Black Flies, Post #6

In the eleventh section of Shannon Burke’s novel, Black Flies, events lead up to an emotional climax. Receiving a call about a shooting in a park, paramedics are sent to help any injured. Arriving to find an apparent attempted suicide, they find that their patient is still alive. Taking him to the hospital, Cross begins to give CPR. The man, however, dies on the way to the hospital. Only after arriving does a police officer tell him who his patient was. Cross explains, “When I heard who it was my heart stopped” (149). Cross hadn’t been able to see the man’s face since it had been severely damaged, and it was only from the man’s ID were they able to tell who he was. It had been his partner, Rutkovsky. Ollie Cross takes the news calmly, dealing with it. At Rutkovsky’s funeral, Cross sees how the entire station loved his partner. Then he says, “At the burial I was asked to stand up front, but I refused. I don’t know why. I didn’t want to be part of the proceedings” (150). The reader can see how much Cross has been impacted by events, but one can also see how he has matured. Although Cross has a brief period of instability, he eventually becomes very stable.

As the novel draws to a close, Shannon Burke, the author, describes Cross’s character initially in a much darker light. When Cross goes to treat a patient, he has a sudden realization. He thinks, “It had taken Rutkovsky twenty years to get to that point of indifference. It took me eleven months” (163). Cross’ emotions are collapsing in on him. It takes him a few weeks for him to find himself again. When he does, though, he comes back strong. Right at the last few pages of the book, Cross goes into a burning building. In the basement, he finds a young girl who was electrocuted by an improperly installed sprinkler system. Acting quickly, he restarts the girl’s heart. An hour later, Cross finds out that the little girl is alright. One of the last few lines of the book are of Cross teaching a class. He says, “That’s what it’s all about- doing a good thing for a few people. That’s about as much as you can hope for. That’s the essence of being a real paramedic” (184). Cross realizes that acts of kindness make a great difference in people’s lives. Having read this book, I am glad that Burke decided to end on a good note. I was afraid that I would just be left felling miserable. Instead, the author decides to focus on the good in the story. This fuzzy, warm feeling will last with me for a while, or maybe just until the next depressing book.

Black Flies, Post #5

It is during this latest portion of the book that a source of conflict comes about. In this section of Shannon Burke’s novel, Black Flies, Ollie Cross’ partner purposefully misdiagnoses a newborn child, trying to euthanize it. This scene comes about as Cross and his partner, Rutkovsky, find a woman who had already given birth. The woman tells the two paramedics that the child is dead, but Rutkovsky appears to give care to the child regardless. The woman, an addict and HIV-positive, is given care by Cross. When Cross goes to check on the child, he is told by his partner that it is dead. When another group of paramedics arrive, however, they discover that Rutkovsky had been lying. Although the child is saved, there are deep repercussions. Later, Cross has a discussion with his chief. The chief says, “‘Rut’s on his way to a job filing reports in the records division’” (123). When Cross thinks about events later, he realizes some of his partner’s motivations. Another paramedic sympathizes with Rutkovsky’s actions, saying how he must have thought that the child would have been brain damaged because of its parent’s condition. He elaborates, “’He’s been out here twenty years. He was trying to do the right thing’” (126). Under the circumstances of the situation, Rutkovsky believed he was morally correct. Most people, I hope, believe differently.


In the following section, Cross works to keep his life stable. His life, complicated by recent events, has left him emotionally drained and exhausted. When working in the city, Cross looks at his patients with a much more objective view. At one point, there is a shooting and paramedics are sent. When one paramedic tries to care for a boy with an injured foot, he is told by Cross to go to one of the critical patients instead. Cross narrates, “It was probably just a coincidence, but LaFontaine’s patient lived. My patient lived, too. Verdis’ patient died” (135). Ollie Cross has had a steep learning curve as a Harlem paramedic, but he has also changed dramatically. At the beginning of the novel, Cross was the emotional character. Now, however, he is much colder, efficient person. Later, Rutkovsky meets Cross and is talked into defending his actions in the previous section. He says, “He’ll [the child] end up an orphan, brain-damaged, crack-addicted, HIV positive. The state’ll spend a million dollars on him- and for what?- What kind of a life?” (141). Further elaborating on reasons for his actions, the author brings to question what is morally right. After seeing Harlem for so long, was Rutkovsky justified?

