Similarities and Differences of "The Use of Force" and "The Gift of Sweat"

The short stories The Use of Force by William Carlos Williams and The Gift of Sweat by Rebecca Brown are two stories that have very similar and very different qualities.

The stories are similar in that they both tell the tales of two people taking care of other people. One caretaker is a doctor trying to help diagnose a little girl and the other is a volunteer/housekeeper/friend just trying to make a friend’s last days as comfortable, clean, and non lonely as possible. Both of the people who are sick are carriers of contagious diseases, the little girl, Mathilda, is diagnosed with diphtheria, a contagious respiratory disease, while the man in The Gift of Sweat, Ricky, is most likely the victim of AIDS. In both cases the relationships between the people are both male/female. In The Use of Force the doctor is a male and the little girl is obviously female, and likewise in The Gift of Sweat, Ricky, is a male suffering from AIDS and his housekeeper/friend is a female who remains nameless. Within both stories the people trying to help the sickly show definite wishes that their experiences could last longer. The doctor in The Use of Force is enjoying the struggle being put up by the little girl, he claims on page 99, “I could have torn that child apart in my own fury and enjoyed it. It was a pleasure to attack her.” Similarly, the housekeeper/friend of Ricky’s exclaims once she’s left alone in his apartment, “I did it all fast because I wanted to get everything done, but I also wished I could stretch it out and still be doing it and be here when he came home as if he would come home soon.” Lastly, the two pieces of literature are similar in their simplistic styles. William Carlos Williams uses no quotation marks within the short story, The Use of Force, nor does he use very extravagant language. Correspondingly, Rebecca Brown uses simple language as well as simple sentence style, plain subject-verb sentences, to convey her ideas in The Gift of Sweat.

For as much as the two stories are similar, there are in fact numerous differences. For example, both stories suggest two people attempting to assist a sickly person in need; however, in The Use of Force the person giving assistance is a medical doctor attempting to give medical support and advice while in The Gift of Sweat the person giving assistance is a housekeeper/friend who is simply attempting to give emotional and hygienic support. In The Use of Force the doctor seems cruel in the way he had to use physical force in order to help the scared little girl, Mathilda, as well as creepy in how he truly enjoyed the powerful rush of forcing her to open her mouth against her will. On the other hand, in The Gift of Sweat, Ricky, the AIDS victim, is willing to accept the help of his housekeeper/friend, who is very kind and compassionate, and seems accepting, not scared, of the fact that he has an illness. Within The Use of Force it is blatantly obvious that Mathlida has been attempting to keep her illness a secret from her mother, father, and the doctor for as long as humanly possible, conversely though, Ricky seems honest with the housekeeper/friend, who is seemingly his only true companion in life at this time, about his illness for it does not come as a total shock to her when she walks in ad he reports to her that he is very sick and it came on suddenly. The relationship between the doctor and the girl in The Use of Force seems to be one filled with sexual tension. It is as if the girl is guarding not only the secret of her illness but the secret of her innocence and virginity and it is as if the doctor is literally enthralled and excited about the blood filling in the her mouth and the fight he wins by physical force (a parallel experience to rape). However, in The Gift of Sweat, the emotional relationship between Ricky and his housekeeper is a friendship, one of mutual respect and genuine care, and this is evident when the housekeeper/friend is uneasy and unsure as well as a little glad to have some of Ricky’s sweat left on her shirt, it is the last piece of him she will ever have. Overall, the tone of The Use of Force is very scary and gloomy; it evokes a lot of negative emotions and discomfort because of the powerful words and phrases used within the story. The tone of The Gift of Sweat is completely opposite of this though, it seems more happy and helpful since the housekeeper is focusing on the fun times and memories they have had despite the fact that the story is very sad emotionally since Ricky dies.

This last comment is especially striking to me; that in a story where the outlook of the life of a little girl is very bright, she will most likely live; the tone of the story is very gloomy, scary, and nerve-wracking. However, in a story where the outlook of the life of a young man is definitely sad, he will die; the tone of the story is more cheerful and happy.