Jon Franklin’s “Mrs. Kelly’s Monster,” which won a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1979, demonstrates the phenomenal effects that are achieved when a writer emphasizes focus and foreshadowing in his or her story. Franklin’s focus on the battle between a surgeon and Mrs. Kelly’s monster, an arterio-venous malformation in her brain, presents readers with a detailed look at a dangerous surgery and gives them insight into the types of battles that happen in operating rooms around the world every day.
I thought Franklin’s emphasis on the surgery itself was interesting and effective. At first I felt disappointed at receiving minimal facts about Mrs. Kelly–we knew she had a husband and children, but don’t know their names, what she did for a living, or what they thought about her decision to go through with the surgery. I later realized that this story focuses more on the relationship between Dr. Ducker and Mrs. Kelly. He likely knew more about her tumor than Mrs. Kelly herself, so that’s what Franklin emphasizes. Though I expected this story to dive deeper into the characters, Franklin’s focus on the surgery itself meant that such descriptions weren’t necessary.
Pacing is a key element to Franklin’s story–he frequently mentions the time at which actions occur.
The pacing of the narrative was incredible and pulled me in from the beginning. From the start of Dr. Ducker’s day at 6:30 AM to the monster’s victory at 1:43 PM, the stated increments of time moved me steadily through the story. That Franklin’s entire piece takes place in just over six hours again demonstrates his focus. He shows what vital decisions can take place in such a short span of time, and at the same time gives readers an indication of how long one surgery can seem.
After reading the annotations, I was surprised at how much foreshadowing Franklin used. As he mentioned in one of his comments, readers don’t always notice this technique, but it hits home when it’s done right. His use of “shrouded” to describe Mrs. Kelly’s form on the table is a common image of death, but I was unaware of it when I first read the story. As Franklin says, the image hits home at the end when her fate is revealed. I think I would have appreciated more direct foreshadowing of her death at that point–I was disoriented toward the end when there seemed to be hope of her survival, which made the monster’s victory more crushing than I think Franklin had intended it to be.
The use of Mrs. Kelly’s heart monitor as both a method of pacing and a way to foreshadow the events was the most interesting technique that Franklin used. I was baffled by the amount of thought that went into what seemed like such a simple device. He starts with the steady “pop, pop, pop” of her heart at the beginning of the surgery, a “reassuring regularity” that foreshadows the irregularities ahead. By the time Ducker faces his final obstacle, the slowing and quickening heartbeats give readers a sense of the ultimatum the Ducker faces and finally succumbs to. It helps bring home Ducker’s reasons for stopping the surgery–he doesn’t want to take direct actions that would stop Mrs. Kelly’s heartbeats.
Overall the story brings us to that operating room and tells a courageous story of life and death. Franklin’s intense focus on the key moments of the surgery, his pacing, and his use of foreshadowing guided me effortlessly through the story and made it seem as though I were standing beside Ducker in the operating room.
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