When it comes to depicting what people assume about what a disability life would resemble the majority of the time they end up coming up short. Allen Rucker gives us the opportunity to develop a detailed perspective. After waking up one day with a cold to ending it paralyzed for the rest of his life. Rucker considered himself a healthy, athletic family man who work in Hollywood, he was only fifty-one- year-old when everything changed. By taking this novel and analyzing it with concepts about the sociological views of disability it helps us to develop a better understanding of these concepts. Therefore, we will be looking at disability in the media, social interaction, and developing a disability in adolescence and adulthood.
Disability in the …show more content…
When it comes to social interaction and disability it never goes as expected. Though there are many different common responses of “others” to people with disabilities, we will only look at the ones that Rucker experiences the most. First being the nurturing mother 's response where people feel the need to provide help that was never asked for, which is often looked at as treating adults like children. Rucker talks about a time at Starbucks when someone grab and pushed his chair to the front of the line. Just for the fact being he wanted to help him and buy him his coffee (p.61). Although this young man was doing it on a false pretense since he believed that Rucker had been in army veteran. But it goes to show that people will just assume what they chose to believe and won’t take no for an answer in Rucker case because they want to believe they are doing something noble. Another response is anxiety/withdrawal which is when people act fearful or anxious around people who are disabled and turn away in order to avoid. I feel people tend to resort to this response. One day when Rucker was at the mall, a woman pulled her kid abruptly away from Rucker’s vicinity (p.48). Now this connects to Introducing Disability Studies in this they speak of the central premise of the theory of symbolic interaction and the relation of said disability. These premises being people act towards things based on the meanings they have for those things, which we learn the meaning through social interaction, and meanings change over time through re-interpreting and further interaction (IDS p.43-48). So by this mother pulling her child away, she is teaching her child to avoid anyone who has a disability. Which makes sense why Rucker would have fears like people letting him fall off his chair and hit the ground when trying to transfer to the car (p.34). Lastly, affirmation/acceptance is a common response as well. This is where people are accepting
Disability in the …show more content…
When it comes to social interaction and disability it never goes as expected. Though there are many different common responses of “others” to people with disabilities, we will only look at the ones that Rucker experiences the most. First being the nurturing mother 's response where people feel the need to provide help that was never asked for, which is often looked at as treating adults like children. Rucker talks about a time at Starbucks when someone grab and pushed his chair to the front of the line. Just for the fact being he wanted to help him and buy him his coffee (p.61). Although this young man was doing it on a false pretense since he believed that Rucker had been in army veteran. But it goes to show that people will just assume what they chose to believe and won’t take no for an answer in Rucker case because they want to believe they are doing something noble. Another response is anxiety/withdrawal which is when people act fearful or anxious around people who are disabled and turn away in order to avoid. I feel people tend to resort to this response. One day when Rucker was at the mall, a woman pulled her kid abruptly away from Rucker’s vicinity (p.48). Now this connects to Introducing Disability Studies in this they speak of the central premise of the theory of symbolic interaction and the relation of said disability. These premises being people act towards things based on the meanings they have for those things, which we learn the meaning through social interaction, and meanings change over time through re-interpreting and further interaction (IDS p.43-48). So by this mother pulling her child away, she is teaching her child to avoid anyone who has a disability. Which makes sense why Rucker would have fears like people letting him fall off his chair and hit the ground when trying to transfer to the car (p.34). Lastly, affirmation/acceptance is a common response as well. This is where people are accepting