A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.
John IrvingRead
He had heard her say, so many times, that a society that approved of making abortion illegal was a society that approved of violence against women; that making abortion illegal was simply a sanctimonious, self-righteous form of violence against women- it was just another way of legalizing violence against women, Nurse Caroline would say.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the connection between the legality of abortion and the violence inflicted upon women, emphasizing a moral critique of society's stance on reproductive rights.
In this quote, John Irving utilizes the voice of Nurse Caroline to express a profound critique of societal norms regarding abortion. She argues that making abortion illegal is not merely a political issue, but an ethical one that reflects a society's endorsement of violence against women. The phrase reveals the deep moral implications of denying women autonomy over their own bodies and the violence that ensues from such legal constraints. It calls into question the righteousness of societal laws, urging a deeper understanding of their impact on women's lives.
Themes
AbortionViolenceWomenRightsSocietyMorality
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about women's rights, this quote can be introduced to highlight the ethical implications of anti-abortion laws.
More from John Irving
All quotes →No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen...You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move.
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It's not very interesting to establish sympathy for people who, on the surface, are instantly sympathetic. I guess I'm always attracted to people who, if their lives were headlines in a newspaper, you might not be very sympathetic about them.
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It is an important distinction to note that she looked not only as if she had taken good care of herself, but that she had good reason to have done so. (...) She looked to be in such total possession of her life that only the most confident men could continue to look at her if she looked back at them. Even in bus stations, she was a woman who was stared at only until she looked back.
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I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice. Not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God. I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
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I will tell you what is my overriding perception of the last twenty years: that we are a civilization careening toward a succession of anticlimaxes – toward an infinity of unsatisfying, and disagreeable endings.
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