Reaction Paper : Rhetoric of Cancer

How complex can cancer get? It is a question with many answers, of how complicated this deadly disease is or how technical the medical terms associated with it are or how emotional the feelings arising from having it, and the like. What the podcast presented is the language of cancer characterized as a “military language” because of all the comparisons of the disease to a war, a real battle. Because of media, we might not be able to find it weird from the very start since it was always like that since then. Terms or lines like “fighting cancer” have been the forefront of campaigns. With this, it seems like the victim is fighting an enemy inside his or her body and defeating this enemy will mean triumph for the person. Even if it appears that associating military language for cancer is recognition of the patient’s struggle with the disease, it is strange that we are adding burden to the feeling since it is a fight or a battle wherein you need to conquer everything to succeed. With this mindset, I guess some might find motivation to really go through with the disease but it is also good to look at it with another perspective. If a person actually deals with the disease as something which he or she does not need to fight, something which he needs to cope with as if adapting to be able to live, I think this might also give more hope. Hope comes in the picture because of having more positive attitudes towards it rather than treating it an enemy which attracts a negative attitude. As a daughter of someone who passed away because of cancer, I have been a witness to how hope can change a life of not only the patient but also the people around him or her especially the family. Once the patient gets hope and support from his or her loved ones, there is a stronger commitment to deal with the disease. At the end, everything will matter based on the perspectives of a person in dealing with cancer and this complex thing might even get simpler and easier as one has never imagined.

Sy, Danica

2013-50915