Headless leader
The account opens with the narrator describing an event that took place in Haiti, the discovery of the headless body of an elected leader from Haiti in a river. The horrific image has the purpose of highlighting the idea that the political environment in Haiti was less than ideal. The political situation was extremely unstable and the result was that many became violent, knowing that they will not be punished for their crimes. They engaged in horrific actions and many important people and civilians ended up dead, being killed in horrific ways.
Positive versus negative attitude
There is a sharp contrast between the way the doctor and Kidder describe Haiti, exemplifying two points of view. The doctor describes his country using positive terms. For him, Haiti is a place that can turn for the better, the land of possibilities. When he talks about his country, he expresses hope that one day things will be better. In contrast with that point of view, Kidder paints the country as being a place where hope cannot be found, a place where the possibility of things going for the better is extremely slim. He is unable to understand the Doctor and because of this he envisions him as a naïve person who is unable to recognize the reality he lives in.
Decaying houses
The first thing Kidder noticed in Haiti was the state of the houses and the abandoned cars on the side of the road. The image of the decaying houses affected Kidder because he associated the houses with the state in which the people in Haiti lived. Their living conditions were less than ideal and for Kidder, a man used to see the opulent houses in America it was a shock to see the difference between the two lifestyles.
The hungry girl
In the third chapter, Kidder describes a scene he witnessed in the hospital when he was with Farmer. On night, Farmer was called to the hospital to treat a little girl with meningitis. The doctor performed a painful spinal tap on the girl to determine what type of medicine would help her. Despite the pain, the girl kept asking for food, thus hinting that for her, the pain she suffered from hunger was greater than the pain she had to endure during the spinal tap. The image of the girl asking for food in that circumstance is important because it shows just how dire the situation was in Haiti. Little children suffered from hunger daily and the pain from a medical procedure was nothing compared to the pain they had to suffer from a lack of food. This showed just how hard life was in Haiti and how much the population suffered because of the poverty.
