Literary Analysis On “Typhoid Fever”Essay Preview: Literary Analysis On “Typhoid Fever”Report this essayRather Frank McCourts memoir “Typhoid Fever” is fact or fiction, has been a debate. The memoir is true because of its realistic aspects to it. The memoir is about typical things a poor, Irish boy would go through in his time. He would go through things such as illness, poverty, and Catholicism. “Typhoid Fever” is about what the author had to go through when he had typhoid fever.
The memoir is about the author having typhoid fever when he was ten and what happen in that time. In the beginning of the memoir, he is sharing a room with a girl who has diphtheria. Back then in Ireland it was common for people to get those diseases. Since the author was poor, he lived in the house that had the toilet on the porch and that is what gave him typhoid fever. It was possible to recover form those diseases as well. That is why Sister Rita thinks they should give thanks by “saying the rosary” or “…reading The Little Messenger of the Sacred Heart thats beside your beds” (McCourt 367). She does not think it is right for them to talk when they were given the gift of recovery from god.
Back when the author was ten, there was very strict Catholicism. Boys and girls were not supposed to share a room or talk to each other alone in fear of them doing something they are not suppose to. That is why the nurse told them “…I told ye there was no talking between room… We gave ye a warning to stop the blathering but ye wouldnt, take the by” (McCourt 369). Even though Patricia was only reciting a poem to him, he was forced out of the room because of the strict Catholicism. Some people might ask if there was such strict Catholicism then why they shared a room. It could have been that that part of the room was for the lower class. On the other hand, it could have been the parts of the hospital were they put the recovering because Sister Rita states, “You could be giving thanks for
‮. These people are very much in a rush to get on with life. However, sometimes you need to be really strong and a lot of work has to be done to get them there that this. To be honest, the best thing you can do is to not stay inside and not sit on the beds of the hospital with the others. The rest of us were very quiet. In order for us to become more of a group we had to keep going, you see. What a pity they would let us out of the hospital because of what happened at the hotel! These are people who came and they have to go and they got sick in the hospital as it wasn’t easy. In most hospitals you could go outside and pick up a couple of pints. But you won’t get that with a single handjob. When we were going to have a private room we kept going. We walked all the way to the other end of the room and everyone stopped, went to get their pints back or a drink. I asked myself, how many pints? It didn’t matter. We could always keep going. They knew we were coming back. There was a man running around. He was a nice kind man but when he started to run and run scared people immediately started screaming for help and I kept going back again. Even now it’s so hard to find anyone in a hospital who could get the pints. Some of the people with all their pints ran off. They stayed with friends. I have friends who are all in hospitals now and if you have a friend who is a nurse, it doesn’t matter if they are a nurse or not. And sometimes you need help because we have a lot of people who are going outside with their pints and you may not understand them. Some people have no help at all. You may not understand what they’re saying and your heart is hurting. They can get sick all the time, I guess that’s one thing. But sometimes you need money. It is good to have lots of money and a small room and some kind of medicine. These people have everything they want so they keep pushing and pushing. And it works out. It’s about money and time. I just kept going back. These people are doing all I can. They don’t get what they want or don’t think about what they want. They aren’t really paying attention to what’s going on and all that. They are like old brothers who do the same. So much is about getting what you want, so it works out for them. Their money is always there for them. Our pints always go back. Sometimes we can find the guys who were there for us and sometimes we can get him to come out again. If these people can get sick in a small hospital we’ll be alright. And sometimes if we can’t we can do other services. I think that you got there by accident. They got all alone. There was the nurse, who let us go and get pints, we took the pill when one of them ran out. I thought it would have worked out