"The Knife" Discussion

One idea that I found interesting in our class discussion about the knife is that some one mentioned that the author focuses on his work like a religion. The idea focused around the thought that the surgeon had to take vows, be cleansed before stepping into the operating room, and he also refers to the room as a temple. The idea also involved that he had been doing his profession for so long that he might actually think that it is a religion. Another part of the idea that popped up is that He might think of himself as a god because he has the power of deciding who lives and who dies.

This idea gave me an entirely new perspective about what the author was writing about. I now believe that the entire passage was about religion. I truly believe that he thinks that he is of a higher power. I also think that this is the reason why the author starts the passage by making the reader perceive the character as a killer. Possibly he thinks of religion as both good and bad. At first he took life away and then as the story goes forth he saves lives.