The Use of Force by William Carlos
In the story “The Use of Force” by William Carlos, the doctor’s decision to force the examination of the child was the right decision and it was justified. From beginning there distrust of the doctor by the family this was expressed in the book as “I could see that they were all very nervous, eyeing me up and down distrustfully. Most children hate going to doctor. There are many children who will accept going to the doctor, and are okay as long as there is no pain during the visit. The child in this story had a fever for three days, and was very sick and nobody knew how she got the fever. In this story there was a bad virus going around where she attended school. So, the child had two fears. One fear was of being sick and the other fear was of the virus that was the virus that was going around at her school. The problem in this story started when the doctor asked to look at Mathilda’s throat, and after he asked she told him “nothing doing”. The doctor tried to stay calm and coaxed her “Just open your mouth wide and let me take a look”. The doctor tried many things to get the child to let him look at her throat, but she still would not let him. After many things were tried by the doctor and the parents to get the child to let the doctor examine her, the doctor started go get mad and he could not control his anger. The parents apologized many times for their daughter’s behavior and the doctor became more determined to look at her throat because he suspects that she may have the Diphtheria that the other children got at the school. The doctor was determined to examine the child and the child was determined not to let him. She was even held down by her father who was a big man. He was very ashamed of how his daughter was behaving. At this point the doctor lost control of his anger and he became furious. He told the mother “Get me a smooth-handled spoon of some sort.” Mathilda’s tongue started to bleed and she was screaming. The doctor had no choice but