Shannon Burke's novel Black Flies tells the story of Ollie Cross, a paramedic in Harlem during the 1990s. Ollie did not get into medical school so he is taking the opportunity to practice medicine while being a medic. He learns that medics are not always the "good guys" and often abuse their patients. However, he slowly finds himself blending in the with others and condoning the abusive behavior. The days are jam packed for a medic in the inner city. In this section, Ollie and his partner, Rutkovsky, experience a suicidal man whom Ollie stupidly bursts in on. A cop that often works with the Harlem medics, Pastori, "thinks" that a teenage boy is disrespecting him and forces the boy's boss to beat the boy up for Pastori's entertainment. Another medic, Hatsuru, encourages Ollie to block out everything about being a medic except for the medical aspects so that he does not become like the other medics. Ollie's morals are challenged when he is called to treat an elderly woman with fluid in her lungs. When Rutkovsky leans the woman backwards so that the fluid begins to drown her Ollie is forced to question it is best to let the woman escape her horrible life in the nursing home or save her life. However, the nurse comes in and Rutkovsky is forced to return the woman to her upright position so that she is no longer drowning. Back at the station the medics discuss whether a good medic is capable of not caring for their patients, but the issue is not resolved. Ollie knows he is becoming a good medic when he is able to keep up with Rutkovsky when they treat a patient with heart failure. Sadly, Ollie and his girlfriend, Cara's, relationship suffers because he is becoming more like the other medics with an "I don't care" attitude. On top of this, Ollie's family comes to visit and they are shocked that he works in an environment so different from the proper one he was brought up in. Back at work, Ollie and the rest of the medics and police men are faced with a problem when Mitch Green, a former boxer, is high and disturbing the peace. Another medic, Verdis, is kind to Green and is able to distract him while the other medics and police men pin him down. Even though Ollie is part of this "victory", Clara breaks up with him and he realizes that he cannot keep up both his medic self and his med student self.
A big shock comes to Ollie when LaFontaine, another medic, tells him, "Try to be the good guy. Try to be the hero. But not here. These people are animals. Give em a chance and they'll tear your head off" (Burke 56). Ollie is being fed the idea that his patients are not people, but animals and he is eating it up. This is one of the reasons he is starting to not care about his patients as much. He does not think that these people deserve the best help he can give them. This shows how he is becoming more and more like the other medics. I was hoping that Ollie would be different, but he sadly seems to be buying in to the medic way of life. It makes sense that Harlem was so crime ridden and poor during the 1990s. If the people were being treated like animals they would not want to make things better. If they were continually told they were animals, they would gradually begin to believe that. Hopefully Ollie will realize that this belief is wrong and will help everyone the best that he can.
When Ollie and Rutkovsky are called to help the elderly woman Rutkovsky opts to let the woman drown. Ollie says, " I guess I thought I wouldn't have drowned her myself, but she was a hundred and one years old. What did it matter if she died or not?" (Burke 66). Ollie is starting to question whether it is better to let someone die and escape from the horrible world around them or to save their life and let them continue living in the world. In some situations it might seem kinder to let the person die rather than live in a neighborhood so full of crime and poverty where they had no hope. On the other hand, if the person lived they could potentially make a difference. This is a touchy issue that has no definate solution. I think that Ollie will fall in with the other medics and use the excuse that the patient is "in a better place" to justify his lack of treatment.
Ollie is being forced to decide whether he wants to believe that his patients are good people who deserve to live, or if it is better to just let them die. So far he has wavered in his opinion, but I think he will soon be forced to chose a side. I am hoping that he sees the good in people and treats them to the best of his ability.
Source
Burke, Shannon. Black Flies. New York: Soft Skull P, 2008.
