True For Our Soul As Dr Oreshchenkov example essay topic

Cancer Ward: "The Old Doctor" In this chapter Ludmila goes to visit her former mentor Dr. Oreshchenkov. He lives in a nice home and it is filled with things of the past and who he is. Ludmila has realized that she has cancer. However, she is not willing to except her own intuition and goes to Oreshchenkov to be sure and even to be told that "it's nothing serious". While she is there she has a small sense of release and calm. Later the two of them get in to a discussion over the need for the "family- doctor".

These scenes have deeper meaning than just the literal sense. This chapter can be interpreted by using Dante's "Four Levels of Interpretation". The first level of interpretation is the literal. This level focuses on what literally happened in the story. The second level of interpretation is the allegorical. This level is concerned with the meaning hidden beneath the words in the literal sense.

It tells of the nature of man and what we do in certain situations. The third level is the moral level. It is the message behind the story. This level teaches us a lesson that we should use in our lives. The fourth and final level is the analogical level. This is the level that is the sense beyond.

It is not only literally true but shows a truth of greater glory and truth of the spirit. Dante used the example: .".. in the departure of the people of Israel from Egypt, Judea was made holy and free. [7] For even though the literal truth of this passage is clear, what it means spiritually is no less true, that in the departure of the soul from sin, it is made holy and free". [8] The doctor lives in a better-than-average home in a nice neighborhood.

It is full of things from his past and is well maintained. He has an old Grand piano and there are many books on the shelves. Some of these books were recently acquired by Oreshchenkov from a fellow doctor. This doctor had just retired and became a bee-keeper. He did not enjoy being a doctor and now he was free of it. He could now do what he really wanted and was meant to do.

In a communistic society the government assigns people their occupation almost at birth on the bases of need of the community and the what they believe the persons strengths will be. This does not allow for individuals to find their proper function. They can not achieve the things they were meant to achieve and feel as if they have no purpose. This presents a problem; for a person to be virtuous they must find their proper function an preform it well.

Those who have had their occupation chosen for them will find it difficult to find their proper function and preform it well, therefore they will have trouble finding true virtue. In turn making it harder to be happy. Dr. Oreshchenkov seems to take great pride in maintaining the things of his past and makes his home seem more comforting. "It touched her to see the old marble washstand basin in the corner, not a modern washbasin but one with a bucket underneath it. It was all covered, though, and very clean". (P 418) He stays true to his ways and makes a point to keep things clean and pure.

He has not let go of his beliefs even though some may think them "old fashioned", like his wash basin. He keeps many books in his home and remains committed to his past and who he is. This gives him confidence and allows him to remain healthy. "He always had this look of confidence. It was as though, while he treated other people, he was absolutely sure he could never fall ill himself".

(P 418) His strong connection to his past and beliefs keeps his strong and healthy, unlike the country he is in. Ever since Russia and the rest of the Soviet Union fell under the control of communism they have lost their history. The communists do not allow the countries history to be taught in schools and they teach the children that history is not important, that it is anti-progress. With out their history the Soviet people don't have a sense of who they are and where they " re from. This leaves the country in a sickly state without the strength of their past to draw from.

There is a cancer on the county and that is communism. Not only does it strip away the vital tissue that makes the Russians who they are but it also does what it can to tell them who they should be. It uses this like a cell of cancer uses the body that it is infecting to supply it with nutrients, energy and power. The communist hold the people they are controlling at the bottom in a position in which they can supply goods and wealth to those at the top. In order for a society to remain strong and healthy it must be firmly rooted in its past. This allows the people to have a sense of who they are and, more importantly, a sense of home.

Governments should not attempt to tell people what to think or who they are. The same applies to individuals. We must know are past and who we are in order to remain healthy and strong. We must be committed to our values. The same is true on a spiritual level. We must know the history of our faith to have a strong and healthy soul.

We must not have our faith dictated to us or our soul will become ill. When Ludmila arrives at Dr. Oreshchenkov's home she already knows that she has cancer. However, she is unwilling to fully admit to herself that she has it. She goes to Oreshchenkov in order to be sure but mostly in hope that he will tell here that there is not seriously wrong with her. When she sits down in the chair in his office she feels as though all of the burdens of her responsibilities have been lifted by the doctor. She now feels calm and relaxed.

