The Use of Force - Essay Example

The story was simple and straightforward in narrative discourse which proffered the scenario between a doctor, the narrator, and a child, Mathilda Olson, who was being diagnosed for possible affliction of diphtheria. The setting was in the Olson’s house, where the doctor was initially ushered by the mother who eventually led him to the kitchen, where the father was holding the child and was apparently sitting on the father’s lap. The two items being compared in the essay is the doctor (the narrator or the healer) and the child (the person being healed).

The current essay aims to provide a comparative analysis using relevant literary elements from the characters, theme, perspectives and points of views evaluated from the short story. The first point of comparison is the physical traits or characteristics of the items being compared. There is initially disparity in gender: the doctor was described as male and the child was female. Although no name was provided for the doctor, the statements that gave way to his gender was the mother’s statements as she was talking to the child: “Such a nice man, put in the mother.

Look how kind he is to you. Come on, do what he tells you to. He won't hurt you” (Williams, 2012, par. 15). The child’s gender was clearly identified by the doctor in the fourth paragraph when he vividly described her physical traits and characteristics; using adjectives such as: “her cold, steady eyes, and no expression to her face whatever. She did not move and seemed, inwardly, quiet; an unusually attractive little thing, and as strong as a heifer in appearance. But her face was flushed, she was breathing rapidly, and I realized that she had a high fever.

She had magnificent blonde hair” (Williams, 2012, par. 4). Aside from gender as a point of comparison, the stature of the two is also anti-thetical. The doctor, by virtue of his profession, exudes professionalism and expertise on the most appropriate course of action for the situation. This is the reason why he was called by the Olsons in the first place. On the other hand, the child was