Body Counts By Sean Strub: An Analysis

Superior Essays
The AIDS epidemic was a languid, merciless, killer that claimed the lives of millions in its wake. Often times, the people’s desperate search for a cure was referred to as “The War Against AIDS.” This War eventually was won in the sense that HIV no longer had the powerful to sentence so many people to death. However, it was still a sentence, but this time it was a sentence to a forced life style change. This struggle of AIDS and HIV was depicted in the autobiography Body Counts by Sean Strub. One thing I liked about the book was how Strub shared so many of his personal thoughts about the whole situation. Although some of details I believed to be unnecessarily graphic, it did allow the reader to completely analysis his logic. Over …show more content…
He does not decide to pursue a woman, but in fact he wishes to follow men and hope to have sex with them. He even was exited to take the trip to New York so he could find more men like him. Also, as mentioned previously, he does not even try to be with a woman the whole time he was there. It seems that if he was serious about choosing between the two that he would at least treat both options equally, or go with the option he thought should have been morally right first. However he pursues homosexual relationships first, not because he need to find out he was homosexual but because deep down he knew he was. He later talks about how much he resented the fact that he was a virgin and how much he quite simply wanted to have sex. This way of thinking actually reminded me of the catholic homosexual man in Silt’s book And the Band Played On, and of other homosexuals at that time period. It also showed me how his way of thinking whether he knew it or not, resembled views that believed a relationship is primarily, if not solely, based upon sex. I will discuss more about this later, but in addition to the fact that he said he was attracted to, followed, and wanted to have sex with men, he then attempts to retracted his claim just a couple pages later. This is done when he made the statement “It wasn’t …show more content…
I was appreciative of the fact that he shared his personal thoughts because it allowed me to understand his thought process more. It also gave me the opportunity to analysis some of his decisions. Some of them did in fact seem strange to me, but I am still appreciative I had the opportunity. Two things that shocked however were some of the content he was exposed to as a child and how he viewed relationships early on It seemed to me that he was exposed to X-rated content at such a juvenile age that it directly influenced his reasoning to decide between a woman and a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The historical aspect of the book is a very interesting…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1980s, the HIV was the apogee of a series of apocalyptical controversies that arose from the approach of the new Millennium. Kaposi’s sarcomas (KS) – along with other diseases – make up a list of conditions that serve as a guideline for the diagnosis of AIDS. In fact, its relation to AIDS is so remarkable that it became a label; in a society that is divided by pre-conceived ideas of morality, it became a visual representation of HIV as a punishment for homosexuality. In Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Tony Kushner uses Kaposi’s sarcoma to symbolize the journey of marginalized individuals struggling to survive in an American society that refuses to embrace minorities.…

    • 119 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is utterly disturbing on occasion to read a portion of the story he portrays, not on the grounds that it's realistic, but rather just candidly awful and heartbreaking. In the wake of perusing this, I could truly feel myself in his shoes, therefore i would indeed recommend this book to all, students, friends, family, really anyone willing to try to understand it. It is supremely helpful as it shows how a little courage can go a long way and how many people in the world today should base at least a little bit of their daily morals on what was represented in the…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hsc300 Unit 1 Assignment

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Having HIV is no longer a death sentence now that someone can live a normal life. With recent medications and treatment options, this disease is considered manageable just like any other chronic disease. When HIV was first diagnosed in the world, it was considered a death sentence and the stigma attached brought about social isolation to almost all patients with the diagnosis, today, it is regarded as one of those chronic diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis. If I were diagnosed with HIV, my immediate reaction would be shock, surprise, sadness, fear, concern over my future, depression, shame, and isolation. Despite all the shock, if there is someone that would tell me I can still leave a normal life and teaches me how to achieve it, I would go for it quickly in other to be there long enough for my family.…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Glaser says to the Democratic Convention “I challenge you to make it happen, because all of our live depend on it, not just mine, depend on it” (4). She uses pathos, as someone who has been affected with AIDS, to express that the ramification of AIDS, which is death, is eventfully going to effect everyone not just the people currently with AIDS. Her compression of her life and others life’s being effected the same way brings attention to the subject of AIDS, it makes people feel like it could sneak up on them or their loved ones. Glaser’s sense of urgency sets a key role in making her speech…