She needed some form of release from these burdens if only temporary and she needed someone else to help lift them even if the only thing they did was being there. Many times we find ourselves overwhelmed and we need some kind of release if only for a short while. All it may take is the company of someone we trust to lift the burden from our shoulders. This is also true on a spiritual level.

We all get to the point that we are being weighed down by sin and we just need to be freed. All it takes is for us to return to a place and state of mind in which we trust in God to be released. Even though she is temporarily freed from this heavy burden she is still becomes restless when she thinks of her symptoms which are most certainly caused by cancer. Even though her instincts and the things she learned through the study of oncology she still does not want to accept the fact that she has cancer. She does not even want to think about it. Because of her education she is fully aware of all of the consequences and possibilities that come with such a disease.

When she finally accepts it she thinks that it is an injustice that she, a doctor who treats cancer, should be struck with the very illness she treats. To this the doctor responds: "There is no injustice there, on the contrary, it is justice in the highest degree. It's the truest of all tests for a doctor to suffer the disease he specializes in". (P 422) This forces a doctor to realize the difference in treating a disease and in treating a patient. As a doctor treating a disease they remain disconnected. They can not truly understand want their patients are feeling, the true extent of their pain, and the crushing fear that they live with every day.

When a doctor is treating a disease the disease is the enemy. Its is an evil which should be destroyed or if it can not be defeated it must be removed as a whole with the patient in order to fight the other evils. This is seen with multiple characters, like Yefrem, who were released to die on their own because the cancer could not be cured and they needed more beds. When you are treating a disease you are give the freedom to give up, because you are not connected to it. In treating a disease you sacrifice the well being of the patient in order to meant the standards of treatment. Such as the requirement of the hormone therapies, which have not proven to be useful, on Oleg.

When a doctor gets the illness that he was treating it brings them down to the level of patient. Only then can a doctor understand want it is the patient is going through. This challenges the doctor to see the patient as the person they are and not the disease they have. Now they can treat the patient instead of the disease. When treating the patient the disease is no longer seen as an evil, but a simple biological element that is neither good nor evil.

This is much more difficult, because now you are involved with the situation and you see that your fighting for the person not against the disease. You can no longer freely give up and move on. You must now hang in with the person. Dr. Oreshchenkov also understands that in order to do that, you can only treat the number of patients you can remember. You must be with the patient for as long as they need and want you.

Oreshchenkov knows that the best way to accomplish this is to treat the same patient for the entirety of their life. He also believes that a doctor should be more than just a physician, but a person to help guild you trough your life and cleanse your views of the world. Though out our lives we do not see others as being people. We only see them as objects.

Either by their physical attractiveness, their wealth and influence, or even their faults. This allows us to use them for our own purposes. Yefrem only saw women as sexual objects and therefore he did not feel guilty about seducing hundreds of women until he saw that he was wrong. That they were more than just objects. Pavel, being a materialist, only sees people as their influence and possessions. This is why he has no remorse for pushing down and extorting those who he saw as below him.

He refuses to see them as anything more than objects he can control. We as society allow ourselves the luxury of seeing people as object in which we have no involvement in except for our personal gain. If we don't see them as people we could do anything we wanted to to them with out remorse. We could rape them, murder them and even sell them in to slavery, because they " re nothing more than property. However, when we do this we to also deny anything which makes us human. When we treat people as objects we are incapable of love and therefore we die.

Without the presence of love there is death and if we are dead then we become no more than objects ourselves. If we are without love we can't see ourselves as anything more than objects and we become lost in despair. The same is true for our soul as Dr. Oreshchenkov realizes at the end of the chapter. 'The image he saw did not seem to be the embodied the work or activity which occupied them, which they believe was central to their lives, and by which they were known to others. The meaning of existence was to preserve unspoiled, undisturbed and undistorted the image of eternity with which each person is born".

(P 432) The doctor sees the people of his past, not as their accomplishments, but who they really are. He sees that they are so preoccupied with the things they are doing that they think that that is all they are and that is how other people saw them. They become objects of their work and activity and loose who they are. The doctor sees that the purpose of life is to remain true to yourself. Don't allow yourself to distort what you really are. See yourself as a person.

If you do that you will continually keep your soul pure. If you live your life a human being your soul will remain unspoiled and will last for eternity. To live a human being you must be and treat everyone as a beloved creation of God for your entire life. That is "the truest of all tests" for a man.