Unfortunately, a variety of deadly diseases exist, leaving people to battle for their lives every day. Many people feel helpless and lose hope at a certain stage in their disease, whereas others, fight back and continue to live their life to its fullest potential. In the personal essays “On Being a Cripple” written by Nancy Mairs and “Living Under Circe’s Spell” written by Matthew Soyster, both authors have Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a severe disease in which they approach differently. Through a very negative tone, Soyster addresses those who do not have MS, by sharing the limitations and restrictions the terrible disease has on his life. On the other hand, Mairs uses a motivating persona to argue that nothing should stop a person from doing what…
Shadoe Lass 9716 On Being a Cripple Analysis On Being a Cripple Analysis In “On Being a Cripple,” Author Nancy Mairs discusses the diction choices of referring to those with disabilities. Through juxtaposition, Mairs discusses the truth of diction towards the impaired, and demonstrates acceptance to her nature.…
In the passage by Nancy Mairs, she refers to herself as a “cripple.” Her choice to do so, along with her reasoning, and tone was well explained. Nancy Mairs referred to herself as a “cripple” because of many reasons. One of these reasons was that she didn’t like the euphemistic alternatives. She states that using “differently abled” rather than “handicapped” or “disabled” has the same affect as calling a country’s undeveloped state “underdeveloped” or “less developed.”…
In this passage, Nancy Mairs refers to herself as a cripple. She uses tone, word choice, and rhetorical structure to present herself as a cripple. Her tone throughout the passage is very candid and blunt. Usually when talking about someone who is disabled you wouldn’t say crippled, you would be more euphemistic about it. Mairs is not euphemistic with what she considers herself to be, which is crippled.…
Life can change at any moment for which we have little control over. In the essay “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs, she expresses her thoughts on having Multiple Sclerosis and how it significantly changed her life. She provides the reader with various sad and personal stories which would make one’s life miserable. However, when addressing her condition and its effect on her life, she keeps a calm and positive tone. One cannot control what happens in life, but it is possible to control one’s attitude towards it.…
Hoagland’s “ On Stuttering” This essay was exceedingly interesting; at the heart of this essay, is a person who has struggled with a physical impediment, but has still managed to lead a fairly normal life. Although He struggled with the impediment to the point of not voicing his own opinion, Edward Hoagland adapted to his impediment and was able to overcome the struggles he faced everyday. Some disabilities can leave people trapped inside their own body.…
Society places its’ social normality’s on just about everyone, not even aliens can escape the conventional idea of green skin and foil hats. Nancy Mairs is no stranger to this as she divulges her scuffle with society in her personal narrative, “On Being a Cripple”. Through her strong use of pathos, she takes the reader into a reoccurring battle of suffering, rejection, acceptance, and happiness with herself, her family, and society. Family is a word that can take on multiple meanings and forms depending on the person being asked. Mairs’ narrative mentions her family many times, she sees them as a support system, a solace, and at times, the source of her stress.…
However, Brit's spine makes up for his fragile bones – it neither twists nor breaks. Gradually, through his broke years, Brit develops into what just an unfeeling world can see as twisted; his more touchy loved ones, rather, offer him some assistance with flowering into what the world is not – warm-hearted, delicate, creative and discreetly bold. It adequately sensationalizes this procedure of a strangely difficult self-improvement. It is a picture of the disabled man as a craftsman. The liveliness of the story originates from astonishing dynamic portrayals.…
John Hockenberry’s book Moving Violations explores his life as a paraplegic. He suffered a spinal cord injury in a lethal car accident while in college that confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his…
In the short story Harrison Bergeron, repent Harlequin, and in the song Handlebars they all show conformity and how the government is more controlling than ever in dystopian societies. The goal and purpose of this essay is to develop a clear position about the importance of individual-self expression in society. The dystopian short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut is about how the government uses handicapes to control or restrain society Harrison Bergeron who is the anti hero “tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper to show how one person needs to rebel and show how powerful people can be no matter how much you restrain them. In the story the handicaps represent how they limit society, including the ear device they were so it can flee their thoughts and cause them not to think but reallys it represents distraction about the real issues of society.…
Just by opening with the phrase "I'm a cripple", Nancy has already set a serious tone for the reader who is now asking questions about how she is limb and why did she say this? This is her declaring her own illness, so this phrase prepares the reader to be included in a serious topic about her life. Using the word isn’t necessarily welcoming given by the harshness of the word and the fact that Nancy knows how people will react to it. "Maybe I want them to wince," she says, knowing what kind of reaction this word can cause. Although it comes off as a serious/harsh tone, there is another tone of acceptance or maybe peace in there because of this admission.…
The essay is about Nancy’s experience with multiple sclerosis (MS) and how society viewed disability in terms of attitude and language usage. One of the mean reasons why she wrote this essay is to analyze and critique the society view on disability while she also was explaining her experience with MS. For instance, she critiqued society ideal beauty standers. She explained that while beauty standers may change over the time, these standers had never included disable women. She also critiqued that society made starting a family difficult for an immobilized person.…
Disability is an aspect of life that takes on many different forms and faces. From medically diagnosed conditions, to various daily struggles, disability can be seen all around. However, despite its widespread nature, society often perceives disability in a very negative and distant manner. The portrayal of the narrator as close-minded in “Cathedral”, accomplished through the aversive attitude in which he perceives the blind man and the multitude of stereotypes he accepts as true, highlights society’s flawed view of disability. Additionally, his transformation toward the end of the story is telling of what can often occur when people look beyond the preconceived notions they have of disability.…
When entering the United States health care system the tendency to pressure patients into masking suffering comes from to two main sources- health care professionals and family members of the patient. It is difficult for health care professionals to avoid emotional investment surrounding their success of their work, like any other occupation. Family members, contribute to this pressure, because there is escalating emotional investment in the outcome of the treatment. When these are established for a lengthy amount of time, they turn into societal rules that are rarely violated, no matter how detrimental they are. The expectation for notions of positive outlooks and ‘normal’ behavior are exhaustive for an individual who is either sick or recovering…
People with disabilities are attached with stigmas, such as being less intelligent or incapable in certain facets of life. Stereotypes are present in society, but it may be difficult to discuss and to further change or overcome them. However, humor can be used as a device to allow a serious topic to be more approachable by relying on preposterous situations. Through the use of dark humor in Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, John Callahan breaks these stigmas and illustrates an outrageous view of disability in order to show the irrationality of the stereotype or stigma portrayed. Throughout this work, Callahan directly attacks the stereotypes regarding disability and illustrates the realistic portrayal of disability and offers a solution, through humor, to overcome the societal prejudices.…