Reflection on The Use of Force Essay

The short story †The Use of Force† is a story which is narrated by a character, the doctor. The main character is a normal doctor which appreciates his job and is ready to fulfill his duty; to find out what his patient’s problems are. In the story, he seems to care allot about the child’s health. At one point, he gets mad because all his cooperation with the youngster is getting them nowhere. Anger starts to be felt in the doctor’s cabinet; this is when the patient will have to be forced to get examined by the doctor. The doctor in the story knows how to apprehend patients, he starts out smoothly with the girl, knowing that children usually respond with a good attitude if you are friendly with them. The doctor’s duty is to know exactly what you are sick of, which the girl, for unknown reasons didn’t want to be examined closely. She refused to admit she had a sore throat. The fact that her ignorance could kill her made the doctor insane, he then became more insistent about using physical force to help her out. Even though the doctor’s effort didn’t work, he knew that if he had the full support of her parents, they finally would come to an end with the problem. The doctor enjoyed the feeling of insane anger towards the child; it made him go through the hard struggle of opening the child’s mouth. The anger expressed by him was not directly linked to the girl, but to the situation, he did want to help out the ignorant, suffering girl from the sickness she was hiding. The two characters which bring an essence to the main goal of the story are the doctor and the child. The Doctor then finds pleasure in using force in diagnosing the unpleasant child, which happens to cause her pain. The child therefore, still is fighting back and will not abandon her cause. The child creates the turmoil without being conscious, she is being a painful patient and she is not able to tell whether what she does is good or wrong. It shows us that she is probably a spoiled and rebellious girl, who easily stands out when things aren’t what she wants. The doctor is also part of the undesired situation, he is a key element in the turmoil. He enjoys using force upon  the child to help her out, he wants to prove her she is wrong to act as such. The doctor feels no remorse’s of the actions he took for the child, all he seeks for is satisfaction by proving himself he is helping the young child. The use of force was needed to resolve the situation. It was necessary to have a proper diagnosis of her health to save her. What really came down to the use of force was that the doctor was determined to find out what troubled the parents of the child. It was also that she made him so angry about being stubborn and so hard to handle that he became more and more persistent. To conclude, both of the characters want to win a fight, with misconduct. The doctor is faced with a problem of self discipline and the young girl has a lack of obedience.