Chapter VI Summary and Analysis

Before his diagnosis, Christopher wrote that he wanted to be alert at his death. He wanted to be an active not a passive part in it. After he was actually engaged in the death march, he no longer used phrases like "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" (p. 59). He had been through experiences when he had felt stronger for the battle - times when love and hate were tested. Walking away from a near-death automobile crash while on a reporting assignment in a foreign country came to mind.

Nietzsche caught syphilis in an early sexual encounter, possibly his first. Throughout his life, he suffered from horrid migraine headaches and spells of blindness. Eventually his condition devolved into dementia and paralysis. While it may not been the cause of his death, the syphilis didn't make him stronger. A religious...