Typhoid Fever Poem Analysis

“It Can’t be Helped” by Jeanne Wakatsuki and “Typhoid Fever” by Frank McCourt have many similarities. Jeanne Wakatsuki was born in California in 1934. She lived there until 1942 when Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 and she and her family were evacuated. Frank McCourt was born in 1930 in Brooklyn, NY. During the great depression, his family moved back to Ireland, where his family sank deeper into poverty. He nearly died of typhoid fever when he was 11. The purpose of the stories these people wrote are different but the theme and tone are similar in many ways.

First, the theme of “It Can’t be Helped” by Jeanne Wakatsuki is about being unwelcome and treated differently. In the story she says, “This was the first time I had felt outright hostility from a caucasian.” This quote shows that she was confused and didn’t know why she was being treated differently because of her race. Next, the purpose of this story is to show how she felt and what it was like for her and her family during that time. When she was talking about school she said, “I was confused by all the moving and was having trouble with
At the beginning, he says “I laugh so hard a nurse runs in to see if I’m alright.” Even though he was stuck in a hospital with a deadly disease, he was able to talk and laugh. The purpose of this essay is to show what it was like to be sick at that time. The nurse says “There’s to be no laughing, you could be doing serious damage”. This shows how unhappy the hospital was and how miserable it could’ve been. Last, the tone of this essay is also bitter-sweet. At the end, the janitor says, “Tis a dirty rotten thing to die in a lavatory when you’re lovely in yourself.” This essay ended in the death of his friend but if he hadn’t been sick in a hospital he would’ve never met her. The theme and tone of this story is the same as “It Can’t be Helped” but the purposes are