Mountains Beyond Mountains

590 Words3 Pages
While many people know of problems in society few act on them, and if they do it is normally in a small way. Most people turn a blind eye to situations in life that are less than average such as poverty, illiteracy, diseases, and other problems that society faces. In Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man who would Cure the World Dr. Farmer does not ignore these common issues. Actually, he fights them head on to do the things that others deemed crazy or improbable. This is because Dr. Farmer has the qualities that most people have but few have them to the same extent he does:determination, perserverance, and selflessness.The main characteristic which separates Dr. Farmer from other people who talk about change but never act on it or only do so in a superficial way is selflessness. While reading Mountains beyond Mountain, the reader is first introduced to Dr. Farmer's selflessness while he is in Haiti. Dr. Farmer's daily routine is depicted and the reader is able to get the sense that he is willing to do whatever it takes to help or cure his patients. He walks miles in the sun over mountainous rocky trails just to check and see how they are doing. Unlike the other doctors, he is interested in each individual and not just the diseases. Although the odds are greatly against him at first, he pereseveres. He is using the little money he has to help those less fortunate in Haiti all the while trying to gain more money from sponsors to further help the area. He is making countless sacrifices to do what others will not. His selflessness, though seen consistently throughout the book, is another major quality seen while he is Peru. While in Peru him and his team were faced with a rare outbreak of MDR-TB; this is when a person's terbeculouses is resistant to one or more of the drugs used to treat TB. While many people had advised against him taking
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