Shannon McChesney March 5th, 2015 AAC Reaction Paper “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” is a memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Jean suffered a massive stroke at the age of forty-three. As a result of this stroke, Jean lived with “locked-in syndrome”. He was completely paralyzed except for the ability to blink his left eye and could not speak or communicate in any other way. The book was physically written by a woman named Claude who translated each of Jean’s meaningful blinks into the appropriate letter it corresponded with. Jean provided short memories of his life prior to the stroke, as well as moments and rituals that occurred at the hospital during what he describes as his “new life” following the stroke. This book held my attention …show more content…
If he said yes, I would want to know if that answer would change if he had lost the ability to blink his left eye, his only means of communicating with the world. I had never taken the time to seriously consider what life would be like if I could not move or speak. While reading this book, I seriously contemplated what it would be like and was overwhelmed about how tremendously a person’s life can change within a few minutes. There is a chapter in the book when, on Father’s day, Jean’s children come to the hospital to see him. Jean is overwhelmed with emotion during a game with his son because he realizes the unfairness of the circumstances. Jean begins to cry, and his son is slightly startled. Jean wants to tell his son that it’s ok, and he loves him; but he can’t do this. He also discusses how he stopped using humor in his speech because his comments no longer seemed witty by the time they have been translated letter by letter. He referred to himself as “a tiny fragment of a dad” in this chapter. This line is heart-breaking and a brutally honest confession of how he views his life and relationships. He clearly has endless love for his children, but his ways of communicating with and being a part of their lives have almost
What’s that Pig Outdoors? is a memoir whose name easily captures the attention of the potential reader. Moreover, the story of the title captures an important theme in the narrative, which is that being deaf can sometimes lead to humorous (and sometimes not so humorous) misunderstandings. Henry Kisor, the author of the memoir has been deaf since age three. Still, he grew up in the hearing world as a lip-reader, and does not separate himself from the hearing culture in the slightest. While his disability can lead to said misunderstandings, it hasn’t stopped Kisor from living his life the way he wants and feels is best for him.
The book, Deaf Again, written by Mark Drolsbaugh, is an autobiography telling his life story which starts with a young boy growing up who goes through the process of losing his hearing and then, as he gets older, he struggles with trying to fit in as a normal child. When Mark was very young, he could hear fairly well, then gradually he went hard of hearing until he eventually went completely deaf. Even though he had two deaf parents, the doctors advised speech therapy and hearing aids because they did not understand Deaf Culture and they thought that Mark would be a lot happier if he could hang on to his hearing persona. Throughout the rest of the book, Mark goes through a lot of stages of trying to fit in with everyone and eventually does find himself and realizes that being Deaf is not a disease, but just a part of who he is. About the time Mark was in kindergarten, he thought he was a normal child just like everyone else, but he started to distort things he heard in class and was wondering why everyone would be laughing and why he would be getting corrected.
When I first recieved the book, The Deaf Heart by Willy Conley, I was very excited to read it. We had been waiting for over a month to finally get it! The novel follows the journey of Demsey Maxwell McCall, Max for short, and his challenges in high school and following him through his internship at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.
While staying at Mel’s home, the adolescent female narrator personifies the butterfly paperweight. The life cycle begins with the narrator “hearing” the butterfly sounds, and believing the butterfly is alive. The butterfly mirrors the narrator’s feelings of alienation and immobility amongst her ‘new family’ in America. She is convinced the butterfly is alive, although trapped inside thick glass (le 25). The thick glass mirrors the image of clear, still water. To the adolescent girl, the thick glass doesn’t stop the sounds of the butterfly from coming through; however, her father counteracts this with the idea of death, “…can’t do much for a dead butterfly” (le 31). In order to free the butterfly, the narrator throws the disk at a cabinet of glass animals, shattering the paperweight, as well as the glass animals. The shattering of the glass connects to the shattering of her being, and her experience in fragility. The idea of bringing the butterfly back to life was useless, as the motionless butterfly laid there “like someone expert at holding his breath or playing dead” (le 34). This sense of rebirth becomes ironic as the butterfly did not come back to life as either being reborn or as the manifestation of a ghostly spirit; instead its cyclic existence permeates through the narrator creating a transformative
Up until now Lynn had it very tough growing up in a hearing world, but as soon as she started learning and using sign language her world turned around. Lynn finally gained a means of communication and Thomas and Louise were finally able to understand and communicate with their beautiful little girl with whom they were cut off from with a language barrier. Through communicating with other deaf individuals like her, Lynn finally felt like she was “normal” without trying to please the society’s normalcy.
