The memoir, Body, Remember by Kenny Fries, is about a male, named Kenny Fries, who encapsulates his intersecting identities as gay, Jewish, and disabled. Throughout the memoir, Kenny shares challenges that he faced in his life, and is on a quest to discover himself as a whole and accept who he is as a person. One of the biggest challenges Kenny faces is his disability. Kenny was born with an unknown birth defect that caused both his legs to be deformed, making it difficult and painful for him to get around. He underwent numerous surgeries, and as medical technology advanced over time, Kenny had the option of amputation of both legs and receiving a prosthetic, or a surgery that would potentially relieve his pain, straighten out his legs, and …show more content…
But, do they ever question to think about what it is, or why they have it? Many people take full functioning body parts for granted and never question how losing a part of one's body impacts them. One can lose all or part of their leg or an arm due to circulation problems caused from atherosclerosis or diabetes, traumatic injuries from traffic accidents or military combat, cancer, and birth defects similar to Kenny's (Artificial Limbs). When this happens to someone, they may be able to receive a prosthetic, artificial limb, to help them perform daily activities. Receiving a prosthetic can be very beneficial, but it does have some drawbacks. Some pros of prosthetics are more control and mobility, a natural appearance, and it allows you to appear more 'average' (Hill). Mobility and appearance allow the patient to feel more comfortable with themselves and how they appear, which is almost crucial in order to move on and accept what happened. Some cons of prosthetics include price, physical therapy, risk of complications, and skin irritations (Hill). Price and enduring physical therapy to get used to the new limb can have major mental impacts and discourage the patient from following through with the prosthetic. In Kenny's case, he denied the surgery to amputate his legs for internal reasons, which led him to face problems that he may not of had to face with …show more content…
["Quote on Kenny feeling his feet touch the cold tile of the bathroom"] Kenny desires the physical sensation of his legs and does not want to give that up. Being able to touch and feel his scars is a physical reminder of what happened to him. If he were to amputate and receive prosthetics, that physical sensation would be taken away from him. Another reason why Kenny chose not to have the surgery is because of his past experience with surgeries. Growing up, Kenny received countless surgeries and had to learn how to walk with casts on both legs. After a while this because traumatizing for him. Every time that Kenny entered into a hospital, the smell reminded him of those days and it made it difficult for him to breath. Lastly, Kenny did not receive the surgery because he has not yet accepted who he is. ["Quote on how Kenny would have given up if he had received the surgery"] During the book Kenny wanted to self identify himself and accept who he is. If he were to get the surgery with out coming to full understanding of why he is the way that he is and accepting that he is that way, then he would just have received the surgery as a gateway out. He would never be able to come to full acceptance of who he is after surgery if he did not accept himself prior to it. Maybe one day Kenny will receive the surgery, but for now he needs to work on achieving his goal of self
His aim was to in-crease amputees’ confidence in the use of their prosthetics and their mental attitude. He recruited 100 volunteer amputees and put them through the programme. The results sug-gested that he achieved his aim he noted improvements in the physical and mental well-being of the volunteers. They also gained confidence in using their prosthetic which aided their recovery. Their mental well-being was particularly important as it was noted that a positive mental attitude and acceptance of the prosthetic resulted in a quicker recovery time (Dillingham, T.R., 1998).
Laura Hillenbrand’s novel Unbroken incorporates the improbable life of the main character, Louie Zamperini. She introduces both the inspiring and powerful journey that Louie encounters in his life as he grows up. Hillenbrand looks to and successfully does catch the versatility of the human soul. Zamperini’s story including his involvement in World War II gives a persuasive stage in which the author demonstrates numerous qualities of Louie. Leaving readers to appreciate his courage, quality, grit and above all else, his bravery. “Confident that he was clever resourceful, and bold enough to escape any predicament, [Louie] was almost incapable of discouragement. When history carried him into war, this resilient optimism would define him.” Louie
Louie Zamperini survived almost two months at sea facing starvation, extreme thirst, and shark attacks. During WWII, Louie was captured and taken to many Japanese prison camps where he was drained emotionally and physically. Though his conditions were obviously not ideal, Louie kept up his lively personality and found ways to take care of himself to survive. In the novel Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses both internal and external conflict to show the theme people can stand up against enemies even when the odds seemed stacked up against them.
