Phineas Gage By: John Fleischman

Phineas Gage By: John Fleischman

Meg Kalmakoff

Setting

In the beginning, the story starts in Cavendish, Vermont in the mid 1800s. But also takes place in Chile, San Francisco, Boston, New Hampshire, and New York. Other settings take place in hospitals and labs. Phineas Gage's skull and tamping iron are finally placed in Harvard Medical School.

Character

Theme

So in the beginning of the book, Phineas Gage is a hard working, self-disciplined, self sufficient, well-mannered young man. It isn't until his accident that his behavior and personality changes. After his accident, Phineas became profane, coarse, vulgar, and was intolerable to decent people. This was a result of the tamping iron passing though the benevolence and veneration organs of the brain. This influenced his character, level of profanity, respect, and kindness. He has switched jobs, and he was able to maintain being a driver of a six-horse stagecoach for approximately eight years.

Point of View

This story contains multiple themes. The overall theme of this story is brain science. Doctors study and determine how Phineas was able to survive given that a tamping iron was shot up through his head and a part of his brain. Another theme is, about character and personality. Some time after the incident, Phineas's character and personality are changed majorly and basically the opposite of before. Another theme represents how people can get through whatever life throws at them. In this story, for Phineas Gage and his family, the theme would be getting through hardships, given that Phineas Gage is forever changed.

This story is third person narrated, given that it is a biography of Phineas Gage, and what had happened to him. This impacts the way that the story is told. If it was told in Phineas Gage's point of view, it would be first person omniscient. Also, Phineas would only be able to write about the past theories of neuroscience. If it was told by Phineas

Summary

Phineas Gage, is a part of a track construction group of people who are in the process of blasting a railroad through granite bedrock near Cavendish, Vermont. His job is to blast the solid rock into pieces small enough for his crew to dig loose with hand tools and haul away in ox carts. On September 13th of 1848, a horrible accident occurs in which Phineas's tamping iron slips into a hole full of explosives, sets them off, the iron gets shot straight up and right through his head. Multiple doctors have talked over what happened to Phineas and studied why he survived.

Climax

The climax of this book is when Phineas is struck by the tamping iron which entered his left cheek and exited his forehead just inches away from his left eyeball. Rising action occurs when Phineas is in San Francisco with his family and he starts experiencing epilepsy. With how many seizures he had, it affected how his body maintains temperature; after a period of time, his body temperature decreases which then he gets hypothermia and dies.