*Black Flies should be underlined
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Black Flies #2
In Shannon Burke's novel Black Flies Ollie Cross is a medic in Harlem during the 1990s. Fresh out of college, Ollie did not get into med school so he decides to get some experience and becomes a medic. He experiences the many gruesome scenes that come with being a medic in one of the most violent, poverty ridden cities. He sees the dead bodies of teenagers who have committed suicide, helps to save an old asthmatic, rushes gun shot victims to hospitals, and learns how the some of the other medics abuse their patients just becuase they can. So far Ollie is just starting to become "one of the guys" and is begining to fit in with the other medics. In this reading Ollie is present when a diabetic dies and goes into an apartment only to find a rotting body. As disturbing as these occurences may be, he is eager to learn and help and pays close attention to everything going on around him. He is also called to speak to the chief and is warned to look out for his partner Rutkovsky who, though an exceptional medic, might be starting to burn out. He learns to watch out for LaFontaine, another medic who pretends not to care about anything and abuses many of his patients just because he can. Ollie continues to learn and adapts to the life of a medic.
One day Ollie and LaFontaine are talking and LaFontaine asks Ollie to guess what day he is on. Not understanding, Ollie asks what he is talking about. LaFontaine replies, "Seventeen days without anyone thanking me. I keep track," (Burke 35). Ollie has grown up in a stable family and is used to people being polite and grateful for help. He does not quite no how to respond to the comment and just sits there. Even though Ollie is adapting to the difficult life of a medic in Harlem, I think he still believes people are good and have just gone through hard times. He is starting to realize that not all people are naturally good and polite and just need a little help to break free from their current surroundings. I am shocked that people do not thank the medics that just saved their lives. A life is very valuable, and if someone saves it for you, that is a big deal. Thinking about this, maybe the patients don't say thank you because they do not feel as if their lives were valuable. They live in one of the worst, most poverty stricken, crime ridden cities in the United States and might not feel as if life is totally worth living. This is something I can continue to look for.
Ollie later mentions some things he has seen but the reader has not been given a full account of. The medics are sitting around talking and they talk about how messed up the city is. They mention things they see on a daily basis, like, "...a teenager giving birth in a hallway, a guy lighting himself on fire and jumping out a window, dozens of rotting bodies in various stages of decay," (Burke 49). Sadly, this is becoming Ollie's life. He is surrounded by so much destruction and despair. It has caused some of the other medics to abandon their morals, and this could very easily happen to Ollie. I am still shocked at how difficult like as a medic is. Dealing with all of these awful things on a daily basis would be too hard for me. I think Ollie is becoming more comfortable with all of these things because he experiences them every day. I continue to hope that Ollie does not become immune to these tragedies and become abusive like the other medics.
So far Ollie has shown an eagerness to help, but I am unsure whether he will be able to keep up that attitude when he is surrounded by so many horrible things. I think this will take a toll on his relationships and how he even views himself. Hopefully is able to remain a "good guy".
Source
Burke, Shannon. Black Flies. New York: Soft Skull P, 2008.
*Black Flies should be underlined
One day Ollie and LaFontaine are talking and LaFontaine asks Ollie to guess what day he is on. Not understanding, Ollie asks what he is talking about. LaFontaine replies, "Seventeen days without anyone thanking me. I keep track," (Burke 35). Ollie has grown up in a stable family and is used to people being polite and grateful for help. He does not quite no how to respond to the comment and just sits there. Even though Ollie is adapting to the difficult life of a medic in Harlem, I think he still believes people are good and have just gone through hard times. He is starting to realize that not all people are naturally good and polite and just need a little help to break free from their current surroundings. I am shocked that people do not thank the medics that just saved their lives. A life is very valuable, and if someone saves it for you, that is a big deal. Thinking about this, maybe the patients don't say thank you because they do not feel as if their lives were valuable. They live in one of the worst, most poverty stricken, crime ridden cities in the United States and might not feel as if life is totally worth living. This is something I can continue to look for.
