Philosophical Contemplation
When the focus moves away from interaction between the doctor and Dibs or his family, the author tends to get philosophical. And when an author begins to turn philosophical, that’s when the metaphorical language starts coming fast and furious. The author shows a special fondness nature metaphor:
“Perhaps there is more understanding and beauty in life when the glaring sunlight is softened by the patterns of shadows. Perhaps there is more depth in a relationship that has weathered some storms.”
Dibs and Anger
The behavioral issues which have the author in her role as doctor examine Dibs includes impulse control combined with a quickness to rage. By the end of the first page, in fact, he is demonstrating this trait and it is being described through simile:
“Like a small fury Dibs was at her, his small fists striking out at her, scratching, trying to bite, screaming.”
Dibs and Language
Dibs starts out as almost completely uncommunicative, especially verbally. The first important step is to get him talking, therefore. Once he begins, Dibs becomes, if possible, an even stranger figure who somehow manages to alienate himself from the reader even more so. This is because Dibs has a very unique manner of speaking that is stilted and formal almost to the point of being unbelievable. Metaphorical imagery is used engaged and dismissed without any noticeable change in tone:
"`So here you are,’ he said. `I'll get you now, you fighting man. Standing there so stiff and straight. Like an old iron railing from a fence, you are. I'll put you here, head down. I'll gouge you down into the sand.’"
The Power of Imagination
This is a story of the triumph of imagination. Imagination is the sense of not being willing to take the easy route and adopt the conclusions of those who have come before. Adults have a frustrating tendency to undervalue the seriousness of kids’ problems. Too quick to indict them for being spoiled or too sure of themselves to question a snap diagnosis made by a rank amateur. This is the peculiar and particular sort of imaginative vision the author is getting at with her own metaphorical imagery:
“I had caught the contagious element of impatience with smug complacency that will abandon all hope without trying once—always, just once more—to unlock the door of our present inadequate answers to such problems.”
The Miracle
The miracle in this story is not the treatment itself and even the author admits that miracle are not a goal. The miracle is that Dibs—who might otherwise have led a life that went down a substantially different and worse path—met up with a person of imagination; a person who dared to wonder if maybe something else could the explanation and something else could be tried to address it:
“But we are not looking for a miracle. We are seeking understanding, believing that understanding will lead us to the threshold of more effective ways of helping the person to develop and utilize his capacities more constructively. The inquiry goes on and on and we will continue to seek a way out of the wilderness of our ignorance.”
