Response to "The Structure of Torture" in The Body in Pain by Elaine Scarry

One of the main concepts Scarry discusses in The Body in Pain is body and voice and how pain is always present. The psychological pain caused to a prisoner disappears when there is physical pain because that pain makes the mind unable to think of anything else. As physical pain increases and everything around someone can be viewed as a weapon they begin to prepare for death by the loss of meaning in the world. Once a prisoner loses their world they lose their voice. Elaine Scarry explained the use of “mock execution” and how any form of physical pain is mock execution. The use of this technique starts the process of dying for the prisoner just like how when someone knows they will die soon from an illness they have already started to die. I found it very interesting how she explained the necessity of duration, control, and purpose for something to be qualified as torture.

Scarry also repeatedly analyzed how the experience for the prisoner and torturer are inverted. Pain can only be felt by the person being tortured, so pain will mean everything to the prisoner but mean nothing to the torturer. The question and answer though are very important to the torturer because without finding information they have failed to fulfill their duty. The pain is so much to the prisoner though that the question is so insignificant.

These two concepts come together because once the prisoner loses their world, self, and voice they will say anything even if it is not true and is not their words. The person doing the interrogation will cause pain until the prisoner is forced into saying what the interrogator wants to hear. “If they are not guilty, beat them until they are.” It is so obvious to the prisoner that there is no chance of the torture ending until an answer to the question is given. Specifically while reading about “The Submarine” I realized how shocking it is that a lot of prisoners did not commit suicide.