So another week has gone by in this class and I still feel like I am learning something new all the time. Last week our assignment was to choose a novel to read and write a reflection paper answering some key questions about the text. I like to read so I figured this would be a fun assignment. The book I chose was called At Risk by Alice Hoffman. It followed the lives of an average American family, the Farrells. The Farrells consist of the parents Polly and Ivan, and their two children Charlie and Amanda. Everything seems normal in their lives when one day Amanda is diagnosed with AIDS. Several years earlier she received a blood transfusion that contained HIV positive blood. The book follows their lives and how each of them react to Amandas diagnosis.
As sad as this book was, it was also very eye opening. Throughout the entire book, Amanda's demise was evident. She continued getting sicker and sicker, while her family kept falling more and more apart. This really made me think about my family and how they would react if this situation happened to one of us. Could we all just stand by while one of our own was dying? It really made me realize how precious life is and hopefully something like this will never happen to me or anyone I know. The reality and sad part of this, is that that is not the case. Situations like this happen everyday, all around the world.
I also found some more statistics on HIV and children. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the city with the highest rate of pediatric AIDS is New York City. Followed by this are Miami, FL and Washington, DC.
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/hivchildren.htm
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Hi Sara. I have not read the book, At Risk, but it does sound very intense. Would you recommend this book to others to read? Yes, situations like this do happen each and every day and a family is torn apart trying to deal with it. How are so many of these pediatric cases getting the HIV virus? Were they all from blood transfusions? I would like to know more about how children deal with having HIV. This was a nice blog.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. At Risk sounds like a very good book, I am not a big reader but I'm thinking I might pick up a few of the books off the list and read a few. Throughout this class so far I have tried to place myself in the life of someone that has HIV. Unfortunately I can't do that. I can not begin to imagine what it would be like to have HIV. I do have a family member that has it but I don't really see him that often so I don't know how he is dealing with it or how life for him is now. I just hope that it is something that I don't have to deal with.
ReplyDeleteAlthough that book was written in the mid 80's when not much was known about HIV/AIDS, it still has some relevance even today. What was so unique about the book was that it wasn't just about HIV. It was also about being 'at risk' of losing friends, family and jobs. It shows that it just doesn't affect the immediate family.
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