can really do. In the end, I
really think Shure's final purpose was to educate people about how
she lives, and also that tuberculosis still exists, because I didn't
know that it did.
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