DISCUSSION QUESTIONS My Own Country |
1. Verghese describes the early eighties,
before AIDS had spun out of control, as "a time of unreal and
unparalleled confidence, bordering on conceit, in the Western medical
world, " [p. 24] in which doctors felt they had achieved "mastery over
the human body"[p. 25]. How does the reality of AIDS undermine this
ultra-modern, technological ideal of medicine? How does Verghese's idea
of the doctor's role change during the course of the narrative? Do you
believe that his turning back toward the older ideal of treating the
whole patient, body and soul, might be a harbinger of a general medical
trend? 2. When Verghese arrives in
Johnson City, he says, "I knew no openly gay men. I only knew the
stereotype" [p. 23]. What changes does his attitude toward homosexual
men undergo during his years at the Miracle Center? How does Verghese's
initial perception of himself as an outsider in Johnson City make him
especially sensitive to his patients' problems with their families and
community? 3. Johnson City in the
mid-eighties is "a place where Jerry Falwell's pronouncement that
homosexuals would 'one day be utterly annihilated and there will be a
celebration in heaven' was taken as a self-evident truth" [p. 56]. Yet
when AIDS strikes people they love, many inhabitants of Johnson City
prove remarkably supportive. How does their personal contact with the
disease work to falsify the "gay" stereotype they previously held? Does
Verghese, simultaneously, succeed in breaking stereotypes about "Falwell
country" that readers themselves might hold? What other stereotypes does
Verghese undermine in his story? 4. Verghese's story indicates
that to feel part of a group is vitalto human survival and well-being.
How do the various groups Verghese describes—the gay community, the TAP
support group, the church, the medical fraternity, the expatriate Indian
community—nourish and strengthen their members? Are they always
nurturing, or do they also put up barriers between their members and the
outside world? Is Verghese himself fully a member of, fully at home in,
any of these groups? 5. How do the different members
of Gordon's family react to his homosexuality and illness? How does
each, in his or her different way, cope with Gordon's condition? In what
way does Gordon typify the "generation of young men, raised to
self-hatred" and their collective "voyage, the breakaway, the attempt to
create places where they could live with pride" [pp. 402-403]? 6. "I heard different but
strangely similar versions of this story from families of gay men: There
was always the God-given talent that accompanied their God-given
sexuality, always the special creativity and humor" [p. 92]. Verghese
speculates on two possibilities: these qualities might be as
biologically determined as sexuality, or they might be developed to
compensate for the men's essential difference. What do you think of
these ideas? 7. What is Verghese's reaction
to Gordon's and Will's visions of Jesus? How does religion affect the
way these patients deal with their disease? Does it help them to fight?
Does it help them to come to terms with defeat? Does it ever hinder them
from facing their problems truthfully? 8. Verghese comes to see AIDS
"as the litmus test for nurses and physicians, a means of identifying
who would and who wouldn't" [p. 105] provide treatment and, in so doing,
risk their own health. Is there an excuse for the hostile attitude of
nurses who don't want to treat AIDS patients? Should people who have
committed themselves to careers as doctors or nurses be morally
obligated to treat any and every patient? In Johnson City, just how
deeply does the hospital staff's attitude towards AIDS change over the
course of the four years Verghese describes?
9. When Ethan Nidiffer explains why he didn't alert his dentist to the
fact that he was HIV-positive, Verghese admits that he "could certainly
see his point of view" [p. 306]. What is your point of view on this
issue? How much responsibility lies with the patient, and how much with
the dentist? Should patients always be obliged to inform their doctors
that they are HIV-positive, even if that means they may not find
treatment?
10. How do Gordon, Fred, Ethan, and Raleigh differ in their visions of
themselves as gay men and as part of a larger gay community? Can you see
any parallels with Verghese and his own search for a community, a home?
11. Will and Bess Johnson see themselves as "innocent victims" of the
disease—as opposed, by implication, to the gay men who also suffer from
it. How might you explain Verghese's complex reaction to this notion? Do
the Johnsons strike you as essentially more "innocent" than the gay men
in the narrative? This issue relates to the way the cancer patients at
the VA hospital are perceived as dying with honor, while so many HIV
patients harbor feelings of shame. How are the concepts of honor and
shame, innocence and guilt, addressed by the TAP members? By the
Johnsons? By Rajani? By Verghese himself? Do these attitudes reflect
those of the larger American culture? 12. Do you agree with Bess and
Will's decision that secrecy about their HIV infection was vital? Why
were they so overwhelmingly concerned with secrecy? What makes them able
to draw comfort from their church even while assuming that their fellow
church-goers would not stand by them in their illness? Do you blame Bess
and Will for not speaking out and trying to help others who suffer from
the disease, or do you think that they had every right to their privacy?
13. Because of his work, Verghese comes to believe that "our moments of
true safety are rare." Is such a knowledge a handicap, or can it bring
increased strength? How does the enormous change in Vickie McCray's life
and character relate to this knowledge?
14. Do you believe that the situation Verghese describes in Johnson City
accurately represents the situation for AIDS sufferers in the United
States as a whole? If you have any experience with the disease, do you
find that patients feel isolated, feel the need to keep their condition
a secret? In your own community, does compassion outweigh prejudice? Are
there adequate support resources for the HIV-positive? How do different
members of the local and national government treat this volatile issue?
15. At the end of the book, Verghese states that AIDS work will always
be his vocation. How does Verghese's powerful sense of mission and his
unselfish giving of himself affect his family life? Is the sort of
schedule he has undertaken necessarily incompatible with a full family
life? How might a busy doctor's wife and children share in his
professional life?
16. When Verghese arrives in Johnson City, he feels he has found a home,
his "own country" [p. 46]. Does he still see it in this way at the end
of the book? If so, why does he leave? How does the Malcolm Cowley poem
placed at the beginning of the narrative apply to Verghese's personal
quest? |
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