In what ways do the themes of sacrifice appear in the book as individuals, particularly
Paul Farmer and his supporters, become aware of global issues?
Most of the sacrifice that I seemed to be drawn to in the book was the fact that Paul’s social interactions were lacking. There is one point in the book where Kidder (2009) explains,
Four years ago [Farmer had] married a Haitian woman, Didi Bertrand… These days, Didi and their two-year-old spent the academic year in Paris, where Didi was finishing her own studies in anthropology. Several friends had told farmer he should spend more time with them. “But I don’t have any patients in Paris,” he’d say. It was obvious that he missed his family. When I was with him in Haiti, he called them at least one a…show more content… 79). Though liberation from the unjust situation at hand is difficult, Farmer deemed “the central imperative of liberation theology – to provide a preferential option for the poor – …a worthy life’s goal to him,” as he “hadn’t seen any place in Haiti needier than Cange” (Kidder, 2009, p. 81). As quoted by Farmer in Kidder (2009), “the fact that any sort of religious faith was so disdained at Harvard and so important to the poor – not just in Haiti but elsewhere, too – made me even more convinced that faith must be something good” (p. 85). It was clear that Farmer couldn’t solely rely on his own hard work and dedication, but required the faith in a higher power to help him achieve his goals. Yet, he never comes out and states that he believes in God, rather “I also have faith in penicillin, rifampin, isoniazid, and the good absorption of the fluoroquinolones…” (qtd. in Kidder, 2009, p. 86), reaffirming the fact that Farmer used expensive medicines that no patient in Haiti had ever heard of
