SICK ROLE MEMOIR

Being sick is a universal human experience. Think about a time when you or a family member or close friend was sick. Write a personal memoir along the lines of Alice Trillin’s "Of dragons and garden peas: a cancer patient talks to doctors." What was it like to be ill, or to deal with the illness of someone close to you? What was it like to be a citizen of the "night-side of life," as Sontag calls it? Did you experience any socialization into the "Land of the Sick People"? How so? Were there any special rituals or talismans associated with illness? You might want to consider whether you fulfilled the sick role as envisioned by Talcott Parsons. If so, in what ways? How did you deviate from Parsons’ model?