Like a saint
In the second chapter, the narrator talks about one of Farmer’s patients, a man named Joe. Farmer takes great care of his patient and makes sure that he has everything he has. When he sends him home, he provides him with a couple of cans of beer and even helps him smuggle them in the homeless shelter where Joe was staying. After everything was over, Joe compared his doctor to a saint, highlighting the idea that Farmer was not only interested in taking care of his patients’ health but also going out of his way to show compassion and to show them that he cared for them and that he wanted them to have a good life.
Metaphor for the state of the country
When Kidder was asked by Dr. Farmer to go to Haiti, he agreed, being curious about the way the doctor worked. When he arrived in Haiti, the first thing he saw was how dilapidated the houses were on the side of the road. He also saw abandoned cars on the side of the road and he became curious about how a country could reach such a state. The cars and the houses are used here as a metaphor to suggest the state the country was in and to highlight the idea that it was on the brick of collapsing.
Just like paradise
When Kidder goes to Haiti, he sees the hospital where Dr. Farmer. In comparison with the other buildings Kidder saw in the country, the hospital was extremely modern and tidy, contrasting with the state of the rest of the buildings in the city. To show just how different the hospital was from the rest of the buildings, he compared it to a Paradise, thus signaling the idea that the hospital was truly exceptional in comparison with the other buildings.
Like Jesus
Another comparison that appears in the novel is between Farmer and Jesus. Kidder followed Farmer for the time when he was in Haiti and he noticed a similarity between the way Farmer was treated by the people in Haiti and the way Jesus was treated in the Bible. When Farmer left the house, Kidder pointed out that people gathered around him, asking to be cured. In a similar manner, the people who were contemporaries with Jesus would gather near him and ask to be cured of whatever illnesses they may have had. This comparison further emphasizes the idea that Farmer was regarded like a saint in Haiti.
Duality
Another common motif is the idea that Farmer also believed in magic and in occult practices as well as in the power of medicine. In comparison with other doctors who were quick to dismiss the powers of belief, Farmer recognized the fact that for some, religion was extremely important and the idea of health was connected with religion. Thus, he was careful not to dismiss a person’s belief and rather learned to accept it and embrace it.
