In this article, the author explores a middle-aged, working-class man’s, Jake’s, reaction to his life-threatening illnesses and to his impending death. The experiences of illness and dying demand the “thick description” of narrative. Just as the medical model of illness breaks down the person into symptoms and parts, the relational model of illness and death in narrative “puts him back together again” by embedding him in a personal and social history. This article finds that the experience of illness and dying are rooted in the tacit ethos of an individual’s family and society. The cultural paradigms of gender and class, religious tradition, and the reaction of others to the dying person shape the individual’s response to his approaching death.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Anderson, M. (1993). Studying across difference: Race, class and gender in qualitative research. In J. H. Stanfield II & R. M. Dennis (Eds.), Race and ethnicity in research methods (pp. 39-52). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
2.
Bakan, D. (1968). Disease, pain and sacrifice: Toward a psychology of suffering. Boston: Beacon.
3.
Bakan, D. (1996). Some reflections about narrative research and hurt and harm. The NarrativeStudy of Lives, 4, 3-8.
4.
Becker, E. (1972). The denial of death. New York: Free Press.
5.
Berman, H. (1999, November 21). Theories of narrative and metaphors of the life course. Paper presented at the 52nd annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, San Francisco, California.
6.
Bianci, E. (1982). Aging as a spiritual journey. New York: Crossroad.
7.
Black, H. (1995). “Wasted” lives and the hero grown old: Personal perspectives of spirituality by aging men. Journal of Religious Gerontology, 93(3), 35-48.
8.
Black, H. (1999, November 23). No one laughs his way through life: Men’s spiritual responses to suffering. Paper presented at the 52nd annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, San Francisco, California.
9.
Black, H. , & Rubinstein, R. (2000). Old souls: Aged women, poverty and the experience of God. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine.
10.
Bregman, L. (1999). Beyond silence and denial. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox.
11.
Bregman, L. , & Thiermann, S. (1995). First person mortal. New York: Paragon House.
12.
Brody, H. (1987). Stories of sickness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
13.
Cassell, E. (1991). The nature of suffering and the goals of medicine. New York: Oxford University Press.
14.
Cassell, E. (1992). The nature of suffering: Physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects. In P. L. Starck & J. P. McGovern (Eds.), The hidden dimension of illness and human suffering (National League of Nursing Publication No. 15-2461, pp. 1-10). New York: National League of Nursing Press.
15.
Charmaz, K. (1999). Subjective tales and research narratives. Qualitative Health Research, 9, 362-382.
16.
Coohey, P. (1999). Editorial: The messiness of dying. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 15, 96-98.
17.
Cousins, N. (1979). Anatomy of an illness. New York: Bantam Books.
18.
Coyle, N. (1996). Suffering in the first person: Glimpses of suffering through patients’ and family narratives. In B. Rolling Ferrell (Ed.), Suffering (pp. 29-63). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
19.
Davis, D. (1991). Rich cases: The ethics of thick description. Hastings Center Report, 21(3), 12-16.
20.
Dean, A. (Producer), & Seligman, T. (Director). (1999, July 5). Biography of Kris Kristofferson. New York: CBS News Production.
21.
Farley, W. (1992). Tragedy and the compassion of God. Second Opinion, 18(2), 23-29.
22.
Frank, A. (1992a). Illness and self-knowledge. Second Opinion, 18(2), 31-41.
23.
Frank, A. (1992b). The pedagogy of suffering. Theory & Psychology, 2, 467-485.
24.
Freud, S. (1966). Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis (J. Strachey, Trans. & Ed.). New York: Liveright. (Original work published 1920)
25.
Goodman, M. , Black, H., & Rubinstein, R. (1996). Paternal bereavement in older men. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 33, 303-321.
26.
Gubrium, J. (1993). Speaking of life. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine.
27.
Harper, A. (1990). The theodicy of suffering. San Francisco: Mellen Research University Press.
28.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). New York: Harper & Row.
29.
