Setting in "Blood Work" by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Setting is one of the major elements of a short story which entails segments such as time and location that the story takes place. The two categories of setting can then be extrapolated to the aspects of place, time or period, weather conditions, social conditions, and mood or atmosphere created by the narration of the story. Therefore, each story is based on a specific setting, most probably, on a specific social phenomena because the work of literature are products of a social consciousness of the writer. The short story, Blood Work, 1999, by Bonnie Jo Campbell, is a narrative that is based on different dynamic settings. The author has majorly centered the locality of the story at the hospital, at a crisis of health and suffering of individuals. Therefore, Campbell narrates the story in the hospital setting so as he can develop his themes effectively.
Marika's Work in the Health Care Center
Marika, the main character, is portrayed to work in a health care center setting where she portrays the theme of compassion and loyalty in her duties as a phlebotomist. Campbell puts Marika in this context to reflect the hospital issues in the prevailing social phenomena. According to Foster (2012), writers have to ask themselves when writing, "Where is this taking place?" (115) and by so doing, they are able to carry out their writing exercise. This means that the fact that Campbell places the incidences of her story in the Hospital cannot be assumed as it implies that the contemporary issues in the Campbell's mind were centered about the health of his fellow citizens. In the text, Marika the protagonist seems to struggle with the challenges in the hospital setting such as poverty of her patience, which makes her take huge loans to assist the hospital projects. Campbell testifies of Marika's belief that, "people ought to try to work out problems as best as they could without putting many additional demands on God" (Campbell, 178). The setting in the hospital therefore outlines the need and urgency of people to care for others who are suffering in the hospitals. The setting also reveals the themes of love and compassion, health deterioration, suffering, poverty and loyalty in the hospital duties for the health officers.
The Time of the Narrative
The other aspect of setting can be understood in the realms of time that the narrative was made. Campbell places his story at the eves of the New Year. The story starts when Marika gets home after December 30th to mean that it was only a day to the New Year. It is also the time when the hospital had just implemented the ReDesign strategy and all the other phlebotomists had been eliminated from their positions. The eaves of the New Year are set to appear with a lot of transitions. The transition to the New Year can be considered symbolic because when the New Year was come, old things are seen to be changed, from the management by the consultants of New Jersey to the services offered in the hospital. Therefore, the setting is important as it is significant and implicative to the changes that are inevitable in the health sector. Since writers write from the experience they have come across, the use of this setting of time is symbolic of a transition period that would lead to better changes in society. When Marika is allowed to take the lead as a medic, the patients are happier, they appreciate her as she is so encouraging. Therefore, the New Year setting implies hope for the less fortunate in society.
The Mood or Atmosphere
Another significant aspect of setting in Campbell's Blood Work is the mood or the atmosphere that prevails in the narrative. There is a depiction of a gloomy and eerie. The eerie atmosphere or feeling is a setting that is established by the occurrences that Campbell narrates in the text. The incidents such as the sacking of some phlebotomists, suffering of the boy who is pleading with Marika to touch him, the woman with fragile veins, and also the incidence when Marika is looking for a loan to help the patients, yet with no help, suggest a setting that's atmosphere is strange, frightening, gloomy and eerie. However, the setting is provocative as it condemns those who live in their comfort zones and do not mind the pain of others. In this context, Marika tries to help the patient alone, she does all she can but still, she has fear that she might lose her job.
Conclusively, Campbell uses different incidences of setting to bring out the themes of his short story. The major elements of setting being time and place, Campbell selects a social institution, and the hospital so as he can build his ideas on a social and universal subject of healthcare and access to health facilities. Campbell also builds the main character, Marika, as a symbol of hope for the people, as a trusted practitioner who surpasses other practitioners. The selection of the character such as Marika and her co-workers establishes a setting that has a conflict over good versus evil. While some doctors are 'butchering' patients as Mrs. Lockwood claims (179), Marika handled them with care and encouraged them they were to get well. Thus, the setting becomes an important aspect in Campbell's Blood Work as without consideration of setting, the reader would not grasp the writer's intents.
Works Cited
Campbell, Bonnie J., “Blood Work, 1999”
Foster, Thomas C., David de Vries, and © 2012 by HarperCollinsPubishers. How to read literature like a professor. Harper Collins Publishers, 2012.
