The Rhetoric of Cancer: A Reaction Paper

Andrew Greystone, in his BBC podcast entitled “The Rhetoric of Cancer”, said that his journey with cancer was not only physical, but also emotional and spiritual. He experienced ups and downs not only in his body which the cancer directly affected, but also as well as in his perspective in things like life and spirituality and faith.

He noticed that the language most people use when talking about cancer is masculine and military, for example, “to fight cancer’. He said that he really didn’t think using such words and expressions was appropriate, and so he, together with others, set off to explore the language that revolves about cancer and to try to know the right kind of language to use.

I think that the use of words, whether military terms or metaphors or euphemisms for cancer, depends on the perspective of the person. For example, the family and relatives of a cancer patient may use euphemisms for cancer so the patient may not feel even worse. They use euphemisms so cancer may appear less terrifying. Also, people use military terms like “battling” and “fighting” so cancer may appear to be something like a battle- a battle that could be won. Also, a cancer survivor may use these expressions, like “I battled cancer and won” so they could feel better about being cured, and also to inspire those people who still have cancer. Furthermore, realistic people, like Andrew, may not like using military terms because they don’t want to think of cancer as a separate being, in a way that they got it externally, not something they did to themselves, just like what Andrew believes in. They think of cancer as something that should be removed or cured, not something that should be battled.

In the end, I think that the real issue is not on which kind of language to use when dealing with cancer, but more on when. People can be sensitive to cancer patients’ feelings and use euphemisms, but they can also use metaphors like military terms to give them hope that cancer could be fought and it could lose. Either way, what is important is that we should know which kind of language to best use to help the patients get better and recover.

Barbosa, Camille Anne C.

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