J.D. Schraffenberger begins his piece by introducing three stories related to the overall theme of the essay about harming babies. His first story is the most morbid, discussing how until recently it was not known that babies even feel pain, and before operating on a baby, doctors would administer muscle relaxers instead of anesthesia. Such a topic is already disturbing by nature, but Schraffenberger’s choices create additional negative sentiments. From the first sentence, “newborns can only see as far as the distance between the mother’s nipples and her face,” (Schraffenberger) Schraffenberger pushes a particular image of babies. The lack of proper eyesight in babies is used in the rest of the writing to emphasize the comparative reliance of babies on touch relative to other senses. However, by opening the writing with a physical shortcoming of babies, the author plays up the popular perception of infants as small and powerless beings requiring all the help we can provide them. By reminding readers of how dependent babies are, the many instances of infant suffering are made all the crueler. Also contributing to the thoughts on suffering is Schraffenberger’s description of how babies feel the world. On that subject, the author states that “they feel the suck of air scouring their flesh.” (Schraffenberger) The contextual meaning here is that babies feel wind on their skin, but the word “scour” literally means to forcefully clean something. Using such a word to relate an action performed on a vulnerable baby is quite unsettling, regardless of additional context. This particularly harsh description of the feeling of air on baby flesh is even more notable in comparison to the depiction of infant surgery. “They’d lie still and quiet, unable to move or cry as scalpels slipped their bodies open to the light of medical wisdom.” (Schraffenberger) Throughout the description of infant surgery, there an explicit statement of pain being inflicted on the children, even if it is heavily implied by the action of opening up a living body with scalpels. By using a calm tone around the subject of cutting a baby open without anesthesia, a lack of any concern over inflicted harm is implied. In a way, by not caring about how the children feel, the whole operation seems even more brutal. The next story Schraffenberger introduces is about the Musti ritual of dropping babies from a 50-foot tower and caught by bedsheets at the bottom of their fall.
…show more content…
Unlike with the first story, there is not any extra effort to make the situation more worrisome than it already is, but the author still takes some opportunities to frame the narrative. By introducing the story with “in the Musti village of Solapur,” (Schraffenberger the author emphasizes that this is in a very different location from that of his presumably American readers. This suggests to the reader that whatever custom that follows will seem quite bizarre from the reader’s perception, but could be perfectly normal from the perspective of another culture, and therefore should not be judged too harshly. The author’s description of the fall also serves to explain how the falling sensation would feel, while not unnecessarily embellishing the possibility of pain. “The babies feel the quick, curious tug of gravity shift their newly churning organs.” (Schraffenberger) Schraffenberger does not overlook the fact that the child would probably feel some physical internal discomfort due to the drop, but the feeling is still attached to “curious,” a word with a rather positive connotation. Even if the baby does not fully enjoy falling, at the very least it gets to experience a new and unusual experience, the sort that older individuals are willing to go skydiving for. The first segment of this story is completed by a rather upbeat sentence, “it’s a blessing, say the villagers, of good health and good luck.” (Schraffenberger) This ending reminds the reader that this ritual is a part of the local culture, and that it is seen as a positive affair to those involved. The third story provided by the author transitions to a very personal tale of dropping his baby by accident. Several elements of this narration closely relate to the other story about dropping babies, although Schraffenberger does not enjoy the justification of dropping babies being a cultural tradition. Instead, he lives in a country
Unlike with the first story, there is not any extra effort to make the situation more worrisome than it already is, but the author still takes some opportunities to frame the narrative. By introducing the story with “in the Musti village of Solapur,” (Schraffenberger the author emphasizes that this is in a very different location from that of his presumably American readers. This suggests to the reader that whatever custom that follows will seem quite bizarre from the reader’s perception, but could be perfectly normal from the perspective of another culture, and therefore should not be judged too harshly. The author’s description of the fall also serves to explain how the falling sensation would feel, while not unnecessarily embellishing the possibility of pain. “The babies feel the quick, curious tug of gravity shift their newly churning organs.” (Schraffenberger) Schraffenberger does not overlook the fact that the child would probably feel some physical internal discomfort due to the drop, but the feeling is still attached to “curious,” a word with a rather positive connotation. Even if the baby does not fully enjoy falling, at the very least it gets to experience a new and unusual experience, the sort that older individuals are willing to go skydiving for. The first segment of this story is completed by a rather upbeat sentence, “it’s a blessing, say the villagers, of good health and good luck.” (Schraffenberger) This ending reminds the reader that this ritual is a part of the local culture, and that it is seen as a positive affair to those involved. The third story provided by the author transitions to a very personal tale of dropping his baby by accident. Several elements of this narration closely relate to the other story about dropping babies, although Schraffenberger does not enjoy the justification of dropping babies being a cultural tradition. Instead, he lives in a country