The Haitian proverb, “Tout moun se moun,” we’re all human beings, radiates throughout and shakes the very core of the nonfiction work by Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains (Kidder 80). Paul Farmer, an extraordinary medical anthropologist who travels the world healing the poorest and most helpless of people, is brought to life in a simplistic text through extensive personal anecdotes and quirky dialogue. After traveling the crowded, cacophonic streets of Haiti to the dark and dreary hallways of a Russian prison, both Paul Farmer and Tracy Kidder learn to embrace the simplest of Haitian philosophies: “beyond mountains there are mountains.”
From an optimistic perspective, the proverb, “beyond mountains there are mountains,” can describe the infinite reservoir of passion, ambition and ethics that resides within the human condition. Paul Farmer’s work with his charity Partners In Health (PIH) exemplifies the view that humans are innately good; he is altruistic, motivated and selfless. Tracy Kidder strongly believes that “a young man with his advantages could have been doing good works as a doctor while commuting between Boston and a pleasant suburb- not between a room in what I imagined must be — the wasteland of central Haiti” (Kidder 7). Yet it was never Farmer’s intention to conform to the established norm of who a doctor should be and whom he should heal. Even while working in a hospital in Boston, Farmer managed to stand apart from his peers. Tracy Kidder witnessed Farmer’s treatment of “Joe,” a homeless middle-aged alcoholic with HIV/AIDS and pneumonia. Never without a witty comment or caring recommendation, Farmer not only successfully treated Joe, but also found him a stable living environment so that he would fall ill less frequently (Kidder 16). In response to all of this love and support, Joe exclaimed “that guy’s a fuckin’ saint” (Kidder 16). Further evidence of Farmer’s saintliness is illuminated in anecdotes such as his perseverance to treat Father Jack, a Haitian with a strand of drug-resistant tuberculosis, and after Jack’s death, his further patience to research and eventually cure other cases of the ruthless disease. However, Paul Farmer is not a saint, but simply an exemplary example of how an ordinary human can become extraordinary through selfless acts.
Like many great sayings, the Haitian proverb can be interpreted in two different ways. With a more pessimistic viewpoint, mountains can symbolize problems and hardships that arise. Thus, when one solves a particular issue, another larger problem is revealed; the world’s troubles will never truly dissipate. However, this most certainly does not mean that all philanthropic acts are futile. From this complex idea comes Farmer’s unique ideology of the “long defeat”; furthermore, when many joint to fight against the highest of mountains, they often times win (Kidder 288). In Haiti, Farmer’s first mountains that arose were various poor patients with a variety of both curable and incurable diseases: tuberculosis, ulcers, Pott’s disease and AIDS (Kidder 27-28). Alas, Farmer’s work with individual cases would never cease, but he quickly tackled larger and larger mountains: drug-resistant tuberculosis, the hardships when purchasing medicine for the poor and the endless cycle of poverty. Paul Farmer’s beliefs on transformation around the globe follow an optimistic ideology: “Margaret Mead once said, never underestimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world — Indeed, they are the only ones who ever have” (Kidder 164). When looking back on history, each and every movement towards change has been lead by a tight knit group of individuals dedicated to the cause at hand; the abolitionist movement was led by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, the women’s rights movement by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In order to tackle the mountainous issue of the inability of the poor to access medical treatment, a leader must emerge. Tracy Kidder makes it apparent throughout his nonfiction work that he believes such a leader can be found in Doctor Paul Farmer.
