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.

The Audacity of Hope, Post #5

As I read Barack Obama’s book, I continue to find relevant arguments about our country’s problems. In the ninth section of the book, Obama discusses America’s place in the world. He argues that reality doesn’t end at the US border. Instead, he says that people need to look at the world as a whole. He bases this on the time he spent living in Indonesia as a child. Obama writes, “My mother might scowl at the attitudes she heard from the other Americans in Jakarta, their condescension toward Indonesians, their unwillingness to learn anything about the country that was hosting them” (274). Obama makes the point the Americans don’t make the effort to understand other cultures, and that people think that their beliefs are the only ones that matter. From my perspective, America can never be a world leader if we choose to be ignorant or uncaring of other countries. Latter, Obama talks about how distant the United States is becoming for Indonesia. He explains, “I fear it’s becoming a land of strangers”(279). By not opening up to other countries, the US is secluding itself from much of the world. I just don’t think that the United States can call itself a leader if they don’t lead anyone.


As Obama continues, he talks about the United States military in foreign affairs. He starts off by explaining his ideas to US military reactions. At first, Obama says that opposition from another power causes the military to create a foreign presence. He elaborates, “What America needed, then, were stable allies- allies that shared the ideals of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law”(284). Obama lists instances like WWII where this proved to be true. He says that this is true with the Iraq war, saying, “We need to improve cultural sensitivity… so that Iraqis could see concrete benefits from US efforts”(301). From where I stand, it is much easier to win over a countries populace by helping them. If you don’t help a country after invading it, then you can’t help but expect its people to not like you.

The Audacity of Hope, Post #4

In the seventh section of Barack Obama’s book, Obama focuses on Hurricane Katrina. He discusses how the hurricane has served to illustrate an underlying problem in America. The problem is an ignorance of social problems in this country. Obama elaborates, “It was obvious that many of Katrina’s survivors had been abandoned long before the hurricane struck” (229). Many of the people left behind were poor, living on the streets originally. The slow reaction to the hurricane ignored many of these people. From my personal standpoint, this follows the trend that our country has been following for a while. We don’t help the poor, content with being ignorant to society’s deeper troubles. Obama continues, “Nearly two months after the storm, after the outrage and shame that Americans across the country had felt during the crisis, after the speeches and emails and memos and caucus meetings…it felt as if nothing had happened” (230). People say that they help, but they often don’t follow through. When Katrina occurred, media attention made a lot of people talk about helping people in New Orleans. When the spotlight dimmed, however, people lost interest. In think this shows how narrow-sighted and ignorant people can be.

Moving on to the broader issue of race, Obama talks about the continued problems in today’s world. He mentions one event with a friend in a club. They had noticed that there were no African Americans in a club whose town had a one-fourth African American population. When they asked about it, people told them that the club was private. Obama’s friend says, “It’s 2006, for God’s sake” (239). Racial prejudice is still a relevant issue in today’s world. I think that many people today ignore the fact that there is a continued sense of racism in many places across the country. Obama later says, “Under recent Republican Administrations…enforcement of civil rights has been tepid at best, and under the current Administration, it’s been essentially nonexistent”(243). There is a lot of frustration from minority groups toward politics that seem to forget their existence. Racism should be taken seriously in government, and not as some forgotten issue.

On the Waterfront, Discussion Question

In the movie, On the Waterfront, the main characters are faced with a difficult situation. There is friction when the main character, Terry, has to decide whether to tell the authorities about crime on the waterfront, or whether he should remain loyal to the people who committed those crimes. Two opposing views in the story are those of Terry and one of the young boys who had (until the end of the film) looked up to Terry. From Terry’s perspective, he was ‘ratting’ on himself by not telling the police. Innocent people were being killed, and he was allowing it all to happen. From the young boy’s perspective, there is a golden rule to never tell on your friends. He saw Terry as a traitor. He says as much when he calls Terry a pigeon after killing all the pigeons in Joey’s coop. However, Terry might not have thought any loyalty existed after the mob killed his brother, so by he was still justified (and provoked) into telling the police.

This is a tough question. In my opinion, this decision is entirely based, on well, opinion. It just depends on whose perspective you choose to look at the film through. From the mob’s perspective, killing people was business as usual. This wasn’t how Terry looks at things, however. From his ‘perspective’ there is a difference between petty crime and murder. At the point where his brother is murdered, it is hard to not expect him to speak out. In the end, the difference between a whistle blower and a rat is the magnitude of what was being done. Unfortunately, the interpretation of ‘going too far’ or ‘loyalty’ differs from person to person. Because of this open interpretation, it would be possible for a person who blabbed on someone for stealing French fries to be considered as an ethical crusader, regardless of how ridiculous it may seem for anyone else. In the end, my opinion is that the situation and magnitude of what occurs differ, and how we interpret the difference between whistle blowing and a rat should move with it.