Black Flies, Post #4

In the fourth section of Shannon Burke’s novel, Black Flies, Ollie Cross is truly beginning to feel the prolonged exhaustion of his job. As a paramedic, he deals with a huge number of patients each day, and now the weight of all that work is beginning to creep into Cross’ head. Ollie Cross describes his workload at one point, giving the rough estimate of patients treated. He relates, “When the really hot weather began the average number of medical emergency jobs in the city went from 2,300 a day to around 3,600 and sometimes up above 4,000”(90). The continued physical and mental strain has added a new layer to Cross’ characterization, and plays out through the following sections of the book. Later, Ollie and other paramedics make an effort to have fun. One particular instance of this is with a homeless man named Rolly. This homeless man would make emergency calls all the time for no reason other than to get a free ride to the hospital. The paramedics were familiar with him, and they looked at him as a local friend. One night, Rolly made the excuse that he had a headache. As a joke, one medic gave him a full head bandage that had been dipped in hydrogen peroxide. Cross explains, “For the next month Rolly wandered up and down Lenox Avenue, the only homeless man in Harlem with Brilliant orange hair” (99). This shows how characters in the novel deal with their pent up fatigue. Surrounded by a morose city, the paramedics still found fun and life in the world around them.

Later, Ollie Cross begins to learn more about his partner. His partner, Rutkovsky, is fairly distant toward Cross up until this part of the book. However, this character begins to reveal more about himself. At one point, both Cross and Rutkovsky meet near a beach for fun. Talking with each other, Rutkovsky talks about his time in Vietnam. When Cross says how he must have been a good soldier, Rutvovsky initially denies it but then he opens up a little. Burke writes, “After a moment he took something from his shoe and tossed in on my towel. It was a chain that he wore around his neck-his dog tags, and around the tags a Silver Star Medal fashioned into a necklace” (103). Each individual in this novel has a background, and this is what makes this novel extremely involving and active. By showing part of Rutkovsky’s past, we the reader can make assumptions, predictions and realizations about him. At one point, Rutkovsky explains that his ex-wife has moved away with his young daughter after getting remarried. Rutkovsky says, “Sylvia gets out of this city. That’s what’s important. Probably better if she doesn’t see me. She’ll have a better life” (104-105). Ollie Cross is beginning to see his partner recede from the world a little. Life as a paramedic has weakened Rutkovsky, and this clarifies the corrosive effects of Cross’ job.

Black Flies, Post #3

In Shannon Burke’s novel, Black Flies, there is a large section of foreshadowing. In this fifth section of the book, Ollie Cross has developed tremendously as a paramedic. Much of this success, however, is due to his senior partner, Rutkovsky. A large issue arises at one point when the two of them respond to a call from a nursing home. Walking down the halls of the nursing home, they both find a dark, gloomy atmosphere. When they do get to their patient, they find that it is an old woman with liquid filling up her lungs. Rutkovsky says, “‘Don’t bother. Look at her, Cross. A hundred and one. We can’t do anything’” (66). The two paramedics are both faced with a hopeless situation, and all they can do is sit and wait. As Burke continues, it is obvious that there was a moral conflict about what was to be done. Rutkovsky makes his decision fairly quickly. Burke writes, “After a moment Rutkovsky reached over and lowered the head of the bed.” (66). By doing this, the paramedic was speeding up the patients suffocation as her lungs filled with liquid. This decision to euthanize the old woman shows a deep foreshadowing of events to come.

Following this section, the book moves more into Ollie Cross’ social life. Ollie talks about his girlfriend Clara, narrating how his relationship with her has been put on edge by his employment as a paramedic. At one point, Clara gives Ollie a ride to work and meets Rutkovsky. Burke writes, “She frowned immediately and I think she saw or imagined she saw Rutkovsky’s influence on me” (75). Ollie’s relationship is in trouble and becomes more unstable as the book moves forward. The effect of this is that Ollie becomes more entrenched in his life as a paramedic, separate from the ‘normal’ trends of life. Then Ollie talks about his parent’s visit to his apartment. This is an odd moment for Ollie because his parents haven’t seen him since the end of college. He explains, “Dad was silent, gruff, suspicious. Mom was smiling too much, trying to pretend she wasn’t intimidated” (78). Ollie’s life as a paramedic has a deep impact on his social life, and the way that this is drawn out is a great way that the author keeps the story interesting.

Black Flies, Post #2

As I read further into Shannon Burke’s novel, Black Flies, the realities of life as a paramedic are becoming more apparent. For the main character, Ollie Cross, the crazy world of hurt that he has to wade through is now less disturbing, more common place. Things that would have left him numb before have no evident effect on him. Cross also finds that his abilities as a paramedic are improving. On one occasion, Cross becomes extremely motivated to help a patient, a teenage boy. Cross is pound of how he handles the situation until he gets to the hospital and is told that he was wasting the ER doctors’ time. He explains, “The patient was off the board now and with his head turned to the side I could see he was missing the back half of his skull” (32). Cross realizes that he had been too excited to help the boy that he hadn’t seen that he was a lost cause. As time passes, Ollie sees that a paramedic needs an objective view, and that explained a lot to him about why the other paramedic’s handled themselves the way they did. Ollie comes to realize that there is a fine line as to how much one should care. At one point, a man Cross is treating and talking to has a heart attack and dies. Burke writes, “ I pretended it was an ordinary occurrence to have someone die in front of me” (39). Cross is making a progression to becoming a better paramedic. On the other hand, he has to be careful not to lose himself in the process.