Ollie later mentions some things he has seen but the reader has not been given a full account of. The medics are sitting around talking and they talk about how messed up the city is. They mention things they see on a daily basis, like, "...a teenager giving birth in a hallway, a guy lighting himself on fire and jumping out a window, dozens of rotting bodies in various stages of decay," (Burke 49). Sadly, this is becoming Ollie's life. He is surrounded by so much destruction and despair. It has caused some of the other medics to abandon their morals, and this could very easily happen to Ollie. I am still shocked at how difficult like as a medic is. Dealing with all of these awful things on a daily basis would be too hard for me. I think Ollie is becoming more comfortable with all of these things because he experiences them every day. I continue to hope that Ollie does not become immune to these tragedies and become abusive like the other medics.
So far Ollie has shown an eagerness to help, but I am unsure whether he will be able to keep up that attitude when he is surrounded by so many horrible things. I think this will take a toll on his relationships and how he even views himself. Hopefully is able to remain a "good guy".
Source
Burke, Shannon. Black Flies. New York: Soft Skull P, 2008.
*Black Flies should be underlined
Black Flies #1
Shannon Burke's novel Black Flies is the story of Ollie Cross, a paramedic in Harlem in the 1990s. Ollie wants to go to medical school and be a doctor, but he does not have good enough MCAT scores to get in. In order to get some experience, Ollie works on an ambulance. He is shocked by what he finds. Ollie expected the medics to truly love saving people, however he learns not all the medics are the "good guys". They may treat patients, but they do not always do it with kindness and often abuse the people they are "helping". The patients are as diverse as the medics. Ollie encounters everyone from old homeless asthmatics to teenagers who have committed suicide to an obese man found rotting in his apartment. Black Flies recounts Ollie's experiences and how he responds to different emergency situations. When Ollie originally joins the Harlem medics, he is partnered with Rutkovsky, the veteran of the group. He immediately likes Rutkovsky because he is an excellent medic who does not abuse the patients or seek praise. So far in the novel Ollie is just adapting to the life of a paramedic and continues to be shocked by the people and injuries he comes in contact with.
Ollie's first real challenge comes when he is called to the scene of a teen suicide. A girl was found after jumping off a thirty floor building dead. It is not just the death that shocks him, it is the gruesomeness of it. Upon reaching the body Rutkovsky, "...bent and felt her neck and the back of her skill and lifted her shirt to examine her torso and saw what she'd done before she jumped - in rough, scraggly, red letters the words LIFE SUCKS were carved into her belly," (Burke 6). Ollie is just out of college and comes from a nice family. This is not something is he used to. Because the girl is obviously dead and does not require medical attention, Ollie is too stunned by what he is seeing to act. He watches his partner examine the body but does not participate. It must have come as quite a shock to discover the world is really so dark. I can relate to Ollie, coming from a nice family where I do not come into contact with death on a daily basis. This was disgusting for me to even read about! Just imagining the girl feeling so opressed by death that she would carve her stomach and jump of a building is enough to make me queasy. Reading this really made me decide not to go into medicine. Experiencing these things and having to be the strong person who acts and does not let the scene disturb them would not work for me. This scene broke my heart to hear of a girl so mad at life that she would kill herself, but also makes me squirm in disgust picturing the body.
I was also shocked to hear some of the terrible things the paramedics do. I would like to think that medics are the good guys who want to help everyone, but reading about these medics abusing their patients, leaving rotting dog carcases in each other's cars and taking pictures of them holding dead body parts really made me reconsider this thought. One of the medics that Ollie works with is LaFontaine. He likes to think of himself as the "big man on campus" who doesn't care about his patients and can take advantage of them. LaFontaine keeps, "... a snapshot of himself holding a fourteen-year-old girl's head like a bowling ball with his fingers in her nostrils, and in the alley in the background, forty-ouncers set up like bowling pins, as if he were about to roll her head at the bottles," (Burke 34). Ollie is once again shocked that a person he thought was a hero for saving lives could be so disrespectful to a dead girl. He is beginning to realize that things are not always as they seem to be. Someone may wear the medic outfit and save lives, but in actuality they are abusive to patients and disrespect them once they are dead. Picturing the photo is my head is very disturbing. Like Ollie, I like to think of paramedics as the good guys who like to help everyone as much as possible. I do think that one of the reasons these medics are so messed up is because of what they experience every day. They work in Harlem, so they see lots of nasty sights. After a while that takes a toll on a person and they become insensitive to it. I am hoping that Ollie does not fall into those habits and is able to remember that he wants to work in medicine to help others, not just make a pay check.
