Cristina Cubas 1/28/99 Professor: Kaye Edwards Disease and Discrimination

On her journey to death, Tora brings with her the enduring, abiding love of her mother and of Erde, her loyal friend of childhood. With her mother, who concealed her own illness and took her own life, Tora spends a day of beauty among the glaciers and witnessed a rare white doe, which she describes as having "a milk-white coat and large coal eyes." With Erde she witnessed the flight of hawks and eagles in her mountain village, and has leaped with imagined wings, off a roof to which she and Erde had been abandoned by their cruel older siblings. As a reminder of this, she will only drink milk in the hospital and she keeps four feathers among the meager possessions that she has in the hospital.

Yet, it is Tora’s meeting with the wealthy, arrogant mistress Suvinna Dybenal that transforms her. The meeting raises questions about God and time, life and death, revenge and forgiveness. Ravaged by advanced leprosy and filled with anger, which ironically nourishes her, Suvinna engages in a battle of wills with Tora, who only wants to learn how to read.

Reading enlarges, the girl’s mental world as her physical world contracts. Reading becomes Tora’s sole comfort giving her the courage to accept her condition. According to Newth, the author, there is a connection between reading and flight; "the joyful power achieved by the reading as a metaphoric flight is a magic power that could transform darkness to light, if for a little while."

This book is directed towards a mature audience who is able to understand the suffering and pain that diseases such as these bring to the victims and all those who are close to them. It’s a wonderful book for those currently affected with leprosy to read, for it gives one the courage to accept their condition and the courage to want to continue living. The book isn’t directed towards adolescents for many passages are emotionally harrowing, such as the scene when her feet are amputated.

This book is aptly titled as it is through reading and the love of those close to Tora that she is able to see some light in her dark little world. Newth’s work is compelling and heartbreaking. He addresses the topic of leprosy with reality. He informs the reader of every step in the disease, from the simplest scar to amputation. Newth also does an excellent job in displaying the beautiful relationship between Tora and those she loves, her mother, her best friend and at the end Suvinna; who helps her to appreciate what she has and question who she is. Newth also exhibits the relationship and special bond that forms among people who share a disease as develops the relationship between the middle aged arrogant, wealthy Suvinna and Tora. They become each others companion and shoulder to lean on. Last but not least, the author portrays the way lepers are treated and discriminated against even by the workers of the hospital.

This leads me to the subject of disease and discrimination. Leprosy was dreaded because it is communicable and produces lifelong crippling deformities. According to the law, in Norway at the time, leprosy patients were forced to be isolated and prohibited to leave leper colonies. Besides forcing life-time isolation, the law forbid patients to leave, to work, or to move their possessions. It also obligated them to clean unsanitary places and objects while it gave the hospital officials power to punish patients. One can see this often in the book, for the patients were hit or screamed at for not wanting to eat or even having a fever or feeling poorly. It's clear that this law caused discrimination against leprosy patients, some of whom went as far as to kill themselves, and in worse cases, kill their families too. This is seen in two cases in the book, one being when Tora’s mother took her own life. In other tragic incidents, such as the case of Suvinna when she first arrived at the hospital, patients were forced to undergo abortion or sterilization.

. Newth’s work is compelling and heartbreaking. The Dark Light is an excellent book. One must be warned however, for those who pick up the book out of morbid curiosity may get more psychology and philosophy than they expected. It will even make one question their own life and who they are regardless of whether they have the disease or not.

Mette Newth, The Dark Light, Farrar, Straus and Giroux Inc; copyright April 1993. Illustrations by Faith Ingwersen. .