Blog 4

Draft 1:

About 1,735,350 new cases of cancer arise every year (Cancer Statistics). Many of these individuals may hear the phrases “we can fight this” or “cancer is a battle.” These are metaphors that connect to the military and they can negatively impact the physical and mental well being of any sick individual, not just cancer patients, and because of this everyone, including medical professionals, should look at possible alternatives to these kinds of metaphors. Anybody in this world has dealt with an illness either of themselves or a loved one and the metaphors that professionals or even families use can impact how they view their illness. To view a illness as a battle or war can lead a person to believe that to deal with this illness it is going to be a violent time in their life and war has endless amounts of outcomes and this can frighten a patient because they do not know their own outcome so they could assume the worst. This can set a patient up for failure as they are about to take this journey into recovery. This interpretation should be very important for doctors and family to understand and know so they can accommodate for the patient’s feelings and restrict themselves from using similar metaphors. Metaphors can also be created by an individual in order to make an audience perceive it a certain way but that is not always accomplished and the different ideas of what the metaphor means can have a negative effect on the audience. Lastly, if one of these metaphors is said to an individual with an illness and their emotional state is not the best, their emotional response can greatly impact their health as well.

Draft 2:

About 1,735,350 new cases of cancer arise every year (Cancer Statistics). Many of these individuals may hear the phrases “you are a fighter and you can beat this” or “cancer is a battle.” These are metaphors that make a connection with the military and they can negatively impact the physical and mental well being of any sick individual, not just cancer patients. In fact, everyone in society, including medical professionals, should look at possible alternatives to these kinds of metaphors when they are speaking to someone who is ill. Anybody who is asked if they have been sick before or had a loved one who was seriously ill or even just had the common cold would say yes. So, they can relate to either having been the one to use one of these metaphors with a loved one or have personally been told one of them before. These metaphors can impact how patients view their illness and what their personal outcome may be. Therefore, military metaphors that are used with individuals who are ill, should be cautioned against because of the varying interpretations of these kinds of metaphors, the emotional responses individuals have towards the metaphors, and the way the metaphors are created can create expectations that can negatively impact a patient in treatment.