Characters
One Sentence Summary
Summary
Long-Question
1. Write about the suffering and bitter
experience of Joan Didion as a migrainous (a very severe type of headache which
often makes a person feel sick and have difficulty in seeing) person.
Short-Question
1 What are the features of migraine
headache?
2. Why does the writer consider herself
fortunate that her husband has migraine? What would happen if he did not have
it?
3. What popular misconceptions about
migraine headache does Didion want to correct?
4. What intellectual response does she have towards
her own migraines?
21. In Bed
Joan Didion
Characters
Speaker : essayist, female
Her husband : also suffer from migraine
Doctors; About migraine headache; Medicines; Injection; Heredity ;
One Sentence Summary
The writer says that migraine headache is a hereditary problem, which can not be cured, so it's better to cope (exchange) pain with it to enjoy life.
Summary
In the essay 'In Bed' Joan Didion describes her problems and her experiences about migraine. A migraine is a severe (hard) headache and a person suffers a lot when one has it. The writer gets migraine three or four times a month. She gets them more- times if she does not take medicines. Medicines only prevent but they don't cure such headaches. She had migraine when she was young. At that time she was worried to being jobless. She thought she had migraine because of her bad attitude. She says migraines are inherited. Often one thinks migraine is by brain tumor, eyestrain, blood pressure. Some people thought migraine was imaginary. It is something more than the fancy of a neurotic's imagination. It is linked to a chemical, named serotonin, in our body.
She describes the features of migraine. Some people become blind and deaf for some time. They feel sever pain and vomit. They feel cold and sweat. People can't hold things in their hands. They can't think reasonably and speak clearly. Some people suffer long while the writer suffers only 10 to 12 hours each time.
She complains that people do not take others migraine seriously. People say that one suffers from migraine because they think about migraine much. The writer says it is partly true. She has migraine when she is too much tired and change in air pressure. She considers herself fortunate that her husband has migraine. If he didn't have it, he could ignore her, which might be bad. A migraine personality is perfectionist but not all perfectionist get migraine. She is also a perfectionist. Now she accepts migraine. When she has migraine, she lies in bed and tolerates them. When they go, she feels better, and starts a new life peacefully.
Long-Question
1. Write about the suffering and bitter experience of Joan Didion as a
migrainous (a very severe type of headache which often makes a person feel sick
and have difficulty in seeing) person.
See Summary for answer.
Short-Question
1 What are the features of migraine headache?
See Summary's 2nd paragraph.
2. Why does the writer consider herself fortunate that her husband has
migraine? What would happen if he did not have it?
The writer considers oneself fortunate that her husband has migraine, because he has self realization of the truth of this disease. If he did not have it, he could ignore her. She is being neglected from husband and relatives, which might be bad. So she considers herself fortunate.
3. What popular misconceptions about migraine headache does Didion want
to correct?
Didion has pointed out several misconceptions that people have about migraine. She says that migraine does not happen by brain tumour, eyestrain, high blood pressure etc. Migraine headaches are not imaginary. Migraine is something more than the fancy of a neurotic's imagination. Stress, allergy, fatigue, a flashing light, a fire drill etc, are the common causes of migraine. No medicines can completely cure a migraine person. It is a hereditary complex/ problem. The Didion wants to correct these popular misconceptions about migraine.
4. What intellectual
response does she have towards her own migraines?
Joan Didion has been a migraine patient since when she was eight. She hoped that one day she will get rid of this pain until the age of 25. She worried about the future, marriage and work. But she learned how to live with it. She neither fights nor feels horrified. She lies down and lets it happen. At first she feels terrible pain. Like yoga, she keeps concentration on the pain. After some hours, the pain vanishes. She feels fresh air through the open window. This is certainly intellectual response toward her migraines.
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