The Empathy Exams

Jamison begins with the “first function” in which she describes living in Nicaragua and teaching Spanish to young children. She integrates herself into the culture despite her outlier status, accepting the ways she is othered by the locals in an affectionate way. Jamison then states that “I never know how to start this story. I just don’t” and introduces the work of Vladimir Propp (70). Propp outlined the classic formatting of fairytales in a book written during the Russian Revolution. Jamison uses this formatting, labeled functions, and skips to the third in which she is told she shouldn’t have been walking home alone at night. She then revisits the second function and notes that while staying in Nicaragua she had not been told not to walk home alone at night—she had been told not to be afraid. Jamison notes that she strived so hard to separate herself from classic American tourists that she endeavored to behave differently. It is here that she reveals she got punched in the face and struggles to understand how the act of violence fits into Prop’s formatting.

Jamison then notes that Propp’s fourth function notes that a villain attempts to deceive the hero, but there was no deception in what happened to her. Instead, she flows to the fifth and sixth functions, in which the villain gathers information and causes harm. Jamison notes that her status as a female tourist no doubt drew the man to her, and he punches her to steal her wallet and camera. It is here that Jamison reveals she was less concerned with her belongings and more concerned with the damage the man did to her face, which turns out to be a broken nose.

Jamison reviews the “missing functions,” or the parts of Propp’s outline that do not fit her story. She relays going to a bar after she was hit where the men help ice her face and give her beer to drink. She feels exposed and vulnerable. When the police arrive with a man, Jamison tells them it was not the man who hit her. She also looks through mug shots and then uses a facial profiling program, but both are unsuccessful in identifying the perpetrator.

When Jamison arrives at the part of her narrative when she is given a new appearance, she returns to the United States and receives surgery to fix the bones in her nose. Even after the surgery, she can still see the imperfection marking the punch. She then reflects on Propp’s final function, a marriage and ascent to the throne, and she notes that she wanted a man to be angry on her behalf. Her attempts to tell an ex-boyfriend about her face fall flat as she is uncertain how to navigate the social exchange of her own story.

After Jamison’s return to the United States, she struggles to encapsulate the event to her friends and loved ones. She highlights that in Propp’s formula, there is no stage in which the hero reconciles with the changes that she has experienced. She does not fully understand her experience, only that she has been forever altered by someone she does not know.