Illness as Metaphor, Chapter 9 Summary

In the final chapter of Illness as Metaphor, Susan Sontag describes how diseases have been used by people throughout history as a means to describe unsatisfactory states of society.
          Sontag wrote Illness  after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1975 and realizing how the language of cancer, from the disease itself to treatments and patients, relies heavily on metaphors (Grauer). Sontag argues that these metaphors greatly influence, mostly in a negative way, how those with a cancer diagnosis view their condition and how the world views the disease as a whole.  Illness was released in 1978, a time where a cancer diagnosis came with a stigma. Therefore timing of Illness' release appeals greatly to the rhetoric device of kairos because one of Sontag's goal in writing the the book was to destigmatize cancer by unwrapping the metaphors society uses to describe it. 

           In the final chapter of the book Sontag starts out by arguing that although physical diseases can express themselves in a variety of ways, from ulcers to lesions and tumors, when disease is used to describe a situation it is the treatability of the disease that matters, with diseases either being painful but curable, or possibly fatal.

What type a situation a disease metaphor is used to describe depends on how disease is clinically described at the time. In the 19^th century a disease was described as something that opposes life, says Sontag, so during that time period institutions like Communism were described as a “bureaucratic cancer” because of the view that it limits the possibilities of living life freely (Sontag pg. 75).

             Sontag also describes how classic political philosophy draws upon the classic medical interpretation of disease being the result of the humors of the body being out of balance in order to help explain political models. She gives the example of Machiavelli describing state affairs like “tuberculosis” because if they are treated soon they are easily taken care of or “cured" (Sontag pg. 77).

            When politics turns radical, however, Sontag points out how revolutionary violence is often justified by saying that society has a “radical, horrible illness” that can only be remedied through equally extreme means or ‘treatment’ (Sontag pg. 81). The identity of the fatal disease is employed as a metaphor in these situations, with rhetoric painting the chosen cause of decline, whether it was Hitler casting the Jews as a “cancer that must be excised” to Stalinism being called a syphilis, as an illness (Sontag pg. 82).
            Sontag's many examples of illness metaphors being used to describe political situations throughout history appeals to the rhetorical device of ethos, because it demonstrates her far-reaching topic of the knowledge of the topic to the readers of Illness. 

            One of the most common illness metaphors that has been employed throughout history is that of a cancer, Sontag writes. Because cancer is perceived as a radical disease that can only be cured with aggressive treatment, it is a favorite for people in power to employ to cast a situation as serious and warranting action (Sontag pg. 85).

            However, Sontag ends her chapter predicting that the fear cancer instills will wane with time as better, less radical treatments are discovered and cancer moves into the realm of an overall treatable condition.  Just like how science informed the definition of disease and what was metaphorically described as such in 19^th century, the decline of the perception of cancer as a death sentence, will decrease its metaphorical clout, even as the conditions it was once used to describe continue to exist (Sontag pg. 87).
          The rhetorical device used in this closing prediction is logos because it draws on a past example (the influence of prevailing science on the application of illness metaphors in different social situations) to support the future prediction of the cancer metaphor losing its impact. 

           

Works Cited:

Sontag, Susan. “Chapter 9.” Illness as Metaphor. New York: Picador, 1977. Print. 72-87

Grauer, Tresa. "Susan Sontag." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 20 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. October 3, 2011 <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/sontag-susan>.