Mary Mallon, an Irish-American cook, became the first known carrier of typhoid in the United States and is known as “Typhoid Mary” all over the globe. When after long detention she was given a chance to live in freedom, she decided to return to her previous job, cooking. A lot of debates have been held since her decision, with some blaming Mary for consciously carrying the disease to the masses, and others sympathizing with her disease which brings so much grief and troubles. The paper tries to prove that Mary was, in fact, a victim of the inadequate public health system and not a villain.
To understand the situation and Mary’s decision, it is better to consider the circumstances. One day, she was abruptly uprooted from her life, deprived of all of her friends, relatives, dreams, and prospects. Physically separated from everything dear to her, she became isolated on an island and “labeled a monster and a freak.” The authorities neither permitted Mary to do her previous job nor was she retrained to do anything comparable to sustain her. The health department did not manage to “provide her with long-term gainful employment.” She became a menace to people, although she was “entirely innocent of any wrongdoing.” Mary’s motive was not to infect people, but to again become human, instead of an isolated monster.
Summing up, Mary’s choice may be considered as a threat to society’s health; however, from her point of view, it was the only chance to come back to normal life. Like every human being, Mary deserved to live, and it was not her fault that she caught the disease and could do nothing to cure it. If she had been granted sustainable and living conditions, she probably would have made another choice.