A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future by Michael J. Fox explores Michael’s journey from dropping out of high school to moving to the busy city of Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. Michael’s experiences and challenges that he faced are described in this book. He shares the struggles he experienced throughout his life, like struggling to pay for food, dealing with his father’s death, and being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He also shares the joys of his life, being a successful actor, having children, and opening a foundation for Parkinson’s research. The book starts out with Michael explaining his experience in high school and his lack of interest in his classes. His passion was somewhere else; he wanted a career in acting so he ended up dropping out and moving to L.A. Michael explains that even though he didn’t attend his high school classes, he was able to learn similar lessons from his own life challenges. Some lessons he learned along the way include the areas in economics, comparative literature, physics, political science, and geography. Although Michael did not follow a …show more content…
I enjoyed Michael’s stories and wisdom that he shared with the readers. His advice of following your dreams and happiness, accepting your fate, and the importance of learning and being curious is described in the book. His stories are entertaining and keep the reader’s attention. I think his advice can be beneficial for anyone and especially for someone starting a new journey in life. Michael is inspiring in both in how he deals with his disease and his optimism about life. I like that Michael also encourages his readers to face their fears and to follow their dreams and passions. Michael shares this valuable message throughout the book, we all face difficulties that come up in life that are not always expected, but we can play an important role in how we react to
For someone like me that has never had an encounter with someone who has a mental illness, it is easy to see the reality. Reading the last part of the book when Earley started talking about how he cannot protect Mike from the viciousness of his illness, but he will stand next to him and help him. This make me realize that the mentally illness does not only affect the individual, but it affects their family greatly
Just in the introduction Chris Crutcher throws a huge incident at the reader that caught and held their interest. In the first chapter Ben Wolf is diagnosed with a rare blood disease, which if not treated will leave him with a maximum of one year to live. The reader might have found this thrilling because curiosity arises to what the protagonist will do with his short time to live. And what decision he will make in regards to the people that he loves and to the events that are soon to come, for example, Ben says, “ I’m going to feel bad any time I get anything good, `caus...
The class is conducted in Morrie’s house in the suburb or Boston, there is no books or any other students, just Mitch and Morrie. Throughout this class Morrie teaches Mitch the lessons of life; lessons such as death, fear, aging, greed, marriage, family, society, forgiveness, and a meaningful life. As Morrie’s conditions worsen, Mitch’s condition is getting better, Mitch is becoming a better person with the help of Morrie. Finally Morrie’s life comes to an end, and Mitch graduates from Life 101.
Her essay is arranged in such a way that her audience can understand her life - the positives and the negatives. She allows her audience to see both sides of her life, both the harsh realities that she must suffer as well as her average day-to-day life. According to Nancy, multiple sclerosis “...has opened and enriched my life enormously. This sense that my fragility and need must be mirrored in others, that in search for and shaping a stable core in a life wrenched by change and loss, change and loss, I must recognize the same process, under individual conditions, in the lives around me. I do not deprecate such knowledge” (Mairs, 37). Mairs big claim is that she has accepted herself and her condition for what is it, yet she refuses to allow her condition to define her. Through her particular diction, tone, satire, and rhetorical elements, Mairs paints a picture of her life and shows how being a cripple has not prevent her from living her life. She is not embarrassed nor ashamed of what she is, and accepts her condition by making the most of it and wearing the title with
I always looked at death as such a sad thing that is eventually going to occur to everyone. However, after reading this book, it made me realize death can actually be a beautiful thing. Death allows a person to go to a next life, one where they will be loved and others will be there for them. It was interesting to be able to read about stories that these hospice care workers witnessed themselves. I have experienced a few deaths within my life and I never coped with them very well. After reading this book, I honestly believe I will be able to look at the positive side of death and be able to deal with my emotions better. I can also help others surrounding me deal with a death that they are experiencing. This book was filled with information that I loved learning. For example, I never knew that a dying person can choose a time to die. The thought of this never occurred to me before. I always thought that when it was someone’s time to go, they had no choice. But, a dying person can “put off” passing on until they see a certain person or event that has great significance in their life. Nevertheless, there are still people who will wait to die until they’re all alone in the room. This book makes you think of real life situations and think what you would do in them. Taken as a whole, it was a very in depth book that changes the way you would naturally perceive
38) He knew that it wasn’t solving the problem, but alcohol just helped his issues so it became his gateway to drugs. Although I thought it was weird that no one noticed that he had a drinking problem since he drank a beer every opportunity he could and his school life was suffering. While visiting his brother, Jason, at Amsterdam’s he shares his excitement of their “…liberal drug policy or the legendary red light district.” (pg. 39) Michael is looking for an escape from his life. By this point he seems to be depressed and an alcoholic, but doesn’t want to look pathetic to others so he hides it. During his trip, he has his first “trip” with marijuana. His brother constant disapproval of all of his life choices and his overall personality causes Michael to ignore his brother’s judgment and ruin his relationship even