Though Paul Farmer provides an excellent set of qualities to establish himself as a pioneer in medical anthropology, such superior characterization could not have occurred without the simplistic and descriptive writing style of Tracy Kidder. Farmer knew that he could not mold or even suggest what Kidder would write about in his biography, and he projected this understanding by stating, “I don’t have a lot at stake in how you depict me. I’ve been yelled at by generals and denounced by people who don’t have any data when I have a shitload” (Kidder 207). The inclusion of such a strong, almost apathetic statement by Farmer shows that he doesn’t care how others feel towards him and his actions, as long as he can continue to carry out the path that he has paved for himself. As Tracy Kidder follows Farmer on his travels across the world, we gain a respect for both the doctor and the narrator, through both their interactions and complex dialogue. Kidder seems to pull the most compelling and personal anecdotes from Farmer, such as when they discuss Paul Farmer’s unfortunate childhood experiences. When meeting with both Farmer and his mother, Kidder remarked, “No couch potatoes in the family,” while she quickly affirmed, “No couch” (Kidder 55). It seems that such quirky exchanges are what adds a level of personalization to a book that could have easily become monotonous or formulaic. One of the most important characteristics that Kidder illustrated of Paul Farmer was his dedication to science and medicine coupled with his interest in welfare in his patients. When the doctor discovered that a few of his patients had developed four or five-drug resistance tuberculosis after being improperly treated, a faction of tuberculosis that had never been known to exist, he developed “a bad aftertaste — [to his] ‘‹Å”eureka moment'” (Kidder 140). He later confided to Kidder, “God, I’d hate to ever feel triumphant about something so rotten” (Kidder 140). Like a true scientist, Farmer feels excitement from discovering something novel, but his positive emotion is overshadowed by the idea that such a discovery is disadvantageous to his patients.
Rather than just providing anecdotes that show Farmer’s true character, Tracy Kidder also adds commentary that remarks on Farmer’s decisions and actions. Kidder provides much insight into Farmer’s life, such as, “It seemed to me that he didn’t have a plan for his life so much as he had a pattern. He was like a compass, with one leg swinging around the globe and the other planted in Haiti” (Kidder 260). Such in depth analysis of Farmer’s character provides the readers with a basis to draw further conclusions. By juxtaposing Farmer’s actual words with Kidder’s deductions, a logical train of thought is established. For example, the doctor states, “I’ve never known despair and I don’t think I ever will,” whiles the author follows with his thought that, “It was as if in seeking out suffering in some of the world’s most desperate locales, he made himself immune to the self-consuming varieties of psychic pain” (Kidder 189). This style of writing allows for Mountains Beyond Mountains to exhibit genre duality; it is both a biography and a social commentary.
By utilizing much of the text to characterize Paul Farmer, the author successfully builds on the theses that it is not futile to fight the long defeat and that equality in medical treatment is necessary as a step to eradicate poverty. These themes mirror the beliefs of Paul Farmer, and thus Mountains Beyond Mountains is successful as serving as a biography of the doctor. Very little controversy circles the non-fiction work because Tracy Kidder juxtaposes both Farmer’s favorable and unfavorable characteristics and doesn’t show a particular bias for his character, but instead simply approves the great works that he has accomplished. In fact, the only bias that even exists in the book is Farmer’s disdain for class bias and its effect on the medical treatment that the poor receive. The only time the word “controversy” even appears in the novel is when describing The World Health Organization, and even so, it is not done so without a factual explanation of why the group is inefficient (Kidder 172). Since Kidder doesn’t attack a particular policy, group of people, or action of those in authority, it is almost impossible to conjure up an image of controversy when thinking of Mountains Beyond Mountains.
I, like many other readers, gained a respect for Paul Farmer and other comparable figures, by reading Mountains Beyond Mountains. In fact, my best friend from high school recommended me to read the book a year or so before I actually sat down to read it. He told me that although he was going to continue to strive for medical school after his undergraduate career, he was considering a major in anthropology. I was perplexed by his decision and vowed to read the book that made him jump to such a seemingly absurd conclusion. Reading this non-fiction work allowed me to draw parallels between medicine and anthropology that I had ever known to exist. The combination of these two very different fields results in medical ethnography, a field mastered by the great Paul Farmer. The formation of this new field in my knowledge will allow me to continue to form new parallels between humanities studies and natural science studies in my future collegiate career.
“Patria es Humanidad,” the only real nation is humanity, is the final Haitian proverb that seamlessly relates to the biography of Paul Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains. Building off of Farmer’s principles, the proverb evokes the idea that in order to preserve the human race, we must first start with its inhabitants. Furthermore, everyone on the face of the planet is entitled to receive suitable medical care, regardless of the availability of an individual’s or a country’s monetary resources. There is little doubt in my mind, that by further connecting the innate humanitarian spirit with complex scientific curiosity, Doctor Paul Farmer has the drive and ability to make such a seemingly unattainable ideology a reality.
