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• 1 media/photo-1545192782-2bcd843fca68.jpg 2019-04-27T03:19:46-07:00 The Real Poison in Henrietta Rose-Innes’s "Poison" 7 What's worse than toxic chemicals? image_header 2019-05-01T03:52:47-07:00 The short story “Poison” features a woman named Lynn who becomes stranded at a petrol station following the explosion of a chemical factory in her town. She then suffers unfortunate side-effects from the toxic chemicals in the air. It seems reasonable to assume that these chemicals are the poison that the title is referring to. However, I would argue that another poison is present in the story. A poison that is possibly worse than toxic chemicals.

  So, what is Lynn’s poison? 

  To put it simply, willful ignorance. Lynn demonstrates willful ignorance multiple times in the short story. The first instance occurs when Lynn makes the decision to stay in Cape Town and get drunk two nights in a row and “left it terribly late, despite all the warnings.” Following this, she neglects a ride out of town in a taxi in favor of waiting for rescue. Even at the very end of the story Lynn continues to believe she will be rescued and does not attempt to escape on the bike at the petrol station. Instead, she chooses to literally turn her back to the problem and wait. She makes a conscious decision ignore her environment, despite it getting progressively worse and posing more harm to her.

  Willful Ignorance: The Poison of All People

  Lynn isn’t the only person who is willfully ignorant. She’s actually part of a large majority in that sense. Her refusal to acknowledge the problem is very characteristic in modern society. Many people refuse to accept that there is an issue until it is too late. Even worse, many people will acknowledge the problem but will wait for someone else to solve it for them, much like Lynn insisting on being rescued rather than saving herself, despite having several opportunities. Even with significant and substantial evidence of a problem, a large portion of people will still choose to ignore it. It is possible that this occurs due to deflection of responsibility, a phenomenon in which every person involved in a situation will assume someone else will handle it, resulting in the problem being left unresolved. Another contributing factor is the “not my problem” attitude that many people possess. 
  
  A prime example of this willful ignorance is demonstrated by the issue of global warming. Although there is significant scientific evidence to support the idea of global warming, many people still choose to deny the problem or simply ignore it entirely. Out of the individuals who do accept global warming as a fact, a majority of them make no effort to prevent it, despite the fact that it is preventable. Aside from scientific proof of global warming, the consequences that the world is already facing are also being ignored or disregarded, such as the melting of polar icecaps. These consequences are visible and well-known, yet there are still people who will not acknowledge the problem or will refuse to do anything about it. This is a clear demonstration of willful ignorance.