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Introduction
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Everything Is Tuberculosis, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science and Injustice
History’s Influence on the Modern Day
Family and Community
Stigmatization and Dehumanization
Nuance, Empathy, and Understanding
Summary
Analysis
Green and Sarah first traveled to Sierra Leone to study the country’s maternal healthcare systems (at the time, it had the highest global maternal mortality rate, though this has since changed), but they ended up visiting Lakka Government Hospital. There, they meet a child named Henry; this name is shared by Green’s own son, and the two seem to be about the same age. Henry shows them the dilapidated hospital and its ill patients. While Green is discomforted by these sights, Henry faces them head on and in good spirits. After asking a nurse about Henry, Green realizes that he is a patient suffering from TB. After such a discovery, Green views him differently, not as a child but as an “emaciated young man.”
This mention of Sierra Leone’s poor neonatal and maternal healthcare system demonstrates how such systemic issues are intersectional; it is not only those suffering from tuberculosis that are mistreated by their country’s poor health care but also mothers and their infants. Henry’s shared name with Green’s son immediately connects the two characters on a deeper personal level. This personal connection, however, shifts when Green learns of Henry’s diagnosis. Henry is no longer a young boy like his son, but a victim of disease. While Green’s new perception of Henry is not inherently negative, it displays how everybody has preconceived notions that affect our relationships with others. Even Green, who strives to be an empathetic, equitable member of society, cannot help but have his perceptions of others shaped by his subconscious biases.
Active
Themes
Later, Green talks to TB survivors of one of the worst symptoms: hunger. Active TB lessens appetite, but once it is treated, hunger becomes extreme. At Lakka, however, they do not have enough funding to provide adequate food for patients. Henry himself writes about it often, as he spends much of his time in the hospital writing poetry and memoirs. The nurses proclaim their love for Henry and add how lucky he is to have his mother, Isatu, who still visits him. They struggle to answer Green when he asks if Henry will be alright, instead saying, “We will fight for him.”
Active
Themes
