Insignificant Gestures Essay

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The essay Insignificant Gestures centers around a former doctor who used to work in Africa. He is also the narrator of the story. Ten years ago when the narrator was twenty-eight he worked in Africa as a district health office. Many nights he would sit at his desk and draw. That is when he had his first real encounter with Celia. Celia was his servant. The narrator seems to be a very troubled person. He carries so much guilt from the past of which he cannot let go and that in turn affects his life in a very negative way every day. The narrator describes how he feels like this: ‘’As though in a marble-run, the slightest nudge sends my thoughts sliding down and round to their invariable end-point: Celia’s death. From every possible angle, again and again, I have seen her head arched back; bruises that bloomed beneath her skin; her clenched hands. If I could peel back time, I would do things differently. But you don’t get second chances.’’ As the quote indicates the narrator feels that he is to blame for Celia’s death. He feels so much guilt even after ten years, and it has even gotten to the point where he has stopped drawing and has quit his job as a doctor and become a psychiatrist. He couldn’t bear to witness anymore suffering and death. I think the narrator has a major depression and I base that on the fact that he shows several symptoms of a depression. ‘’Since my teens I had covered sheet after sheet of paper with interwoven figures: birds, flowers, fantastical creatures.’’ He has been drawing for more than ten years and it is something he is good at and enjoys, but after the incident with Celia he has stopped drawing. He also feels immense guilt. Irrational guilt. He feels that he could have and should have done something to prevent Celia’s death. That he should have known that it was meningitis and not the boyfriend who led to her demise. This guilt is
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