A Deeper Look into the Concept Pain

Every human being is affected by pain at some point of his or her life, whether it is physical or emotional. While pain is such a major part of everyone's life, most people don't think to explore the topic at a deeper level. "The Pain Scale" by Eula Biss and "In Bed" by Joan Didion are attempts to prove true the depth and evolution of pain. While the concept and feeling of pain is often overlooked by most and believed to be very simple, it is quite complex.

One of Biss's essential points is the idea that it is impossible for individuals to truly understand each other's pain. This reinforces the idea that pain is extremely personal and unique, making it that much more complex. If no one can ever feel another individual's pain, how is it possible to relate to one another? Physical pain is the most tangible because everyone has experienced some sort of physical pain yet it is still hard to understand. However, there are many other types of pain such as emotional, spiritual, social and financial. Biss lists different pain that can be felt including the pain of feeling, the pain of caring, the pain of desire, the pain of living and the pain of trying. Many types of pain that can be felt are often hard to explain and understand. Eula Biss wants to inform her readers that pain is often deceived as being very simple, but truthfully there are many different aspects to it.

Biss carefully used a structure that would heighten the impact of her essay. She separated the essay into eleven different sections labeled 0 through 10, which represented the pain scale used by doctors. Beginning at zero, Biss explains that having absolutely no pain is not possible. On the pain scale, zero is considered to be no pain. However, Biss brings up the argument of whether or not zero can really exist. Another structural choice made by Biss was writing about the average of pain in section five. She stated, "I understand the desire to be average only when I am in pain." Biss chose to introduce the topic of the mean in the middle of the essay as a way to demonstrate that most people rate their pain as five to be safe. As the essay develops, and the number gets closer to ten, her writing becomes more intense. She does this to demonstrate the depth and intensity of pain. Once she gets to the larger numbers, she begins to introduce images of burning and other subjects that cause immense amounts of pain. She also uses simple, straightforward sentences to contradict her argument that measuring pain is a lot more complex than most people think. The distinctive style of the essay allows Biss to present her ideas in an order that makes most sense for the reader. Using the pain scale given out by doctors as a guideline for her paper solidifies her argument that the idea of pain is extremely intricate and complicated.

Specific incidents of when I was little and experienced pain still