Annotations from Sontag's Evocative Piece

Below is my section from a group project that displays important annotations and important ideas from Sontag's essay Illness as Metaphor. If you would like to see the entire project please access the class blog here.
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Susan Sontag’s “Illness as Metaphor”: An Annotation, Part I

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Susan Sontag was born in New York City on January 16, 1993. After attending the University of Chicago, she did graduate work at Harvard University and Saint Anne’s College. Sontag’s opus consists of four novels, a play, seven major works of fiction, and four films. Sontag has energetically captivated readers with her novels, short stories, and essays throughout her career. Invigorating, zealous, and often grim also describe Sontag’s writing during the last three decades of her life.  Her pieces have been translated into over thirty languages, and have been published all over the world, including The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Threepenny Review and The Times Literary Supplement.

The UCLA Library has a special collection of Sontag’s pieces and personal research on exhibit.  This comprehensive archive contains manuscripts of her writings, personal notebooks, and her private library, which consists of over 20,000 books covering a broad variety of genres.

Sontag died in New York City on December 28th 2004.


Chapter One

In the opening chapter, Sontag introduces the contagious practice of describing illness through the use of metaphors. Tuberculosis and cancer are expressed as diseases burdened by mysterious battles and underlying secrets.  Sontag discusses the fantasies and accompanying horrors inspired by TB in the past and by cancer in modern times. As early as the first page, Sontag asserts her belief that in time, once a cure is found, the horror and mystery of cancer will dissipate as well as the metaphors by which it is described. Sontag discerns the incongruity between lying to patients in order to protect them and giving them sufficient information to help them combat their illness. Chapter One sets the stage for a discussion of the guilt and shame that appear attached to disease.


Summary: Chapter Three

The third chapter discuses the sometimes hidden parallels in the “myths” surrounding cancer and TB. Sontag explores the idea of mental versus physical consumption that is often linked to tubercular patients. Alluding to scenes from Etherege’s play, The Man of Mode, Sontag illustrates the thought that diseased love could consume victims. Chapter Three further investigates repression and its correlation to cancer and TB.

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Incorporating Expert Analysis 

Another assignment for Professor Brown's course involved a lecture on "moralized notions" (Sontag, pg. 43) of disease in philosophical and religious belief. After listening to the lecture our task was to write a response that summarizes the ways in which Honeycutt's and White's views intersect and diverge from one another. Below you will find my response. 

Metaphors of the Soul

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Chaplain White and Professor Honeycutt's lecture forced me to question the implications behind utilizing metaphors to justify illness of the body and sins of the soul.  Their lecture covered a variety of topics based on themes explored in Susan Sontag’s essay “Illness as Metaphor” including religion, philosophy, and certain instincts of human nature. Interestingly, both Chaplain White and Professor Honeycutt reflected upon the harsh reality of mortality and presented a plethora of information to explore a  range of opinions regarding illness.  Both speakers presented differing views on the use of metaphors to describe mental or physical illness. 

Chaplain White decided to use present-day examples involving the same questions asked in Sontag’s essay.  White refereed to three shocking instances of true disasters he had encountered during his career. The first involved a hero dying in a plane crash.  The second regarded mental illness leading to murder and suicide. The last example concerned a young family whose newborn daughter died of an extremely rare genetic disease. White then asked us which of the three incidents would prompt the victims and others to seek divine intervention for comfort and a cause of the tragedy.  The Chaplain believes it is the last case, because no choice was made by the infant to cause her demise. Since this tragedy is inexplicable and not the result of human intervention, he suggested, many persons would look to religion for comfort and understanding.

Other major themes presented in the lecture greatly intrigued me. This interest led me to meet with Chaplain White and discuss in detail his opinion on Chapter Six from “Illness as Metaphor.” Chaplain White reflected upon the correlation between this section of Sontag’s essay and the play Oedipus Rex. During this Athenian tragedy, written in 429B.C. by Sophocles, a sickness plagues the polis, causing Oedipus to journey in search of a cure. During his journey, he uncovers the mysteries of his past and fulfills a prophecy by his actions. Oedipus is unaware that he has killed his biological father and, in turn, discovers his own diseased and confused soul. At the end of the play, Oedipus, who was blind to the truth his entire life, can no longer bear the knowledge and reality of his crimes and, therefore, gouges out his own eyes. Ironically, the prophet Tiresias, who was born physically blind, had the ability to see the truths of the world around him. Perhaps Chaplain White alludes to the physical pain caused by an illness of the soul to demonstrate the connection between spirit and the body. Oedipus’ physical destruction helps represent the demise of his sanity and provides a window into his soul. Chaplain White believes there is an innate sense in human nature that causes us to judge illness and those who suffer from it.  Then, he says, we look for explanations and descriptions to sum up what we have observed.

Chapter Six deals with the influences of religion and philosophy on the way we view disease and those who are suffering. Honeycutt’s opinion is that political philosophy and notions of health are related both historically and conceptually. Honeycutt mentions that medical and political science developed with philosophy concurrently, at the time three great minds were born in ancient Greece: Plato, Hippocrates, and Socrates. Honeycutt mentioned Socrates’ reference to the health of the body as a necessary condition for the health of the soul. Socrates compared philosophy to medicine and referred to the philosopher as a doctor of the soul. It is also important to note that Socrates described injustice as the “sickness of the soul.” Perhaps the awareness of our own mortality connects the arguments provided by philosophy and religion.  Doctors are trying to find the cure for physical illness, and philosophers are trying to find truth for the sake of our souls’ health. In her essay Sontag also suggested that emotional crimes could cause disease. When tuberculosis was still clouded by mystery, people had to justify and explain the destruction it caused by connecting the illness to emotional imperfections.

The apparent entanglement of disease and emotion is present in many works of literature and in society as a whole. It seems that throughout human history, illness of any kind has been viewed as an imperfection.  And today, certain illnesses like cancer are encountered with deep apprehension that tempts humans to search for greater meaning to help them face their fears and sense of despair.