Many stories are derived from stories from the past. Walt Disney’s popular movie, The Lion King, is based on the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. This is just one out of many things that are from the past that appears in novels and films today. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is a novel about a mad scientist who wants to make an immense discovery as said by Brett Weiss, “The Frankenstein monster first lumbered into existence in 1818 in Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus, a work that many have called the first science-fiction story.” (Weiss, Brett). Well, this mad scientist, Victor Frankenstein, eventually makes his discovery: the secret of life. He ultimately creates a monster out of body parts he dug from graves, strikes the sewn up corpse with lightning and the monster is created. Yet, instead of being overjoyed about his creation and discovery, he is bitterly disappointed about what he has done and abandons the creature. After this, the creature murders all of Victor’s family and friends to get revenge and the monster eventually kills Dr. Frankenstein and commits suicide. On the other hand, the story of Prometheus, the man who discovered fire and wanted to show his discovery to the other humans, but the God Zeus says no, but Prometheus does it anyways and is ultimately punished by getting his heart eaten out by an eagle for an eternity. Yet, the funny thing is that even though Prometheus is in excruciating pain, he still screams at Zeus that he would do it again. Victor and the monster from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein are both like Prometheus, and Victor ultimately rises as the hero in the novel.
The book can be used as a metaphor for education as a whole. For example, Kate can represent modern institutions and companies. Due to education inflation and credentialism, all they look at is your educational experience and what knowledge you have. This can be applied to Kate as she originally believed your educational background will represent your success in life. In comparison to this, you have Kate’s family, who can relate to students in society. Kate’s family understands that there is more to life than education and knowledge. The same applies to students, who argue there is more to people than their education and years in
the point of view of Michael. We, as the audience, are being told the story through Michael’s
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
...ese kind of foolish acts take place every day in society. Michael and Frances obviously love and care about each other; this was just a small bump in the road that they have overcome. It could have been a fork in the road, and they could have gone their separate ways. But they stuck through it, just like most of relationships. This is important because it shows that most people can overcome any problem if they really tried.
Firstly, I liked the way in which the author uses his experiences to relate ...
Although I do not think all youth are viewed in this discourse, I think those of Michael’s social class are viewed in this way. Raby (2002) states in her research, “discourses are deployed unevenly between adolescents of differing social locations” (p.426). This supports my belief that not all youth in the film are depicted as social problems, however Michael and youth who share a similar social class with him are seen in this way. Leanne does not see Michael through this lens, and does not view him as a social problem like many do. Her friends however, express that they have this view of Michael and disapprove of what Leanne is doing in terms of supporting him and even adopting him when it comes to that point. At the beginning of the film, teachers also show they see Michael as a social problem. They do not believe he is worth the effort it will take to educate him. Instead of blaming the school Michael attended due to his social class, they look at him as the issue and as the social problem. This discourse is highly prevalent amongst the members of the society and directly reflects on how they react to Michael. This also affects how Michael views himself. The discourse in which others apply to Michael is not something he would be able to avoid acknowledging. I believe this had a negative effect on Michael and is why at first he may
Thus, he is not living his life authentically to himself. After Michael has identified what he values, Dr. Vargas will guide him towards means of bringing forth those values into his life, so he can find his own meaning outside of what his parents have thrust onto him. One of the values Michael appears to regard the most is security, as he diverges from taking risks and stepping out of his comfort zone. However, this value of security stunts growth in life. Dr. Vargas may suggest to Michael to try to broaden his social circle, create more closer relationships with others to immerse himself in his new home in New Brunswick, Michael has the choice to embrace his new home or to lock himself away experiencing it. Michael will take this responsibility for his choice of locking himself away from this new home, he must transcend past qualms of moving from life as he knew in Toronto and transition to making a new life in New Brunswick. Self-transcendence is when the client transcends immediate problems, forgetting themselves and amercing themselves in the world. Michael will come to realize this environment in New Brunswick is not like Toronto, and will never replace what he left, but it is up to him to amerce himself in this environment rather than work against it. Michael should become aware that is well liked in school, not picked on
...tentially be cured with a one surgery. He uses this story of death to share that life is short. “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by Dogma. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” He uses repetition and parallelism to drive his message home.