In the book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande, figures of speech are applied in good measure within the book and in the totality of it. Different figures of speech have been used in the letter of the book with great effect. This has greatly impacted the message that the author intends to pass across. Further, it also works to capture and maintain the interest and focus of the reader. Over and above the letter of the book is the totality of the massage as compared to the author himself and the topic in question. The use of figures of speech in Being Mortal, therefore, retains the focus of the reader on both the book and its content, even as it augments the impact of the book’s message upon the reader.
The first evident figure of speech is paradox and lies both in the contents of the book and the totality thereof. The author, Atul Gawande is a well-trained and experienced surgeon of reasonable repute. A book about mortality, authored by a good surgeon would be expected to focus on the victory of contemporary medicine and its capability to extend life. Instead, the book focuses on the fallibility of modern medicine at its best form. The author defines the great achievements made in contemporary medicine more so with regard to the treatment of terminal diseases as acts of postponing the inevitable death and increasing the suffering of a patient. This is a great paradox coming from a surgeon.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
A second common figure of speech in the book is euphemism. This figure of speech is predominantly common to the point of becoming a motif being the use of the word ‘end’ instead of death. The book is targeted towards the aged but specifically those caring for them. In this group, death is always a reality albeit an unpleasant one. Further, it would be impossible to talk about this topic without repeatedly making reference to death to the extent of turning the book into a grotesque text. However, the subtle use of the benign term ‘end’ to refer to death averts the relative acuteness of the essence of death yet communicating continually about it. However, to create focus on the seriousness of the topic of death, the name is still placed several times in the book.
Personification is also applied on this topic of death to give it more impetus. Death is given life and a character so that the reader can still see the reality of it. It is defined as an enemy, that has superior forces and which eventually wins. Instead of the reader viewing death as something that happens, the personification transforms death into a living thing and indeed a human being that each person has an appointment with. This enhances the reality of death and also removes the fear of the unknown relating to it. It also enhances the message engendered in the book that healthcare should not be about an all-out war against dying, since it is inevitable.
The oxymoron of a good death has also been used in the book. It is difficult for death, which is normally a painful end of life to be good hence the classification of good death as an oxymoron. Finally, the totality of the book also amounts to a major Antithesis. The author joined medical school with a major passion to conquer ailments and diseases that cause death and suffering. However, the more he studied and the more he became adept in medicine, the more he came to accept death and suffering as a normal part of life. His journey to conquer suffering and death results to a journey by suffering and death to conquer him. The upshot of the foregoing is that the careful use of figures of speech has greatly augmented the quality of the book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande.
