Tim Winton’s "In the Shadow of the Hospital" explores the many different experiences and emotions that arise in hospitals. For example, he writes about a time when his son was injured and how the nearby hospital that he previously thought of as “seedy” was now a “citadel of hygiene and expertise” in his mind. The gravity of the experience led to feelings of fear and uncertainty and shifted his perspective.

Although this text focuses on hospitals, it conveys deeper meaning about the way emotions arise from human experiences. For example, consider the story he tells about visiting his father in the hospital when he was a young boy. He was struck by the horrors he saw, and the fear and anxiety stayed with him into adulthood. He writes:

Man or boy, whenever I had to visit someone in a hospital a version of that gothic effigy lurked at the edge of consciousness.

Winton’s tale shows how sometimes intense, emotional experiences can influence how we feel when we go through a similar experience. We often come to associate a place or person with an emotion from a previous time.