    • 1360 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    References (2018, January 08). Anemia. American Society of Hematology. Retrieved from http://www.hematology.org/Patients/Anemia/ (2014). Malaria diagnosis and treatment.…

    • 246 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I liked the details that the author provided for some characters in it. For instance, I liked the description of Jefferson when he was explaining how the system of George Washington worked. (40). Due to his description, it was easy for me to fully comprehend how the system of George Washington operated. Overall, this book, was an interesting and a good one to read.…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Book Report #2: Punishing Disease, HIV and the Criminalization of Sickness by Trevor Hoppe Introduction: Trevor Hoppe in his novel Punishing Disease, HIV and the Criminalization of Sickness provides a narrative f or how public health has affected those living with HIV throughout HIV’s debut to the public in the 1980s to the present. Hoppe visits the history of how the public health handles disease outbreaks and relates that to how their tactics lead to the stigmatism of HIV and ultimately HIV’s criminalization. Once criminalized, it is dissected how the justice system has managed to criminalize a community of people through illusions of harm and invasion of their private lives. Its criminalization also reveals how race, sexuality, and gender…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He also believed that being ashamed of sex was a sin because “to be ashamed of the sexual organs, is to be ashamed of the most perfect instruments of love and unity” (156).…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public’s Health tells the story of Mary Mallon and what she had to go through at the beginning of the twentieth century. Typhoid Mary has “become a metaphor for a dangerous person who should be reviled and avoided (Leavitt).” Judith Walzer Leavitt, the author, is a professor of the history of medicine and women's studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and an author of several books (Judith). She uses Mary’s story to show the different perspectives of people who were affected by her disease. She shows how the public, law, medical professions, and Mary herself were influenced by this discovery.…

    • 1354 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My opinion of the book is that it was awesome. It had a lot of action that keep me reading. I always wanted to know what was going to happen…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a young woman, who has family members who are directly affected by Aids, I choose to focus my rhetorical analysis on a speech given by Mary Fisher, a political activist who contracted the virus from someone who she loved and trusted, her second husband. Mary Fisher gave her speech “A Whisper of Aids” at the Republican national convention in 1992 located in Houston Texas; only a year after finding out that she was HIV positive. Mrs. Fisher being an active member in the Republican Party she wanted to raise awareness of the severity of the Aids epidemic in American. She also wanted her party members to understand that this is a disease that can effect anyone at any given moment, regardless of age, race, gender, or political party. Mary Fisher…

    • 1650 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is a book that needs to be read with great attention and thinking to understand meanings and evaluate ideas critically. I personally like this book because it heavily relies on critical reasoning and logic that is back to back like dominos in a line. One point relies heavily on another, and the reader must follow along to understand how each idea connects to the next like each domino hits the…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In fact, these differences in upbringing may account for the characters’ unique perception of the disease. There is no specific type of person who contracts AIDS, and not all AIDS victims are reckless and unthinking. While certainly some patients, such as Mimi, may be immature and irresponsible during coping, others, such as Angel or Collins, are victims of circumstance. With wisdom and maturity, they understand and respect the immensity of the disease and make effort to better themselves and educate others. Larson uses this diversity to counter the belief that AIDS is a “gay disease” or only affects a…

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    'Acquired Immune Deficiency Virus (AIDS) is caused by a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that weakens the immune system , making the body susceptible to and unable to recover from op­portunistic diseases that lead to death' (USAID, 2010, pp.173). It is one of the major challenges for Pub­lic Health and it is the world's leading infectious killer. According to the WHO, 35 million people are living with HIV worldwide. In middle and low income countries is the majority of infec­ted people. In 2013, 2.1 million new infections occurred in low and middle income countries (WHO, 2013).…

    • 2493 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays