Pox Party

            After having read the first section of The Pox Party, I first did not see how this reading pertained to our overarching theme of the "medical madman."  I spent about an hour thinking about this section and I realized that it was more related than I had originally thought.  Mr. Gitney, or 30-01 as he likes to be called, is most likely going to be who we call the "madman" in this story.  He is described as having a large head and nose, with little hair, spending most of his days in a robe, and constantly shaking his hands.  Mr. Gitney requires the narrator, Octavian, to follow some strange rules.  Octavian is not allowed to cry, show any sort of emotions, witness disturbing experiments, and weigh his "leavings."  In this sense, it is clear to me that Mr. Gitney follows both the physical and mental stereotype for the Mad Doctor that was described earlier in class.  It appears that he is raising Octavian to follow logic, ignore emotions, be objective, and observant.  This raises some moral questions for me.  My first question is why is Mr. Gitney so determined to raise Octavian to have no emotions?  When Mr. Gitney causes Octavian to poison his dog, Gitney records Octavian's responses with the intent to study and publish them.  This makes me believe that Mr. Gitney is more interested in how the human mind works than the mental well-being of Octavian.  My second question is what will Octavian's personality be like when he grows up?  At this stage in the reading, it appears to me that Octavian's upbringing will leave him emotionless or inhuman.  Will Octavian be so emotionless that he could be likened to a monster, similar to Frankenstein's monster and Mr. Hyde?  

Gabe McGiveron