Soul Surfer Character Analysis

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Is Barbie Still Barbie If She Only Has One Arm? Our bodies are what the outside world sees of us. Only we experience the personal memories contained within our bodies. Scars that appear on our bodies tell stories of the challenges we have faced throughout our lives and remind us of those experiences. Those scars will remain on our body for the rest of our lives and impact the way we see and treat ourselves, as well as the way others see and treat us. Disfigured or “abnormal” bodies cause the outside world to treat them differently, whether that is to belittle them, pity them, or admire them for their resilience. Disfigurement of the body can happen from a numerous amount of circumstances and result in many outcomes, a traumatic burn, scar, …show more content…
This discomfort comes from the idea that they do not embody the physical characteristics of what we define as a normal body. They, similar to those born without limbs, will battle the emotional and social trauma of no longer looking resembling the majority of people. The movie, “Soul Surfer,” chronicling Bethany’s experience and directed by Sean McNamara, displays this social phenomenon. In a particular scene in the movie, a little girl stares and makes a comment to her mother after noticing Bethany’s missing arm (McNamara, "Soul surfer”). This encounter with the child, though innocent, portrays the daily struggles of individuals who have lost a …show more content…
In his article “Movement of the Body, Temptation of Space,” Luis Antonio Umbelino, uses the example of typing on a keyboard to display how our bodies remember implicitly, “Typing rapidly “without looking” exhibits bodily memory since it depends on a constant re-enactment of movements that, so to speak, only the body knows,” (Umbelino 4). Umbelino displays that our bodies can remember how to perform actions that may go unnoticed and we can perform actions without necessarily thinking about it. Having previous knowledge of day to day tasks will make it easier to relearn them. If Bethany had never been a surfer and tried to become one after the attack, she probably would not have been able to. However, because she had been a talented surfer before, her body was able to remember what it needed to do to mount her board and catch a wave. The added stressors and challenges of losing a limb become slightly more manageable because of muscle

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