Death Be Not Proud Summary

Words: 1523
Pages: 7

Death Be Not Proud
The book that I decided to read for our book report is titled Death Be Not Proud, written by John Gunther. This story is written as a memoir of his son Johnny. This story has two parts to it with breakdowns in each part. Part one has multiple different portions to it starting with foreword, death be not proud, one, two, three, four, five, and aftermath. Where part two has a little less to it, it has, a few more of his letters, the diary, a work from Frances, and an unbeliever’s prayer. Throughout the story you will hear about three main characters, the father John Gunther, who from her on out will be referred to as Gunther, the mother Frances and the son Johnny.
Foreword
The opening page of the book is a poem by John Donne
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Johnny is now discharged from the hospital but he has to continue ro go in twenty days straight for x-rays. His parents try to keep him from knowing too much so he does not find out that his tumor can end up making him blind, they go as far as hiding the encyclopedia that talks about tumors from him. Johnny then develops papilledema which causes him to lose a great deal of his peripheral vision. The doctor then looks at Johnny and tells him that he only has a few months to live. The bump on his head is getting worse and worse and is even starting to burst and leak pus. The next doctor that sees Johnny recommends procedures that can only improve his health for the remainder of his life but tells Gunther that the tumor will eventually kill him. Gunther and Frances hold out hope that new procedures will come along for dealing with tumors like the one that Johnny has. Frances Then reads an article in the newspaper talking about a controversial method of doses if mustard gas. The mustard gas procedure has bad side effects but it helps Johnny at first. A little later another leak develops and his white blood count is very low. With this happening Gunther reaches out to another doctor who does things a little differently by using diet as treating illnesses. Since there was nothing to lose Gunther and Frances decide to put Johnny on the diet. When they tell Johnny about the diet he finally loses his cool and storms off to his room, he later apologized for this