Peter Hobson - Part 1

A detailed Summary of Peter Hobson - Part 1

Peter Hobson (studying biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto) is invited to complete some of his forty-hour course requirement during a "dissection" of a dead person. The doctor amazes Peter. He looks at the patient, and before he was "picked apart" his pulse rate began to rise, and he seemed to grimace in pain as they made the opening incision. At that point, Myolock, a muscle relaxant was put into the body. When they continued with the incision, the patient's leg flexed, causing Peter to believe that he was still alive, although the doctor said it was normal. After all the cutting was over, the man had no internal organs, and now met Peter's definition of dead. He began to search for what "legally dead" means with his girlfriend, Cathy Churchill.

My Opinion: Starting the book in an operating room sets a dark atmosphere for the whole book. However, once Cathy enters, it seems that the author tried to offset Peter's sadness of the operation with his joy in being with Cathy. However, Peter is truly shaken by the whole operation.

Cathy lost her passion for chemistry. She loved it so m

Peter notices that the lights(neurons) move towards Mrs. Fennell's temple. Sarkar believes it is the human soul leaving the body. An energy field surrounded the dead at the point of death, whether it stays is not been discovered. Sarkar tells Peter to go to the press, but Peter wants more solid evidence. He already has hooked up the Super EEG to other patients. He believes that he must prove that this happens to everyone. Sarkar still says he has proven that there is an after life.

Peter wishes he could create a machine that can detect the level of sleep a person is in. He invited Sarkar over to study the data, and he is amazed.

Peter met Sarkar again for dinner. They had pointless conversation during dinner. Peter leaves and goes home. Cathy and himself seem to be returning to better terms. Peter is called in to the hospital because Mrs. Fennell had a stroke and will die soon. Peter gets there just in time to hear her final thoughts, then a second stroke kills her. He takes the data from the Super EEG, and goes home to study it. He notices that the neurons in her brain move very quickly and then die out, shaped like a wave.

My Opinion: I believe although Cathy cheated on Peter, he still does love her and that's' why he couldn't bring himself to tell Sarkar. I like how they include the places in Toronto.

Peter takes his super EEG to a cattle slaughterhouse. He wishes to test the idea of souls in animals. Cows, however, turned up negative. He explores the idea that humans closest relative, chimps could have souls. If they were proven to have souls, the rules around animal testing would change as well. They would be considered just as human as everyone else, and thus, have the same rules as everyone else. Sarkar tells Peter than he can detect when the soul leaves the body, but can he detect when it enters the body? Peter had not thought of that.

My Opinion: This chapter had one point, and that was to show that Peter is still very disturbed by the surgery. Cathy is the same personality wise, but lost her love for chemistry.

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Approximate Word count = 1583
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English