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Tobar 1 Bret Tobar Mr.

Price Period 4, English 11 12/04/12 Quarter Two Summary, Body of Work Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab written by and from the perspective of prospective doctor, Christine Montross. The book specifically details Christines experience in her first year gross anatomy class; emphasizing Christines metamorphosis from a neurotic, anxious and uneasy med student to a forthcoming imperturbable doctor of psychiatry. Furthermore the book highlights the ethical dilemmas that Christine encounters along the way; these tying into the underlying thesis of the book, the morality of human dissection and medicine. Christines adventure begins with a short anecdote about how as a child she used to swim on the waters of Lake Michigan and, using only her breath, she managed to sink or rise above the water of Lake Michigan. This incident sparked her curiosity and admiration of the inner-workings of her own body and its corresponding physiology and thus placed Christine on the beginning of a personal transformation that differentiates me from my friends and family, a transformation about performing previously unthinkable actions in order to discover the wondrous and previously unimaginable realms of medicine. (p 18) Decades pass and Christine stands bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and a bit uneasy at her first anatomy class; after a short lecture Christine and the other students are guided into an anatomy lab where they find, among an abhorrent aroma of formalin, eighteen white body bags atop stainless-steel rolling tables. Christine quickly learns that one of oddest idiosyncrasies of anatomy is the distinction between a human body and a human being, (p 24) hastily, she discovers that dissection requires a necessary degree of inhumanity. Weeks later in the midst of the thoracic dissection, after removing the heart of her cadaver Christine reflects that only the brain supersedes the heart and lungs as the most essential human organ; for the loss of brain function invariable leads to cardiopulmonary death. (p 34) This leads Christine to

Tobar 2 ponder the definition of dead, for as basic an idea as it seems, the definition of death in a medical sense is nebulous. Therefore, Christine states that her own personal definition of dead may extend far enough toward life to include a person whos brain is a physically functional void, which includes such things as the end-stage Alzheimer patient, who never wakes but breaths and expels urine from injected liquid food into her diapers. (p 40) It is during arm dissection that Christine wonders as to acquisition of such educational instruments as a cadaver; she recalls speaking with a Nigerian doctor, Ade, in her pathology elective, who happened to mention that the cadavers for his anatomy class were criminals, as so classified by the state. She began to wonder the origin of her own cadaver, whom she had now named Eve due to an absent umbilicus, but quickly concluded that she would likely never know due to the American tendency to depersonalize cadavers with anonymity. (p 78) It is during the second month of gross anatomy, near the first anatomy exam, that Christine broods over the mental and physical toll of medical school, the exhaustion she experiences does not even register anymore for her entire life seems to devolve into a simple cycle; wake, breathe, skin, dissect, rest. The psychological toll is even worse, as Christine mulls over anatomy student vignettes that bear striking resemblance to her own experiences such as; anxiety, insomnia, depression, difficulty concentrating, and hallucinations of morsels of flesh in-between her teeth. (p 155) Such cerebral and physical changes are only overshadowed by the very discomfort of doctoring, (p 168) Christine notes amid the genital dissection; she realizes that as physician any amount of discomfort or insecurity on her part is immediately exuded on to the patient, therefore to show any apprehension, as a doctor, is failure. It is in the semesters final month, during the brain dissection that Christine realizes that the mind is where personhood resides of ourselves and our loved ones, (p 225) and since doctors fight to preserve and heal the person then it is the brain that doctor fight to save, whether as nephrologists, orthopedic surgeons, psychiatrists or dermatologists (p. 226) And as the semester ends in a blur of

Tobar 3 sleep deprivation, notecards, and cramming Christine returns to her cadaver and presents her with flowers and pensively replies, I carry your body to the funeral pyre. When you burn, may every space in you that I have named flare and burst into light.

Tobar 4 Bret Tobar Mr. Price Period 4, English 11 12/03/12 Quarter Two Analysis Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab is a memoir written by Christine Montross which tells of Christines experiences through her first year gross anatomy class; as well to a lesser extent her experiences all throughout medical school. Furthermore the book, often through reflection, highlights the morality and ethics of human dissection as well as medicine. Moreover Body of Work is roughly 118,260 pages, making it quite clearly within the literary category of novel. My first impression of the book was quite similar to what it was in reality; simply because the central thesis of the book is mentioned in its title. Still, I found the book quite enjoyable to read as it examines the complex morals related to medicine and the ethical dilemmas which healthcare providers must address on a regular basis. This is part of the reason I choose to read this particular book since I plan on possibly studying things such as immunology, pharmacology and pathology at college and I thought it might be interesting to view the morality hopelessly intertwined within medicine. Additionally I wanted to familiarize myself, at least on a superficial level, with anatomical structures as I plan on taking anatomy and physiology in my senior year. That said the language used in the book obviously references anatomical structures such as the semilunar valves of the heart or the brachial plexus network of nerve fibers, but doesnt really explain what these structures are or there importance; and therefore reading often required the utilization of an encyclopedia or medical dictionary. Christine uses a variety of literary techniques in order to convey her insights; but the most striking is her theme and character. Throughout the book we watch Christine evolve from a nervous first year med student to a professional doctor of psychiatry; however, her occupational metamorphosis isnt

Tobar 5 nearly as intriguing as the shift in her personality as well as that of her emotional and behavioral paradigm. As Christine progresses throughout her years of medical education she learns how to process and respond to the moral dilemmas related to health care; initially she attempts depersonalization in an attempt to suppress her innate reactions. This works quite well in her human anatomy class as it allows her to get over what she calls the ingrained aversion to willingly do harm to the body, (p 28) however, this technique does not transfer over well when she begins her medical residency. It is the depersonalization of patients, or clinical detachment, that leads to the all-too-familiar doctor with bad bedside manner, whose patients feel unheard, uncared about and a result, unsafe. (p 172) Nevertheless, excessive emotional attachment to a patient leads to exhaustion and burnout in the health care provider. (p 171) Thus Christine postulates an alternative the two, compartmentalization, essentially separating her personal life from her career; unfortunately this fails again for Christine as after viewing the autopsy of a twenty-four-year-old who had been recently in accident she breaks into weeping not realizing how much of the emotion Im feeling is for my partner, Deborahand love and fear and morality and myselfand what is about a poor twenty-four-year-old who ruptured his spleen on his motorbike. (p 192) Finally, Christine identifies that healthcare requires an equilibrium between the extremities of over emotional attachment and clinical detachment. It is from this viewpoint, of sympathy at a distance, which Christine writes for the remainder of book; this focus and emphasis placed on character development and gradual emotional evolution is the greatest strength of the book as it shows how the moral quandaries of healthcare have a profound effect on the individual. As final literary critique of the book I draw upon personal opinion as to whether Christine is successful author. I must admit, Christine possesses a great ability to accurately describe a scene in its entirety and it is from this description that Christine is able to convey emotion, sympathy, depression, regret and tragedy. It is through this vivid description and anecdotal medium that Christine is able to

Tobar 6 express morality and from this the reader is able to gain the values and ideals of this work. Now, I cannot defend the values of this work simply because they are so open to subjectivity and interpretation that the values and ideals I pulled from the work is likely not the same than those that another reader would pull from the worker. Furthermore, it is unlikely that either of these ideals are the values that Christine herself choose to express.

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