Daniel Keyes, just hearing the name makes your mind blow, doesn’t it? Well if it doesn’t, you’re about to find out just how much of an awesome author he was. I will talk to you about Keyes’s amazing journey through the literary world. Daniel Keyes was a famous novelist and short story writer. He was famous for many novels such as ‘The Contaminated Man’, ‘The Touch’, ‘The Fifth Sally’. However, if you haven’t read his most famous novel ‘Flowers for Algernon’, it’s a shame. Keyes wrote about people that have suffered in life, mainly psychological themes. It has been said that many people in the world have regained confidence due to his amazing writings.
Daniel Keyes was born on August 9th 1927 in New York, USA. He did his pre-med in Brooklyn College, studied a psychology course and attended a postgraduate course in Brooklyn College taught by a psychiatrist. He was married to Aurea Georgina Vaquez in 1952. He also had two amazing daughters, who flourished in life. He had very common parents, Betty Keyes and Willie Keyes. His parents didn’t help him becoming what he is now, but they didn’t do
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Keyes received the Hugo Award for the ‘Best Short Story’ and the Nebula Award for the ‘Best Novel’. Keyes’s books have really affected my feelings and opinions as a person. I really regret to look back in my past and think about how I thought of the disabled, and it is a past I would love to erase if I could. I now know that disabled people may not be the smartest people, but the most kind and honest souls the earth could ever hold. Keyes was a unique writer because he is as far as I know the only author who has the courage to focus his novels on something so painful. He was the only author that has been able to change my mind and give me a closer look at the disabled. Keyes was an exceptional author and it is a big dishonor if he is not known in the mind of all human
The two essays “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs and “A Plague of Tics” by David Sedaris are excellent pieces of work that share many similarities. This paper would reflect on these similarities particularly in terms of the author, message and the targeted audience. On an everyday basis, people view those with disabilities in a different light and make them conscious at every step. This may be done without a conscious realisation but then it is probably human nature to observe and notice things that deviate from the normal in a society. In a way people are conditioned to look negatively at those individuals who are different in the conventional
As human beings, we like to make sure never to offend or judge anyone. We even have sayings like “never judge a book by its cover”. A metaphor that is often said whenever trying not to judge someone based on their outward appearance; however, it is not often that people practice what they preach. We judge people based on external factors within seconds. Even though we know what people see on the outside is not a defining factor or who we are as people. Nancy Mairs, author of On Being a Cripple, has to live through this every day. She knows this truth very well, and lives proudly with the fact that as she is disabled. Mairs is admirable for choosing to call herself a “cripple” and not be ashamed of it. Though the word is derogatory and a word that is avoided by society, Mairs identifies herself as a cripple because that is what she is. In explaining her disability, she says, “I haven’t always been crippled, ... to be whole of limb is ... infinitely more pleasant and useful. and if that knowledge leaves me open to bitterness … the physical soundness I once enjoyed is well worth the occasional stab of regret” (Mairs 186). What really
Celebrity Stylist Jason Bolden on His Rise to Success Celebrity stylist Jason Bolden is making noise in the fashion industry. His client list is continuing to grow by the minute and includes a variety of artists and entertainers that are making an impact in today’s society and culture. Bolden’s celebrity clients include Empire’s Taraji P. Henson, Grown-ish’s Yara Shahidi and Wrinkle in Time director Ava Duvernay The stylist wanted to work in the fashion industry ever since he was a kid.
Disability is a ‘complex issue’ (Alperstein, M., Atkins, S., Bately, K., Coetzee, D., Duncan, M., Ferguson, G., Geiger, M. Hewett, G., et al.., 2009: 239) which affects a large percentage of the world’s population. Due to it being complex, one can say that disability depends on one’s perspective (Alperstein et al., 2009: 239). In this essay, I will draw on Dylan Alcott’s disability and use his story to further explain the four models of disability being The Traditional Model, The Medical Model, The Social Model and The Integrated Model of Disability. Through this, I will reflect on my thoughts and feelings in response to Dylan’s story as well as to draw on this task and my new found knowledge of disability in aiding me to become
The theme of isolation is utilized in writing to shape the principal characters and provide a particular vision on some crucial aspects of their identities. Authors such as Nancy Mairs in, “On Being a Cripple” Zora Neale Hurston in, “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” and Sherman Alexie in, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me”, offer us characterization to set the theme of isolation in their writing. In “On Being a Cripple” Mairs examines the public’s view of the disabled, as well as the views they have of themselves, and compare them to her own. In “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” Hurston discusses how she embraces being a girl of color in a world where people can be very discriminating. In “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” Sherman talks about how reading and writing helped shape his life in a positive way. Every author has their own unique way to express isolation in their writing such as personal experience which provides creditability to the writing and further engages the reader.
What comes into one’s mind when they are asked to consider physical disabilities? Pity and embarrassment, or hope and encouragement? Perhaps a mix between the two contrasting emotions? The average, able-bodied person must have a different perspective than a handicapped person, on the quality of life of a physically disabled person. Nancy Mairs, Andre Dubus, and Harriet McBryde Johnson are three authors who shared their experiences as physically handicapped adults. Although the three authors wrote different pieces, all three essays demonstrate the frustrations, struggles, contemplations, and triumphs from a disabled person’s point of view and are aimed at a reader with no physical disability.
