Considering we as humans are not able to erase feelings and emotions, many of us find it easier to camouflage and suppress them. Hiding and deflecting emotions are used as coping mechanisms. In the story, “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor”, the main character Jimmy does his fair share of deflecting and distracting. He deflects through comedy, through short stories, and anything else that will allow him to take the attention away from the seriousness at hand. Deflecting emotions and feelings is one the best, yet least effective ways of dealing with them. As a man, I feel like I have been embedded with the proper tools and mechanisms which prevent me from being weak - whether emotionally or mentally.
Ever come across a boy crying? Usually when boys cry they aren’t smothered with warm hugs and affection. Instead, males who cannot suppress their emotions are perceived …show more content…
This facade helped Jimmy and a lot of the people he encountered - besides his wife Norma who saw straight through him. I’ve heard the phrase “hurt people hurt people” and I found that to be the case in this story. Jimmy, hurt with cancer, expecting nothing but death ended up hurting his wife Norma. He hurt Norma by choosing to not further hurt himself with pain, sympathy, and seriousness. She wanted him to take his situation more serious, she wanted less jokes and more concern for and from him. From my understanding, Jimmy just wanted to stop being seen as a victim - he was dying and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. Jimmy knew his situation was serious, he also knew there was nothing anyone could do for him. The same doctor he joked with about death, he wanted so badly to “make an urgent confession, to ask forgiveness, to offer truth in return for salvation” (Alexie 143) - but she was still only a doctor, and he’d STILL be dying. Jimmy didn’t see an important enough reason to have people drown in pity and sorrow for or with