Critical Analysis: a Life Worth Ending by Michael Wolff

In Michael Wolff’s essay “A life Worth Ending” gives his personal experience about how he dealt with his mother's terminal illness that she struggled with while dealing with the healthcare system. Wolff's Hi mother is suffering from dementia, which is slowly robbing her of the ability to do the things she was once able to do. Wolff spends his time seeking the best kind of care for his ill mother but is rudely awakened by the horrors of the healthcare system. This put a financial strain on her relatives that were paying for her care, because the insurance did not cover all the care she needed. He faced many difficult decisions that at time were challenging sometimes him wonder if it was worth keeping her alive? Michael Wolff takes advantage of the literary nonfiction form point of view to demonstrate his strong opinions on long term health care and assisted living for the terminally ill and senior citizens. He also touches of the expenses

of healthcare and how this can affect both patients and their families. One example of how Wolff uses point of view to give his readers insight in to want he is dealing with is when he uses something that readers may be familiar with, like the holocaust to help explain the point that he is enfensing. “it’s a holocaust. Circumstances have conspired to rob the human person — a mass of humanity — of all hope and dignity and comfort.” When the reader reads this it not only grabs their attention but makes them more curious because what could possibly be as bad as the holocaust? He goes on to explain that Although his mother cannot really do much for herself, when someone is doing something that she does not like or want to happen she makes it quite clear. Wolff goes on to dig deeper to how he feels about his mother suffering, he states, “When my mother’s diaper is changed she makes noises of harrowing despair — for a time, before she lost all language, you could if you concentrated make out what she was saying, repeated over and over and over again: “It’s a violation. It’s a violation. It’s a violation.” She feels violated but cannot help what happens to her because she is too sick to have control over that. She is not the person she once was all that is left is a shell of the person she used to be. Not only does he make his point clear about her helpless state but he give his readers an insight to the reality of long term healthcare. “I didn’t need to be schooled in the realities of long-term care: The costs for my mother, who is 86 and who, for the past eighteen months, has not been able to walk, talk, or to address her most minimal needs and, to boot, is absent a short-term memory, come in at about $17,000 a month. And while her LTC insurance hardly covers all of that” Wolff states the truth about health care purely based on his experience with his mother. In her case even though she had insurance that was supposed to benefit her, her over all care cost so much more that her insurance covered. In closing Wolf reflects on his experience with his mother and does not want to be caught in the same position. “Not long after visiting my insurance man those few weeks ago, I sent an “eyes wide open” e-mail to my children, all in their twenties, saying this was a decision, to buy long-term-care insurance or not, they should be in on: When push came to shove, my care would be their logistical and financial problem; they needed to think about what they wanted me to do and, too, what I wanted them to do. But none of them responded — I suppose it was that kind of e-mail.” Yet with a long term care insurance Wolff was not guarantee that it would cover all that he would possibly need.

In the essay “A Life Worth Ending” by Michael Wolff, he takes advantage of the nonfiction element point of view in order to document an emotional yet truthful account of his

terminally ill mother as she suffered at the hands of healthcare. Wolff's unearthed emotions are raw and messy. After all readers were not only able to gain insight into dealing with a terminally ill loved one but were able to feel the emotions that he when through.