Alvarez, Julia. In The Time of the Butterflies. New York, NY: Penguin, 1994. Print Hardback. 31 Oct 2013 - 8 Dec 2013.
Mark Drolsbaugh’s Deaf Again is a biography about his life between two dimensions of the Deaf world and the Hearing world as well as the implications he faced throughout his journeys’. Mark Drolsbaugh was born from two deaf parents and was basically forced to adapt to the hearing world even though his parents are deaf. When Drolsbaugh was born he was hearing, however, by first grade his parents and teachers discovered he was losing his hearing. As time went on Mark realized the issues he faced from trying to adapt to the hearing world. Mark Drolsbaugh quotes in his biography, “Deafness is bad. I am deaf. I need to be fixed. I must be like them, no matter what, because deaf is bad.” However, no matter what his family believed that he
Born hearing to deaf, signing parents, Mark gradually lost his hearing. Despite the fact that his deaf parents preferred sign communication, Mark was raised and educated without the use of sign language. His parents and grandparents were concerned that sign might interfere with speech and restrict his educational achievement. Although Mark became increasingly hard-of-hearing, he worked hard to "pass" as a hearing person. This ambition, he later discovered, actually constricted his development and limited the depth of relationships with family and friends. During these long years, he just "didn?t know what (he) was missing." When he later learned ASL, chose to mix with deaf people, and learned to perceive deafness as something special, his horizons expanded. He came to value communication and relationships above the things that seemed so important to many people, such as image, income, status, skills, religious background, or race.
Jeanette's early character is somewhat timid and a fan of conformity. She writes, "Since I wanted the other kids to like me, I didn't raise my hand all the time" (Wells 58). She goes on to move to New York away from her parents after junior year, just through her own effort and resources. Jeanette changes from a child who is affected by others' opinion of her, into an adult mature enough to make life-changing decisions for herself without being concerned with the status quo. She is motivated by success and by better chances in the world outside of Welch, where she feels constrained by the closed-mindedness of other people who live there. Jeanette is a symbol of the resilience and perseverance of humanity.
Even though we believe there are so many happy things around us, these things are heartbreaking. The poems “Tips from My Father” by Carol Ann Davis, “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith, and “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop convey the sorrow of growing up, of sorrowful pretending, and even of life itself. The poem “Tips from My Father” depicts an episode of the life of a father and his son. The pain from the childhood, the betraying of a lover, countless secrets are settling during the period of life, which can absolutely not be shared and understood by others.
While reading Mark Drolsbaugh’s Deaf Again where he wrote about his experiences with becoming postlingually deaf, I realized that I was able to relate to some of the situations he encountered, especially when he spoke of his frustrating childhood due to his disability. As he grew older, he needed to find new ways to cope with and accept his deafness. Because of his unique viewpoint with deaf parents who were not allowed to sign around him, the book gave readers a different perspective to look at deafness with. Drolsbaugh’s personal account of his life was inspirational as he grew up with a truly exceptional situation, yet was able to overcome his obstacles and become successful after he quit denying who he really was.
Lane, H. (1984). When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf. [Kindle]. Retrieved from http://www.randomhouse.com
Walker, L. A. (1986). A Loss for Words: The Story of Deafness in a Family. New York: Harper
“The Swimmer,” a short fiction by John Cheever, presents a theme to the reader about the unavoidable changes of life. The story focuses on the round character by the name of Neddy Merrill who is in extreme denial about the reality of his life. He has lost his youth, wealth, and family yet only at the end of the story does he develop the most by experiencing a glimpse of realization on all that he has indeed lost. In the short story “The Swimmer,” John Cheever uses point of view, setting and symbolism to show the value of true relationships and the moments of life that are taken for granted.
Jean is a wife of a powerful man. Based on her husband word and actions, image and work are his primary concerns. In the beginning, Jean say that " Rick spent dinner on his phone most of the night and not showing Jean an attention." He Mentions that he thinks Jean is jealous of Karen, who works closely with Rick. Later, while Jean is extremely emotional and upset because rick doesn't take her seriously and shuffles her off to bed so he can work on his image and how voters will respond to the robbery. Moreover, this shows that Jean does not have any responsibilities or any true friends throughout the film. The character of Jean Cabot allowed her past to interfere with her life during the whole movie. For example, when Jean and her husband Rick SUV was stolen by two black men with guns; Jean wouldn't let it go she always had something to say about it. Jean was the type of character that try to make others feel how she feel and also try to make others characters feel sorry for her. Most of Jean's fear would come from her personal problems. However, Jean's blind fear, anger and her emotions are a result of how alone she feels. For the most part Jean does not even exhibit interpersonal immediacy with others. Therefore, Jeans perception with herself is consistent with the way others see her