This text, is entitled Fired and taken from Philadelphia, by Christopher Davis, deals very subtly with considered by a lot of people as a contagious and frightening disease.
This text , which seems to be the beginning of the story, the main character, Andrew Beckett, a young and brilliant lawyer , has been summoned by the senior partners of the firm where he is working and we attend their conversation which is quite weird and full of understatements and innuendoes.
The interest of the text lies in two aspects : on the one hand , the way the senior partners lead the conversation and on the other hand how Andrew reacts to the news throughout the text.
Indeed , the word aids is never used or uttered by the characters throughout the text. Little by little we are made to understand the situation at the same time as Andrew discovers what is actually happening to him and his whole career. The senior partners , namely Charles Wheeler , walter Kenton and Bob Seidman speak by understatements in a very matter-of-fact tone.
Right at the beginning , I quote line 17 Mr Wheeler says : " your place in the future of this firm is no longer secure. We don' t think it' s fair to keep you here where you' re limited " . It implies that Andrew is fired , which comes as a shock ! Then there is another strange sentence in line 31 " Oh , you' re right Beckett (…) you don' t have an attitude problem " which makes us realize that Andrew is being fired because he is developing Aids .
Moreover , the tone is hostile and scornful. It points to the fact that the senior partners are prejudiced against Andrew. We are given to think that Andrew is discriminated against.
On the top of that , this sentence denounces the fear and hypocrisy of the management. The phrase " attitude problem " hints to the fact that Andrew must also be homosexual.
However , another reason enables the managers to justify their decision . Mr Seidman blames Andrew for nearly blowing " The Highline case " line 35 . He