Jake’s Story: A Middle-Aged, Working-Class Man’s Physical and Spiritual Journey toward Death

Abstract

In this article, the author explores a middle-aged, working-class man’s, Jake’s, reaction to his life-threatening illnesses and to his impending death. The experiences of illness and dying demand the “thick description” of narrative. Just as the medical model of illness breaks down the person into symptoms and parts, the relational model of illness and death in narrative “puts him back together again” by embedding him in a personal and social history. This article finds that the experience of illness and dying are rooted in the tacit ethos of an individual’s family and society. The cultural paradigms of gender and class, religious tradition, and the reaction of others to the dying person shape the individual’s response to his approaching death.