Sharon Draper’s award-winning, young-adult, fictional novel entitled Out of My Mind presents the narrative story of a young girl, Melody Brooks, who lives with a full-time disability, which is cerebral palsy. Melody faces one day at a time, rarely claiming she is handicapped in any way. Melody cannot talk, write, or even bathe herself, but she is highly intelligent and has a quick photogenic memory. These two characteristics contribute heavily to her argument within the novel which is, as cliché as it sounds, do not judge a book by its cover.
Because of Melody’s inability to speak or fully physically function, her doctors have deemed her retarded. However, Melody begins her fifth grade school year, and she is put in an inclusion class, where
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
The essays, “On Being a Cripple”, by Nancy Mairs, and “Living Under Circe’s Spell”, by Matthew Soyster are both about how each author deals with multiple sclerosis in their life and their opinions on it. Mairs’ piece is a careful examination of her experience with MS and her perspective towards her future. In contrast, Soyster writes humorously of a particular incident he had with MS and artfully weaves his ideas about the disease in with his story. In both instances, the authors share the purpose of narrating their encounter with MS to the world to raise awareness. Both employ the rhetorical strategies of appeals to pathos and varying sentence structures to achieve this goal, some more effectively than others.
I believe this book is of good use when teaching a unit centered on living in a community. This book will provide students with a structure that will help them discuss their own communities and how to treat others of different races. A way that these questions could lead into a literacy development activity is to have the students write about things that they are grateful about, or even write about a special moment or trip that they had with an adult. These questions help the students realize that everyone is different and that we all come from different places and we should respect each other.
All these and more evidences used in the book support Peterson’s thesis and purpose—all of them discuss how having a disability made Peterson and others in her situation a part of the “other”. Her personal experience on media and
Disability, a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movement, senses, or activities. Lisa I. Iezzonis’ reading “Stand Out” depicts a rather stimulating framework of how the disability is seen and treated. The relationship between health, illness, and narrative in this reading marks the idea of discrimination of disability through her own life events by separation of identity, people. The author employs repeated phrases, metaphors and perspectives to display this. The form of literature is written and told in the form of the first-person perspective short story but in storytelling form.
Smelcer, my high school history teacher. My teacher dedicated a whole month of class on the topic of “Black Lives Matter.” She loved to read books on opinions on black society. I think this book would fascinate her if she has not already read it. She always taught us about the struggles of African Americans, but never about the privilege that some of them had. Some African Americans were better off than most whites at the time. They were doctors and lawyers, most of the black elite were making salaries close to middle class Caucasians. The book shows how not only how whites look down on the African American racial background, but so did people of their own race. I think this simple fact would be intriguing to my teacher and maybe challenge her views on black society. It could also contribute to her lessons in class, teaching high schoolers about this exclusive society. Lastly, I would recommend this book to Mrs. Smelcer because it proves that while the members of the black elite had “privilege and plenty” they were still racial discriminated against by whites, even through they should have been
I highly recommend this novel to a year 12 book reading club also because it is an important life lesson: knowledge of what went on in the world over 50 years ago, meaning the prejudice actions e.g assigning certain jobs and towns according to race, making white and black people not be able to use the same busses, houses, toilets or be in a relationship/married, etc. Also how the use of racism has decreased majorly over the majority of the world. “Ever morning until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, “Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?” “
In her essay “On Being a Cripple,” Mairs describes her path of acceptance of her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis by declaring that she is a “cripple” in alternative to the more broadly acceptable terms: disabled or handicapped. Her essay is written with humor, satire, an open heart, and open eyes. Mair’s purpose is to describe her acceptances of her condition by using rhetorical elements and appeals, such as ethos and pathos, in order to allure her audience.
"On Being a Cripple" is an autobiographical essay by Nancy Mairs. The author was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her late twenties, and has since then lost full use of several limbs. Despite the stigma around the use of the word, Mairs refers to herself as a "cripple". With the use of this word she attempts to accept the reality of her situation without feeling sorry for herself. The author also demands the same of her readers and the people that she meets in her life. Mairs writes to those who wish to learn more about what it is like to live with this debilitating disease and how people react to it. She uses this essay to make a point about how society labels people while telling her story in a manner which cites examples from her life. She describes her life through everyday situations that occur when living with MS. Mairs does not have the same physical abilities that most of us don't think twice about, but she carries on with her life without the need for pity or a new vocabulary that attempts to make her condition seem less severe.
Nancy Mairs, born in 1943, described herself as a radical feminist, pacifist, and cripple. She is crippled because she has multiple sclerosis (MS), which is a chronic disease involving damage to the nerve cells and spinal cord. In her essay Disability, Mairs’ focus is on how disabled people are portrayed, or rather un-portrayed in the media. There is more than one audience that Mairs could have been trying to reach out to with this piece. The less-obvious audience would be disabled people who can connect to her writing because they can relate to it. The more obvious audience would be physically-able people who have yet to notice the lack of disabled people being portrayed by the media. Her purpose is to persuade the audience that disabled people should be shown in the media more often, to help society better cope with and realize the presence of handicapped people. Mairs starts off by saying “For months now I’ve been consciously searching for representation of myself in the media, especially television. I know I’d recognize this self becaus...
But unlike Gregory’s tale, Wilkins’s story lacks figurative language. Though he does use descriptive language, like when he described what his white neighbors thought about him and his African American family moving in: “The prevailing wisdom in the neighborhood was that we were spoiling it and that we ought to go back where we belonged (or, alternatively ought not intrude where we not wanted.)” (Wilkins). The main problem is that there are no metaphors, similes, symbols, alliterations, and so on. But a strong point of this piece is that it is to the point. All the details he put in his story made sense and helped make his point of equality clear. One such example of this is when he describes his teacher Dorothy Bean, “I later came to know that in Grand Rapids, she was viewed as a very liberal person who believed, among other things, that Negroes were equal.” (Wilkins). This detail helps to establish her as a guiding force to help the other students see Wilkins as an equal. Another great strength in this story was its clear organization of the events that took place. It began with an explanation of the setting, how he was treated, how the teacher treated him, and ended with him being accepted by the other students. Everything was chronologically ordered and easy to follow, which also made it a more enjoyable
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
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.
Growing up isn’t easy, but it’s even harder when you are faced with discrimination, and have no choice but to persevere. In OUT OF MY MIND by Sharon Draper, and SHORT by holly Goldberg Sloan, the protagonist the protagonists are faced with many challenges. In OUT OF MY MIND, Melody has Cerebral Palsy other known as, Cp. Cp is a medical illness that affects body movement and muscle coordination. Melody has reached the top,her and her team won the wiz kids quiz team competition, even with Cp. Melody is feeling over ecstatic because her and her team are going to nationals in Washington DC, and she is going to compete. When it is time to leave her team leaves without her. SHORT takes place during the summer of fith grade (5), and the wizard of
What I liked most about this book was the reality it revealed. It showed how brutal and cruel the society was. This book made me realize that racism is deeply embedded in the life and history of the nation, and it still exists in today’s society.