Christopher Johnson McCandless, the main character in the book “Into the Wild,” had made a lot of friends even though he did not like people. Wayne Westerberg was one of Chris’s friends who he met in a bar. Chris also befriended a girl named Jan Burre. Another person who befriended Chris was a guy named Ronald Franz,
Julius Caesar is mentioned throughout the book, A Long Way Gone, many times. In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael would be reading Julius Caesar or a soldier would be reciting some of the speeches in the play. In Chapter 12 of A Long Way Gone, Ishmael is called over to talk with Lieutenant Jabati. Then, Lieutenant Jabati showed Ishmael the book he was reading, which was Julius Caesar, and asked Ishmael if he had ever heard of the book. Ishmael had read the book in school, and began to recite a speech from the book. After this happened, Lieutenant Jabati and Corporal Gadafi used emotional arguments to motivate the people in the village to stay there and support the military. Also, Lieutenant showed all the people in the village dead bodies to help
In The Big Field, author Mike Lupica explores the theme, "Success uses motivation as fuel." Lupica portrays this theme through the main character, Hutch. Throughout the entire book, Hutch, a young boy that has just recently joined a highly talented baseball team, displays moments that exemplify this main theme. Hutch and his team have a chance to play in the stadium of the Miami Marlins, a Major League Baseball team, as long as they can keep winning games and advancing through a challenging tournament; however, Hutch's favorite position on the field, shortstop, the position located between 2nd and 3rd base, has already been filled on the team. Unfortunately, Hutch gets a demotion from shortstop, to second base, the position located between 1st base and 2nd base. Although Hutch was disappointed and melancholy about the switch in position, he was even more upset about the downgrading of leadership, since the
What do you do when you are supposed to be entering the best experience of your life and broken limbs start to clutter your path? The easiest and most prominent answer I have found is “make yourself busy”! But doesn’t this further complicate things? It is hard to enjoy life when something is missing and the question, why? continues to loom. The obstacles faced in life present moments of growth through hope, love, disability, and heartache, and test our ability to overcome, grow and evolve as humans.
Piaget believed that a child’s development is neither intrinsic (learning based on interest) or extrinsic (learning from an outside force, such as a parent). He believed that a child develops based on his or hers interactions in the environment (Mooney 2000). Piaget created four stages of cognitive development, some of which can be seen in the film “Cheaper by the Dozen”. A few examples of characters that display Piaget’s theory are the twins, who are in the preoperational stage and lack the concept of conservatism, and the mastermind, who is in the concrete operational stage and show's the concept of decentralism. These characters will have Piaget’s theory applied to them in the following paragraphs.
Kevin uses his imagination to minimize his disability in his every day life. In Preschool Kevin would march around the school with his leg braces and use his imagination to pretend that he was a robot. The fact that he uses his imagination to see his leg braces as “astounding” is a great example of Kevin using his imagination to minimize his disability.
Much work goes into musical , as was the case in “Catch Me If You Can”,which La Joya Middle School drama had the pleasure of watching on January 15, put on by El Diamante High School. The musical was directed by John Sorber and Michael Tackett. This amazing production included many talented actors such as Maverik Dakota Raven starring as Frank Abagnale Jr., Kiley Hoffman playing Brenda Strong, and Jonathan Johns as Carl Hanratty. This incredible play carried a strong lesson. As was seen the protagonist ran from his problems and pretended to be someone who he wasn't. The plot of this story showed us that we can't run from our problems, for that only worsens the situation and is a snowball for our problems.
Anthony Doerr’s novel All the Light We Cannot See shows the reader how children would deal with war and how it shaped who they are today. Doerr’s purpose for writing this novel is to highlight how mentally taxing the war was and that there was no permanent escape from the war. Both Marie-Laure and Werner believed they could escape the war both physically and mentally, yet their involvement in it makes it more difficult. Marie-Laure’s fear of her father going to jail shows how she becomes involved in the war. Werner struggled with trying to escape the war through his fascination with radios when it just brought him further into the war. After understanding the effect on certain individuals; the story zooms out showing how the majority
Phantom Limb Syndrome is when a patient has lost a limb, such as a body part (organs), an arm or leg, but can still feel the presents of the limb and is “able” to continue functions with the arm because of the presents of the phantom. This syndrome can be caused by losing a limb in a tragic accident or by being born without a limb or limbs. When people are born without the limb or limbs and have this syndrome it can be described as wishful thinking or by having a soul. Wishful thinking is where the person wishes that they have the syndrome but they actually do not even if they are showing the signs of having the syndrome. This sort of thinking can be shown in the case of John McGrath who was an arm amputee that had co...
Noah is the one of the main characters of The Notebook. He is the hero of this novel. Noah represents true love and true loyalty. In a way, The Notebook is similar to every modern day romance movie, and Noah represents the “dream man” that all the girls always imagine of having. The characters in movies are used to symbolize ideas, and in this novel, Noah represents true, faithful, committed love. Noah remains loyal to Allie even in the situation where he is unsure whether they will ever meet again or not.
Prosthetic limbs, one of the examples of physical enhancement, have improved to such an extent that the capabilities and...
Firstly, Nick Vujicic has mental and physical strength. Imagine a situation of being born without limbs, no hands to experience touch, no legs to walk. Nick had a hard time when he was a child, and his life has filled with difficulties and hardships. When Nick attended school, he started to face a lot of problems. He began to be more lonely, rejected and bullied. That was because of his physical differences. Like most children , he was vulnerable in his pre-teen years and many kids hurt him when they asked him “why don’t you have arms and legs?” (Vujicic, 2010, p. 17). He decided to stay home to avoid negative comments from others. After a period of time, Nick became able to make relationships with other kids at school, by telling them about his physi...