The Pox Party

The royal life that it appeared Octavian had soon took a turn. Octavian and his mother were treated well by 03-01 thinking that they were prince and princess, pure royalty.  Octavian was well educated and raised with the idea that this was the perfect life for him. Growing up in a house with many other people was normal to him and he thought nothing of it, but, the truth was soon to come out. Octavian was part of an experiment to see if both African Americans and Europeans given the same education would have the same success in life. Most of the people he grew up with we're scientists partaking in the experiment testing out different theories. The questions raised is whether or not the experimental upbringing of Octavian was moral or immoral and if the men that originally raised Octavian were considered to be the medical madmen. When a scientist experiments, most procedures are to be moral, in a way that one is not harmed or affected in a negative way. Receiving high education and high musical talent on the violin, Octavian seemed to be unharmed. But when the pox party was introduced by the scientists to save others from the smallpox epidemic Octavian was hurt in more ways than one. After the attendees of the pox party were infected by the virus in hopes of saving themselves, the harm began. With the death of his mother from the injection, and the many scientists of the house dissecting her death, Octavian found himself fleeing the college house, angry, landing in the colonial army. Octavian may not have been physically affected or hurt by the experimenters, he was definitely affected indirectly. Losing your mother to a treatment that was supposed to work for the better is one of the hardest things to go through. Being effected in the way of needing to flee to the army to escape shows a meaning of pain. Moral experiments do not harm others or their surroundings, immoral ones do. Though some experiments seem immoral and make the scientists look as though they are the medical madmen, they are not as mad as we think. The definition of a madman is someone who is or acts insane. 03-01 treats Octavian and his mother like royalty until funding is lost, then Sharpe is in control of Octavian and his mother showing more of a madmen appearance who only wants proof that Africans are inferior to keep his southern plantation owners happy.