The first chapter in Typhoid Mary<\/i> highlights mankind\u2019s tendency to find a scapegoat for society\u2019s problems. It also points out the lower class\u2019s vulnerability to man\u2019s hunt for someone to blame. Leavitt notes that many stereotyped the lower classes as \u201cdirtier than their employers\u201d as an explanation for the higher rates of typhoid in the working class (Leavitt 18). This kind of stereotype made lower classes more vulnerable to social isolation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Leavitt suggests that \u201cas a society, we have become masters of stigmatizing the sick and the contagious; we label them as separate from the mainstream\u201d (3). Society tends to dehumanize people with diseases such as AIDs, making them vulnerable to isolation. This narrative fits into Leavitt\u2019s broader argument that disease is a disaster in a multitude of ways. She argues \u201cit is imperative that we learn to consider the full range of contexts in which disease ravages\u201d (3).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This argument ties neatly into her other central arguments of the text, specifically the social consequences of disease control and the inherently subjective nature of historical interpretation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is difficult to tell from only reading one chapter whether Leavitt is successful with her argument. However, her sensitivity to the \u201cvarious ways to tell Mary Mallon\u2019s story\u201d and the \u201crelevan[cy]\u201d of each narrative seems reasonably convincing (5). Moreover, her argument in chapter one about society’s growing “scientific optimism” seems consistent with her goal to isolate each type of narrative.\u00a0\u00a0Jeremiah\u00a0<\/a>rightly points out that Leavitt’s argument and the case of Mary Mallon have a broader impact than one woman’s fate. The vulnerability of the lower classes and society’s tendency to label and ostracize diseased individual’s \u00a0are two such impacts that society needs to keep in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first chapter in Typhoid Mary highlights mankind\u2019s tendency to find a scapegoat for society\u2019s problems. It also points out the lower class\u2019s vulnerability to man\u2019s hunt for someone to blame. Leavitt notes that many stereotyped the lower classes as \u201cdirtier than their employers\u201d as an explanation for the higher rates of typhoid in the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Disease: a Multifaceted Disaster”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[116,228,263,406],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-disease","tag-interpretation","tag-mary-mallon","tag-typhoid-mary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions\/835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his254-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}