Free Thanksgiving In Mongolia – An Essay. Essay Sample

The story ‘Thanksgiving in Mongolia’ is an interesting, yet sad, experience of a woman who experiences a traumatic physical problem and learns of the same during her visit to Mongolia. The essay written by Levy seems to be a realization of her selfishness by putting her baby at risk by undertaking a long distance flight travel and experiencing a place that might have proved fatal for the fetus. At the time of taking the decision, Levy was indeed proud that she is brave enough to venture in her condition to a faraway land. It is only after her miscarriage due to a prenatal complication that she realizes that this was a completely wrong decision taken by her that has proved very costly for her as well as her spouse. Levy says “I had boarded a plane out of vanity and selfishness, and the dark Mongolian sky had punished me.” (Levy 8) This line is a clear admission of her own guilt in the miscarriage that the author experienced in Mongolia. The author has blotted out the reasons for her miscarriage from her own memory or its probably a detail that she does not want to think about. The actual point of this essay is the effect of a miscarriage on a women’s psyche and the manner in which she struggles to come to terms with the accident and her sudden reversal of fortunes. This essay will attempt to prove that although the author chose to have a baby, she did not take the necessary pre-natal precautions that led to the accident and consequent mental and physical trauma.
Even before taking the flight to Beijing, the author may have started experiencing early signs of the problem, which she perceived as ‘round ligament pain.’ She should have taken the precaution of a full medical checkup before endeavoring to go on a long haul flight, which is both strenuous and tiring for a pregnant woman. In reality, however, the author’s problems may have started on this flight since it is quite possible that even most people who undertake high altitude travel on an airplane experience a change in the blood pressure, and this flight was a long fourteen hour flight to Beijing with a connecting flight to Ulaanbaatar. The strain of a long distance flight coupled with the extreme temperatures in Mongolia may have affected the author’s pregnancy to some extent.
However, in Mongolia, the author did not seem to take much prenatal care either as she writes that she met Cox and his friend on her first night in the country. One can assume (since she does not mention) that the author may have had a glass of champagne before going for dinner to a French restaurant. (5) Everyone knows the harmful effects of alcohol on the fetus. It was both reckless and negligent of the author to have consumed alcohol (even if it was only a glass) knowing well that she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy.
Further, the author and her friends went to an underground gay bar after their dinner. She says that she liked sitting in a dark room that was full of smoke. The effects of passive smoke on human fetuses cannot be understated. The sole reason for banning cigarettes in public places in most countries is that people who don’t smoke should not end up passively smoking since this second-hand smoke is far more toxic. At this point, the author does admit, “but my body was feeling strange.” (5) Clearly, the beginning of the end had already commenced in the case of the author, although she wasn’t aware. The next morning and a few minutes into her interview with Tsetsegee Munkhbayar, Levy started experiencing an acute sense of discomfort that only got worse with time.
Lastly, the final part of the story deals with the method in which Levy struggles to come to terms with her loss. Physically, she realizes that her body is showing signs of pregnancy, such as lactation and psychologically she has not accepted that her child (to be born) is no more. The scariest part of the whole incident was that Levy kept looking at the picture of the underdeveloped fetus that was still alive when the miscarriage took place, probably as a means to convince her that for a very short time she experienced the feeling of motherhood. Although, the doctor told her otherwise, Levy firmly believes that certain decisions such as taking a long distance flight of this magnitude may have contributed to this accident. However, she does not acknowledge the possible role of the passive smoke or the champagne in this particular incident. She moves from a phase of extreme sadness and depression to a very different, self-pitying phase where she begins to enjoy the attention that people pay to her when they realize that she had a recent miscarriage. (9) The extent of her loss becomes evident to her when she realizes that her only chance at motherhood has been completely destroyed due to this incident in Mongolia – the one Thanksgiving that changed everything for the worse.
In conclusion, the main idea of the essay is the extreme psychological and physical trauma that a woman who has undergone miscarriage experiences. In terms of physical trauma, Levy experiences intense pain with profuse bleeding, while psychologically she accepts that fetus as her child, albeit for the few minutes that the fetus exhibits life. The fact that she did not take proper prenatal care and, instead, chose to take a long distance flight that could have been avoided was the first step to disaster. Further, exposing herself to both alcohol and smoke from smokers in the gay bar clearly shows beyond doubt that Levy was acting recklessly. In exploring these themes, I could clearly understand that the graphic description used by the author was to shock the reader into understanding the horrible experience of a miscarriage. As a result, I could also understand the actual trauma that a woman undergoes in such an event. Most of us in that situation would have fainted out of shock after witnessing the scene of the miscarriage. So, to that extent, the author comes off as a courageous woman, but one who has to live with a lifelong regret of never being able to conceive a baby. The author, towards the end of the essay, does admit her guilt for not having taken proper prenatal care as well as the fact that due to a wrong choice made by her she would never be able to have a baby and a complete family.

Works Cited

Levy, Ariel. Thanksgiving in Mongolia. n.d. PDF File.