Insignificant Gestures Essay

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Insignificant Gestures By Jo Cannon This text is written by Jo Cannon. It is about a man who used to be a doctor and his servant, Celia, who has died. The narrator blames him self for Celia’s death, and it affects his present. By analyzing examples from the text, the narrator and the relationship between the narrator and Celia will be characterized. Furthermore, this short story will focus on the narrator’s error of judgment and the significance of time and place. The narrator wants to forget his time in Africa. He was working as a doctor at a hospital in Africa, and he has experienced a lot of things during his journey. He has, among other things, experienced their hospitality and how it works – and he is definitely not amazed: “The central hospital was a stinking hell-ship…” (p. 10 l. 97) In a way he is shocked to experience all this, because he wants to make a difference in Africa, and he really believes in him self, but it is hard to keep doing that with the circumstances. Now he has had quite enough of this, and all the people who are dying: “I never wanted to smell blood again.” (p. 8 l. 2) He also seems very sensitive, in the way he thinks about Celia. He misses her, and he want to do things over. He wants to go back in time and save Celia – but he cannot. Instead he is running away from his problems and thoughts. That is why he is no longer a doctor, but a psychiatrist. He cannot even use painting to escape anymore, because the painting reminds him of Celia. So as a way out of this, he listens to other people’s problems to fill in his empty space in his heart and his mind. Otherwise he is thinking of Celia, and every time he is doing that, he feels some kind of guilt. He could have saved her if he did not judge the situation completely wrong. He was busy thinking of all the lives he was going to save, when one of the people who

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