"At War with My Skin" -John Updike

"At War with My Skin," by John Updike, was very interesting. There are a couple of things that he did in his story that I really like a lot. The first is that he manages to share the personal details of his story with the reader without making his story a complete pity party. He understands his skin condition, and definitely was self-conscious about it throughout his life, however writes that he had come to the realization that really another condition could have been a lot worse. He starts to call it a disease, but stops because "disease seems strong, for a condition that is not contagious, painful, or debilitating." It sort of makes the reader think about how much a more serious disorder would have such a greater impact on everything that most people would consider activities of daily living. But still, he lets his psoriasis stop him from doing a lot for a superficial disease. The other thing I really like about his writing is his use of "scab picking." This phrase really stood out to me as he used it to describe what he was doing. This is a comparison that all readers would be able to relate to, which makes it a much strong way to describe how he feels about this.