Insignificant Gestures by Jo Cannon

991 Words4 Pages
To err is human and you have to live with the consequences, but when it something so bad that you cannot forgive yourself and it seems to change your whole life, what do you do to move on? That is the question the short story “Insignificant gestures” written by Jo Cannon in 2007 looks at, through the story of a doctor who looks back on his time in Africa. While working in Africa, we hear about how he works under poor conditions and all the horrible things he sees everyday. The only comfort in his otherwise depressing life is his servant, Celia, who he shares the happiness of drawing. One day Celia is found all bruised up and dying, a village woman claimed that it was her boyfriend who has beaten her up. The doctor gives a medical statement to the police, who sentence the boyfriend to prison. Later, the doctor discovered that Celia died from meningitis, and that he could have saved her. Haunted by her death, he tries unsuccessful to change his statement to the police, to save the innocent boyfriend and clear his consciences for not saving Celia. The story is written in first-person narrator, and is mainly written in past tense, as most of the story is a flashback. We get to know very little about the narrator, who remains unnamed throughout the story. The narrator worked as a district health officer in Africa when he was 28, but was retrained as a psychiatrist after returning from Africa. He is very affected by his time in Africa, which has leaved him with horrible memories and regret, which reflects in the line; “I never wanted to smell blood again. Or the sweet nail-varnish odour of starvation. Or any other reek of human suffering. I couldn’t bear to witness another death”. This line shows how the death, sickness and tragedies are breaking him down. The time in Africa has also changed him as he says in the line; “I barely recognize the man I was then. A thin
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