The
whole idea from the start was to re-create what I’d lost so that it could be
proved that beauty and talent need not be sacrificed by the destruction of
parts or all the body.
[p. 36-7 Deirdre
speaking]
Plastic Surgery has existed since
ancient Egyptian period but it wasn’t until after the two World Wars when it flourished
as one of the legitimate specialty of the medical world. Due to many doctors
working on the field and helping veterans with their lost features and limbs,
the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons were formed after
World War I. The group legitimized the practice. Many new techniques were developed
in World War II including rebuilding of limbs and skin grafting, surgery that
involves the planting of skins. After the war, the surgeons, who had no patients
suffering from injuries, started to target middle aged, middle class women who
were starting to sag from age. Plastic surgery became more acceptable for
beauty.
Maltzer, who happens to come across Deirdre when she
almost got burned to death, decides to rebuild her body. Deirdre was built with
slender metallic body and, despite having no features, “a very beautifully
shaped head.” [p. 27] Although she was initially built to prolong her existence,
the ‘eternal beauty’ that came with her re-birth captivates people. Harris, as
he sees Deirdre after the her little break, that “she has not changed at all[…]
that she would never change” [p. 51] There is a hint of longing in his
reflection, as he thinks about how she would be “supple, golden, enigmatic” [p.
51] even after he becomes old and crippled. The initial sense of having a metallic
body to keep living, became a subject of envy because, as Maltzer says, she
would still be beautiful after everyone else changes.
I thought this reflected somewhat on the development of
plastic surgery. During the two World Wars, plastic surgery was used mostly to
repair and hide the damages done to the veterans so that they can attempt to
live a normal life. It was the kind of life that Maltzer has envisioned Deirdre
to have initially, to “see[…] a few old friends who remember [her] as [she] was.”
[p. 36] But because she is so beautiful, Maltzer is worried that her eternal
looks will become a target of jealous anger. The plastic surgeons, after the
war, advertised that they could get rid of baggy skins on the body that came
with old age. The necessity to live became something more superficial like
something that keeps youth and glamour.
Although
the connections between the short story and plastic surgery are not explicit,
the human inclination that drives to beauty is represented in the story. Even
in the quote, when Deidre is talking about life changing innovation that could
help people in desperate situations, she is focusing much on beauty and talent
as something that does not need to be sacrificed. By creating this new body,
she is able to keep her beauty for longer than otherwise possible. It is like
how plastic surgery may have started to help veterans to return to their livelihood
during the war, but slowly morphed into being prominently about beauty and
youth.
Source:
Beautiful
body: A history of Plastic Surgery
http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/08/31_plastic.html
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