Black Flies is a very interesting account of life as a medic. I am hoping being a medic in Harlem is more gruesome than being a medic in most other places because if this is what is actually occuring all over the United States, that is a very disturbing thought. Hopefully Ollie is able to stand true to his morals and makes a difference in the lives of the people he helps.
Source
Burke, Shannon. Black Flies. New York: Soft Skull P, 2008.
*Black Flies should be underlined
Ollie's first real challenge comes when he is called to the scene of a teen suicide. A girl was found after jumping off a thirty floor building dead. It is not just the death that shocks him, it is the gruesomeness of it. Upon reaching the body Rutkovsky, "...bent and felt her neck and the back of her skill and lifted her shirt to examine her torso and saw what she'd done before she jumped - in rough, scraggly, red letters the words LIFE SUCKS were carved into her belly," (Burke 6). Ollie is just out of college and comes from a nice family. This is not something is he used to. Because the girl is obviously dead and does not require medical attention, Ollie is too stunned by what he is seeing to act. He watches his partner examine the body but does not participate. It must have come as quite a shock to discover the world is really so dark. I can relate to Ollie, coming from a nice family where I do not come into contact with death on a daily basis. This was disgusting for me to even read about! Just imagining the girl feeling so opressed by death that she would carve her stomach and jump of a building is enough to make me queasy. Reading this really made me decide not to go into medicine. Experiencing these things and having to be the strong person who acts and does not let the scene disturb them would not work for me. This scene broke my heart to hear of a girl so mad at life that she would kill herself, but also makes me squirm in disgust picturing the body.
I was also shocked to hear some of the terrible things the paramedics do. I would like to think that medics are the good guys who want to help everyone, but reading about these medics abusing their patients, leaving rotting dog carcases in each other's cars and taking pictures of them holding dead body parts really made me reconsider this thought. One of the medics that Ollie works with is LaFontaine. He likes to think of himself as the "big man on campus" who doesn't care about his patients and can take advantage of them. LaFontaine keeps, "... a snapshot of himself holding a fourteen-year-old girl's head like a bowling ball with his fingers in her nostrils, and in the alley in the background, forty-ouncers set up like bowling pins, as if he were about to roll her head at the bottles," (Burke 34). Ollie is once again shocked that a person he thought was a hero for saving lives could be so disrespectful to a dead girl. He is beginning to realize that things are not always as they seem to be. Someone may wear the medic outfit and save lives, but in actuality they are abusive to patients and disrespect them once they are dead. Picturing the photo is my head is very disturbing. Like Ollie, I like to think of paramedics as the good guys who like to help everyone as much as possible. I do think that one of the reasons these medics are so messed up is because of what they experience every day. They work in Harlem, so they see lots of nasty sights. After a while that takes a toll on a person and they become insensitive to it. I am hoping that Ollie does not fall into those habits and is able to remember that he wants to work in medicine to help others, not just make a pay check.
Black Flies is a very interesting account of life as a medic. I am hoping being a medic in Harlem is more gruesome than being a medic in most other places because if this is what is actually occuring all over the United States, that is a very disturbing thought. Hopefully Ollie is able to stand true to his morals and makes a difference in the lives of the people he helps.
Source
Burke, Shannon. Black Flies. New York: Soft Skull P, 2008.
*Black Flies should be underlined
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