"The Use of Force" by William Carols Williams

“The Use of Force”

For this blog, I’d like to focus on the title of the story. After reading the story, I was appalled by the doctor’s feelings as he grew angry with the child and allowed his fury to grow to a very unnecessary level. This is the exact problem we have in society today. People act on impulse and instead of rationally thinking things through, people do and say things which most likely would not have taken place if they took five minutes to relax.
Although the doctor’s motives are to help the child, his immediate feelings of relief and success as he gets to look at the child’s throat, are very unusual. At the beginning, he talks about how beautiful the child was, “one of those picture children” (1170). This creates a possible notion of sexual attraction to a child by an adult man, which is considered to be wrong world-wide. The fact that child was a female leads me to touch up on the male superiority of the story. The child is held by force, as the title suggests, by her father, another male, and the male doctor who are desperately trying to “help” the child. The mother, the other female in the story, is asked to leave while the two men basically attack the poor child with smooth-handled spoons and wooden tongue depressors, which made the child’s mouth bleed by cutting her tongue.
The problem was that the child was scared. By using force, the child became terrified and even more reluctant to listening to anyone’s orders. What was overlooked was the child’s best interest, although the doctor does try to justify his actions by stating his only concern was the child’s health. “The Use of Force” was nothing else than a terrible solution to someone’s need of satisfaction. The doctor wanted to feel powerful and important. He wanted the child to do what he said, instead of trying to understand her behavior. After all, she was a child. By scaring and forcing an already terrified child, the two men made the situation worse. The child was now hurt, which the doctor originally refused to do as he “ground[s] [his] teeth in disgust” upon the mother’s mention of the word “hurt” (1171). He was overpowered by the notion of satisfaction and allowed himself to become angry with - a child. This story shows how inconsiderate our society is of others and the egocentric feelings we all possess despite our perhaps pre existing motives.