Moving a little farther into the book, the psychological problems related to being a paramedic are discussed. At one point, Cross is called up to the station chief’s office. When he talks to Cross, the chief asks him a few questions, and after he is done he is told by a coworker that he was actually been psychologically assessed. Cross relates, “The chief had a doctorate in psychology. He wrote academic papers that he delivered at EMS conferences. The meeting was an examination” (44). The environment that Harlem medics found themselves in is detrimental to a person’s mental health, and Cross realized that this was true firsthand. Later, Cross describes some symptoms of this. He says, “Eagerness and thrill seeking in other’s misery is psychologically corrosive, and is also rampant in the EMS world” (44). This novel is fairly dark, but has a true sense of realism. This realism is what makes this book work.

Black Flies, Post #1

People don’t like to believe that bad things happen, that the horrors of the evening news don’t apply to their existence. Instead, people try to only look at the brighter side of life, because if they didn’t they would have to come to understand that life has a dark side. In Shannon Burke’s novel, Black Flies, the worst of life comes to the surface through the eyes of Ollie Cross, a rookie paramedic in Harlem. The book begins in an old, run-down apartment building where a kid claims to have hurt his arm. Cross and his partner, Rutkovsky, are suspicious of the boy, and are concerned about the group of youths that he is with. They believe that the boy is faking his injury, looking for free drugs. Burke writes, “He pretended to get ready to start the IV. Then there was a sound at the door and eight cops burst in, shouting to get down, throwing kids to the floor” (5). The author quickly reveals a darker landscape than most people would ever imagine, and shows all of the shady corners of the city. Cross narrates the frantic pace of his job and the details of his work. A few more pages into the book, Ollie Crosse relates one of his first saved patients. He elaborates, “We’d definitely saved his life. No doubt about it. He’d practically coded in front of us” (12). He felt the thrill of saving a life, and this motivated him a lot in his work. If he didn’t feel dedicated to help people he wouldn’t be able to tolerate his job.

As the novel progresses, Cross discovers more about how the paramedics worked together in a kind of close-knit community. He describes how he was hazed a bit at first as a result of a botched job. This occurred in a park when he wasn’t able to get a breathing tube down an asthmatic’s throat. When his partner had to do it for him he was made fun of. He describes, “I went down to my locker and found a taped sketch of the grim reaper on my locker. I guess a joke had started up about how I’d tried to miss my tube on the asthmatic on purpose, how I wanted my patient to die, how I got off on dead patients” (13). There is a dark sense of humor attached to the paramedics’ conversation and jokes. Cross talks more about hazing later with another paramedic. As a hint, one of the medics put a transfer form in the mailbox of someone they didn’t like. When the man found it, he went out to his car and found another large hint from another paramedic, LaFontaine, that he should leave the precinct. Burke writes, “I saw that there was something propped up in the driver’s seat. I stepped closer. It was a dead dog. LaFontaine had used some sort of wire to attach the paws to the steering wheel so it was like the dog was driving the car” (21). This book is terribly dark, and the author doesn’t leave out any of the details. I believe that this novel is shocking in its bluntness, but that it does succeed in carrying the idea across to the reader.

The Audacity of Hope, Part #6

In the eleventh portion of Barack Obama’s book, Obama talks primarily about how family has played an important role in America. He relates how many people believe that the family oriented American life is fading. He writes, “Social conservatives claim that the traditional family is under assault from Hollywood movies” (332). There is the idea that today’s culture is eroding the typical family structure. I myself believe this to be true, but that this is a change like any other in history. Obama later talks about the issue from a liberal point of view. He tells the reader, “Liberals point to the economic factors-from stagnate wages to inadequate daycare” (332). I look at all of these arguments and agree that change is occurring, but also that the causes are not going to be easy to pin down.

In the final section of Obama’s book, he goes over everything he has said and makes an overarching claim about what he thinks is in store for the country in the coming future. Obama writes, I look out across the reflecting pool, imagining the crowd stilled by Dr. King’s mighty cadence” (361). Obama still believes that there is room for improvement in America, and I agree with his statements. Of course, change doesn’t occur overnight, but change does happen. Later, Obama continues to talk about change in a different light. He finishes his final thoughts, saying, “My heart is filled with love for this country” (362). This country isn’t perfect yet, but there is a continued opportunity for improvement. That is the essence of what makes America great.