What’s “The Use of Force” about?

Answer: There’s not a right answer.

What’s “The Use of Force” about? Answer: There’s not a right answer. Or rather: There’s not one right answer.

The point is to train yourself to recognize when a narrator is giving you evaluative clues—and/or when he’s giving you room to judge for yourself.

You could say that it’s a story about: Losing your cool under trying circumstances

You could say that it’s a story about: Losing your cool under trying circumstances How easily good intentions can go bad, or how easily benevolence can slip into cruelty

You could say that it’s a story about: Losing your cool under trying circumstances How easily good intentions can go bad, how easily benevolence can slip into cruelty The abuse of power (or: How the potential for the abuse of power lies waiting in even the most humble of settings)

You could say that it’s a story about: Rationalizing ugly/disturbing/inappropriate/ unprofessional behavior with high-minded excuses (or: The moral somersaults we turn to justify bad behavior after the fact)

You could say that it’s a story about: Rationalizing ugly/disturbing/inappropriate/ unprofessional behavior with high-minded excuses (or: The moral somersaults we turn to justify bad behavior after the fact) The thin line between brute force and socially sanctioned force (or: How brute force often masquerades as socially sanctioned force)

You could say that it’s a story about: Rationalizing ugly/disturbing/inappropriate/ unprofessional behavior with high-minded excuses (or: The moral somersaults we turn to justify bad behavior after the fact) The thin line between brute force and socially sanctioned force (or: How brute force often masquerades as sanctioned force) The gendered and sexualized violence—call it sadism or even rape if you want—that lurks beneath the surface of “ordinary” power relations & structures of authority

You can conclude that it’s about any of those things—but you still need to notice: that the story announces it will be about “The Use of Force” (which immediately leads you to ask: what does it intend to say or show about the use of force?)

You can conclude that it’s about any of those things—but you still need to notice: that the story announces it will be about “The Use of Force” (which immediately leads you to ask: what does it mean to say or show about the use of force?) that the narrator often characterizes his interaction with his patient not as a medical exam, but a power struggle, a battle (he describes the girl more than once as a fierce animal, and he intermittently acknowledges that “doctor” is a role he’s playing, sometimes badly)

You can conclude that it’s about any of those things—but you still need to notice: that the story announces it will be about “The Use of Force” (which immediately leads you to ask: what does it mean to say or show about the use of force?) that the narrator often characterizes his interaction with his patient not as a medical exam, but a power struggle, a battle (he describes the girl more than once as a fierce animal, in fact, and he intermittently acknowledges that “doctor” is a role he’s playing, sometimes badly) that the narrator scrupulously tracks his state of mind throughout the incident and seems very anxious to sort out, rationalize, and justify his embarrassingly unprofessional behavior after the fact

You can conclude that it’s about any of those things—but you still need to notice: that he repeatedly uses language or phrasing that has resonances in other arenas of life, language that could easily signify something else in another context--language that many of us, in fact, might more readily associate with sexual violence than with a medical exam…

“[She] was fairly eating me up with her cold, steady eyes….an unusually attractive little thing…her face was flushed, she was breathing rapidly…She had magnificent blond hair, in profusion.” “Look here, I said to [her]…You’re old enough to understand….” “Her breaths were coming faster and faster…” “I had already fallen in love with the savage brat…she surely rose to magnificent heights of insane fury of effort bred of her terror of me.” “Don’t, you’re hurting me. Let go of my hands. Let them go I tell you. Then she shrieked terrifyingly, hysterically. Stop it! Stop it! You’re killing me!” “Do you think she can stand it, doctor!” “I tried to hold myself down but I couldn’t.” “I…had got beyond reason. I could have torn the child apart in my own fury and enjoyed it. It was a pleasure to attack her. My face was burning with it.” “[A] blind fury, a feeling of adult shame, bred of a longing for muscular release, are the operatives. One goes on to the end.” “In a final unreasoning assault I overpowered [her] neck and jaws. I forced [it]…down her throat until she gagged.” “Now truly she was furious….tears of defeat blinded her eyes.”