The Play Unity & the Evolution of Disease - Essay Example

Unity (1918) & the Evolution of Disease The play Unity (1918) by Kevin Kerr examines the effects of the devastating Spanish Influenza on the small town of Unity, Saskatchewan. The Spanish Influenza struck the world just after the end of the First World War, and caused more casualties than the war itself. The disease struck not only the young and elderly, as a typical flu would, but young healthy adults. The fear of the flu instilled paranoia in the world, including the town of Unity, and Kevin Kerr’s play explores how this paranoia shaped the reactions of the people that lived in Unity and their search for a scapegoat. The evolution of the disease itself (and, indeed, any disease) unfolds in much the same way as the action in Unity, with people going through biological and psychological reactions to the illness, as the people in the town react to the disease itself. The purpose of this paper is to explore the similarities between the way a disease evolves and how the community evolved in reaction to Spanish Influenza. The community of Unity went through several changes from paranoia and fear to blame and devastation, as a disease would. The action in Unity relies on an infection metaphor in a number of ways. In the play, Kerr uses the small town itself as a representation of the Canadian national front with the influenza itself representing a German invader, as in the just-ended First World War. The fear of the disease is similar to the fear of the enemy, an interesting topic considering the historical setting of the play. Biologically, most people have a fear of becoming ill, and a further fear of death. The Spanish Influenza was likely to kill because of its virulent nature, and the fear of death here can be found in both the fear of invasion and the fear of disease. It is interesting that Kerr here combines the infection metaphor with the historical context to add further depth to the play. Infection and war have very similar ways of manifesting themselves, usually becoming worse without action. The war is a useful backdrop for an infection metaphor, because it highlights the similarities between the two. In Unity the inhabitants of the community fight against the infection in very militaristic terms, using expressions such as ‘take up arms’. In the medical world, similar lexis is used when considering how to combat disease; we ‘fight’ an infection, and ‘kill’ a fever. As an illness manifests itself, medicine becomes more useful to ‘combat’ the disease, and as a war starts, it is necessary to ‘combat’ the enemy. Kerr uses these similarities very wisely, particularly by bringing in a third concept of ‘combat’ centred on the town of Unity and their attitudes towards the Spanish flu, intricately using all three concepts in a similar way. The town of Unity, before the disease hits, has a fear and a paranoia of the Spanish Influenza, even going to such lengths to ban trains from stopping in the town and going to extreme lengths to prevent the spread. This can be compared to the more modern paranoia about the AIDS epidemic. In this case, many people that have no connection to the disease have a fear of catching it, which is a similar reaction to many diseases. Before Unity has any direct contact with the Spanish flu, extreme measures are taken to prevent the disease. There are a number of actions by governments worldwide to instil fear about the AIDS epidemic, too, which is metaphorically very similar to the actions taken by the town of Unity in reaction to the Spanish flu. It has been shown that fear of disease is one of the most common fears surrounding an epidemic (Mast, 1998), so Kerr uses this similarity wisely and accurately. The character Beatrice explains this best; ‘The town has been quarantined. Not because of illness but because of fear of illness’. The first member of the community to fall ill is Michael, a non-local. The treatment of Michael completely changes when Unity finds out he has the Spanish flu, he is treated like ‘rubbish’. This is quite similar to the action of an individual who finds out they have the disease. They may try to extrapolate the cause, and ignore its presence. In the case of some cancers, for example, the cancerous entity can be removed surgically from the individual. Michael is like the cancerous growth of Unity, cut off from the central community in an attempt to prevent the spread of the disease. Although Michael is cut out of the community, the disease continues to spread throughout Unity, much like a cancer would if it had begun to spread before surgical removal (Almeida & Barry, 2010). The final stage of the play Unity is when the disease becomes manifest in the town. When this happens, the people within the town turn upon each other and begin to look for someone or something to blame for the invasion. This is interesting when compared to the final stages of a disease. If we continue to use the cancer metaphor, then this stage is when the initial cancer has metastasized to the rest of the body. In cancer, metastasis can change a number of things about the body, including neurological functions and enlargement of the lymph nodes or spleen (Almeida & Barry, 2010), effectively changing their appearance or normal functions. This is interesting to consider alongside what happened to the community at Unity, because the way that the community function before the Spanish Influenza hit the town completely changed and the friendly relationships, particularly towards people like Michael, were destroyed. The normal function of the community was disrupted (as normal function of the body is disrupted in severe end-stage cancers and other illnesses) and essentially destroyed (death, the end result of terminal disease). Having considered the way that the community in Unity (1918) develops as a response to the threat and the eventual manifestation of the Spanish Influenza, it is interesting to draw the parallels with this and the development of a disease, particularly something like cancer. There are a number of similarities, from the initial fear and panic about getting the disease, to trying to surgically remove a growth (infected individual). These are all very cleverly used within Kerr’s work, particularly interesting when considering the topic of the play is related to illness as well. In conclusion, it is evident that the town of Unity reacted in a very similar way to the flu as the body would to an illness. References Almeida, C. A., & Barry, S. A. (2010). Cancer: Basic Science and Clinical Aspects. John Wiley & Sons. Mast, M. E., & others. (1998). Survivors of breast cancer: illness uncertainty, positive reappraisal, and emotional distress. Oncology Nursing Forum (Vol. 25, p. 555). Read More