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Thousand White Dawns
Story Overview
This is a story about six men who went to a medical college in Texas during the 1970s. It is blackly humorous and often shocking as it examines the hidden side of medical education and its effects on the lives of students and patients in a university hospital. Those who read it may never again feel quite the same about doctors.
Main Character's Motivation
The main character has enrolled in order to avoid military service during the Vietnam War; thus, he sees medical school from the unique viewpoint of an insider who as yet has no desire to become part of the system. He soon finds himself locked in a fiercely competitive academic struggle that absorbs and eventually obsesses him.
Conflict and Resolution
When the war ends, he is halfway through the program. No longer able to walk away, he decided to stay on. He makes a promise to himself: to retain his individuality and to never become an apologist for the establishment. In spite of this, he is gradually corrupted and becomes involved in some very questionable activities.
Climax
Finally, the protagonist reaches his turning point and acts to expose a case of human experimentation whose subjects—patients on a cancer ward— have not given their informed consent. His medical career ends when he is cast out as a result of what has probably been the first moral act of his life.
