J.D. Schraffenberger begins his piece by introducing three stories related to the overall theme of the essay about harming babies. His first story is the most morbid, discussing how until recently it was not known that babies even feel pain, and before operating on a baby, doctors would administer muscle relaxers instead of anesthesia. Such a topic is already disturbing by nature, but Schraffenberger’s choices create additional negative sentiments. From the first sentence, “newborns can only see as far as the distance between the mother’s nipples and her face,” (Schraffenberger) Schraffenberger pushes a particular image of babies. The lack of proper eyesight in babies is used in the rest of the writing to emphasize the comparative reliance
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Unlike with the first story, there is not any extra effort to make the situation more worrisome than it already is, but the author still takes some opportunities to frame the narrative. By introducing the story with “in the Musti village of Solapur,” (Schraffenberger the author emphasizes that this is in a very different location from that of his presumably American readers. This suggests to the reader that whatever custom that follows will seem quite bizarre from the reader’s perception, but could be perfectly normal from the perspective of another culture, and therefore should not be judged too harshly. The author’s description of the fall also serves to explain how the falling sensation would feel, while not unnecessarily embellishing the possibility of pain. “The babies feel the quick, curious tug of gravity shift their newly churning organs.” (Schraffenberger) Schraffenberger does not overlook the fact that the child would probably feel some physical internal discomfort due to the drop, but the feeling is still attached to “curious,” a word with a rather positive connotation. Even if the baby does not fully enjoy falling, at the very least it gets to experience a new and unusual experience, the sort that older individuals are willing to go skydiving for. The first segment of this story is completed by a rather upbeat sentence, “it’s a blessing, say the villagers, of good health and good luck.” (Schraffenberger) This ending reminds the reader that this ritual is a part of the local culture, and that it is seen as a positive affair to those
Unlike with the first story, there is not any extra effort to make the situation more worrisome than it already is, but the author still takes some opportunities to frame the narrative. By introducing the story with “in the Musti village of Solapur,” (Schraffenberger the author emphasizes that this is in a very different location from that of his presumably American readers. This suggests to the reader that whatever custom that follows will seem quite bizarre from the reader’s perception, but could be perfectly normal from the perspective of another culture, and therefore should not be judged too harshly. The author’s description of the fall also serves to explain how the falling sensation would feel, while not unnecessarily embellishing the possibility of pain. “The babies feel the quick, curious tug of gravity shift their newly churning organs.” (Schraffenberger) Schraffenberger does not overlook the fact that the child would probably feel some physical internal discomfort due to the drop, but the feeling is still attached to “curious,” a word with a rather positive connotation. Even if the baby does not fully enjoy falling, at the very least it gets to experience a new and unusual experience, the sort that older individuals are willing to go skydiving for. The first segment of this story is completed by a rather upbeat sentence, “it’s a blessing, say the villagers, of good health and good luck.” (Schraffenberger) This ending reminds the reader that this ritual is a part of the local culture, and that it is seen as a positive affair to those