As one of the most influential American writers, Stephen King uses fear to capture his readers by engulfing them into his world of fears. Winning over fifty awards, Stephen King has changed the face of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy novels. Stephen King's life influences his literary works through his many fears, his upbringing in Maine, and his life as a parent.
Many popular novels are often converted into television movies. The brilliant fiction novel, Flowers for Algernon written by Daniel Keyes, was developed into a dramatic television film. Flowers for Algernon is about a mentally retarded man who is given the opportunity to become intelligent through the advancements of medical science. This emotionally touching novel was adapted to television so it could appeal to a wider, more general audience. Although the novel and film are similar in terms of plot and theme, they are different in terms of characters.
In her article “Unspeakable Conversations” author Harriet McBryde Johnson took time to inform and familiarize her readers with the details and limitations placed upon her by her disability. In her article she walked her readers through her morning routine. She told them about the assistance she needs in the morning from transferring from bed to wheelchair, to morning stretches, to bathing, to dressing, to braiding her hair. She does this not to evoke pity but to give her readers a glimpse into her world. She wants her readers to know that the quality of a disabled person’s life relies solely on another’s willingness to assist. Because those with disabilities need assistance they are often viewed as burdens. Therefore, they see themselves as
"Flowers for Algernon" is a touching, emotional and moral issues, the book is written by the author of eight books, Daniel Keys. The novel talks about a thirty-two year old, Charlie Gordon, who has a cerebral disability “retarded” who was practiced to an operation to gain intelligence. Daniel keys inspiration was to “make- believe “to gain the intelligence of a human. He started writing a few and there, but he had no protagonist in his story. Until, he decided to name his protagonist “Charlie” because Aurea (Keys wife) last boyfriend and Key’s rival was named Charlie."I hope they use me because Miss Kinnian says mabye they can make me smart". (Keys1) Daniel Keys had the imagination to create this character touching everyone's heart. Charles
In the book, The Short Bus, Jonathan Mooney’s thesis is that there is more to people than their disabilities, it is not restricting nor is it shameful but infact it is beautiful in its own way. With a plan to travel the United States, Mooney decides to travel in a Short bus with intentions of collecting experiences from people who have overcome--or not overcome--being labeled disabled or abnormal. In this Mooney reinvents this concept that normal people suck; that a simple small message of “you’re not normal” could have a destructive and deteriorating effect. With an idea of what disabilities are, Mooney’s trip gives light to disabilities even he was not prepared to face, that he feared.
This tone is also used to establish an appeal to pathos which he hopes to convince the audience of the fact that handicapped people are still people and not less than anyone else. A very prominent example of Peace’s emotion is displayed when he says, “Like many disabled people, I embrace an identity that is tied to my body. I have been made to feel different, inferior, since I began using a wheelchair thirty years ago and by claiming that I am disabled and proud, I am empowered,” (para. 15). This declaration demonstrates to his audience that Peace is honored by who he is and what disabled people can do and that he is tired of being oppressed by the media. Peace also makes this claim to support his thesis in the first paragraph that states, “The negative portrayal of disabled people is not only oppressive but also confirms that nondisabled people set the terms of the debate about the meaning of disability,” (para. 1). This is Peace’s central argument for the whole article and explains his frustration with society’s generalization of handicapped people and the preconceived limitations set on them. Peace’s appeal to pathos and tone throughout are extremely effective in displaying to his audience (society) that those who have disabilities are fed up with the limits that have been placed in the
Readers become focused with the intensity and strength of the writer. Margaret Atwood pulls the reader in by bring her art and words to visual life. She makes you think about what she is saying and it then becomes a picture. Pictures lurk your mind as you read the award winning books such as, “The Blind Assassin,” a Booker Prize winner in the year 2000. Her books are bought and read all around the world. Her work has been published in more than thirty-five different languages including; Japanese, Turkish, Finish, Korean, Iceland, and Estonian. (Atwood, “Negotiating With The Dead”) She is an amazing person and shows her strength threw her work. Atwood is an award winner of stories and poems’ like, “Morning After in the Burning House,” and “Murder in The Dark” (Atwood, “Negotiating with the Dead”) She was born to write, and a writer she became.
Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, is a book about Charlie Gordon, a man with a cognitive disability, who was given the opportunity to undergo an operation to gain intelligence. The topic of whether or not he was better off having the surgery is very controversial. Charlie is better off with the surgery, even though he lost his intelligence in the end, because Charlie got to experience new things, he got to prove people wrong, and he fell in love.
While these three authors have different reasons to write their essays, be it media unfairness, ignorance, or ethical disputes, they all share a basic principle: The disabled are not viewed by the public as “normal people,” and they are unfairly cast away from the public eye. The disabled have the same capacity to love, desire and hurt as any other human being, and deserve all of the rights and privileges that we can offer them. They should be able to enter the same buildings, have representation in the media, and certainly be allowed the right to live.