Hick, J. (1996). The Irenaen theodicy. In S. T. Davis (Ed.), Encountering evil: Live options in theodicy (pp. 39-68). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox.
30.
Hilfiker, D. (1992). The case: Clint Wooder. Second Opinion, 18(2), 43-53.
31.
Holstein, J. , & Gubrium, J. (1997). The new language of qualitative method. New York: Oxford University Press.
32.
Kaufman, S. (1986). The ageless self. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
33.
Kleinman, A. (1988). The illness narratives. New York: Basic Books.
34.
Kleinman, A. (1992). Pain and resistance: The delegitimation and relegitimation of local worlds. In M.-J. DelVecchio Good, P. E. Brodwin, B. J. Good, & A. Kleinman (Eds.), Pain as human experience: An anthropological perspective (pp. 169-197). Berkeley: University of California Press.
35.
Kleinman, A. , Brodwin, P., Good, B., & Good, M. (1992). Pain as human experience: An introduction. In M.-J. DelVecchio Good, P. E. Brodwin, B. J. Good, & A. Kleinman (Eds.), Pain as human experience: An anthropological perspective (pp. 1-28). Berkeley: University of California Press.
36.
Lorde, A. (1980). The cancer journals. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.
37.
Lysaught, M. (1992). Commentary: Who is my neighbor?Second Opinion, 18(2), 54-60.
38.
Manheimer, R. (1999, November 21). Is narrative theory the genome of the humanities and arts? Paper presented at the 52nd annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, San Francisco.
39.
Margolis, J. (1997, November 4). Lecture presented at Temple University, Philadelphia.
40.
Martin, E. (1987). The woman in the body. Boston: Beacon.
41.
May, W. (1991). The patient’s ordeal. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
42.
McGoldrick, M. , Giordano, J., & Pearce, J. (1996). Ethnicity and family therapy. New York: Guilford.
43.
Minkler, M. , & Roe, K. (1993). Grandmothers as caregivers. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
44.
Morse, J. (1999). Qualitative methods: The state of the art. Qualitative Health Research, 9, 393-406.
45.
Murphy, R. (1987). The body silent. New York: Norton.
46.
Nishitani, K. (1996). Religion and nothingness (J. Van Bragt, Trans.). Berkeley: University of California Press.
47.
Rawnsley, M. (1996). Response to / The essence of enduring and expressions of suffering: The reformulation of self.”Scholarly Inquiry for Nursing Practice: An International Journal, 10, 61-68.
48.
Roach, J. , & Roach, J. (1972). Introduction. In J. L. Roach & J. K. Roach (Eds.), Poverty: Selected readings (pp. 9-39). New York: Penguin.
49.
Rubinstein, R. , Goodman, M., & Black, H. (1993, September 21). Older men: Caregiving, generativity and narcissism. Paper presented at the National Institute of Aging conference, Washington.
50.
Sabatino, F. (1992). AIDS as a spiritual journey. Second Opinion, 1, 94-99.
51.
Sacks, O. (1984). A leg to stand on. New York: Touchstone.
52.
Scheper-Hughes, N. , & Lock, M. (1987). The mindful body: A prolegomenon to future work in medical anthropology. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 1, 6-41.
53.
Schwartz, E. (1992). Commentary: Stories that heal, wheel within a wheel. Second Opinion, 18, 90-93.
54.
Schweizer, H. (1995). To give suffering a language. Literature and Medicine, 14(2), 10-21.
55.
Sennett, R. , & Cobb, J. (1973). The hidden injuries of class. New York: Vintage.
56.
Stewart, A. (1994). The women’s movement and women’s lives: Linking individual development and social events. The Narrative Study of Lives, 2, 230-250.
57.
Surin, K. (1986). Theology and the problem of evil. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
58.
Turkel, S. (1985). Working. New York: Ballantine.
59.
Zola, I. (1992). The social construct of suffering. In In P. L. Starck & J. P. McGovern (Eds.), The hidden dimension of illness and human suffering (National League of Nursing Publication No. 15-2461, pp. 11-23). New York: National League of Nursing Press.
