I have chosen to write my book report on an autobiography. Dr. Arnold Beisser’s Flying Without Wings discusses his battle against polio and how he overcame innumerable obstacles. Born in 1925, he contracted paralytic polio at age 24. While our situations are vastly different, I found that we were actually quite similar. His insights into the life of an individual with a disability are accurate. Although the autobiography is not financially focused, many of his ideas and life lessons directly relate to financial goals and ultimately financial independence.
Until Beisser contracted polio, he led a “normal” life. He won a national tennis championship and had already completed his basic medical training by the age of 24. As a member of the National Reserve, he was called upon to fight in the Korean War. While he was determined physically fit to serve, he fell ill on his way to Navy training. His diagnosis was non-paralytic polio. Within a few hours he was paralyzed from the neck down. He spent a year and a half in an iron lung and remained in the hospital for three years total. He was paralyzed for the rest of his life.
Contrarily, I was born with Congenital Muscular Dystrophy with Merosin Deficiency. I never had the ability to walk, stand or take care of myself. I have been using an electric wheelchair since I was eighteen months old. I attended public school for my entire career and achieved high honor roll every semester of high school. I currently attend the small, Liberal Arts University of Wells College. While Beisser had to deal with great loss, I have only known my life the way it is currently. However, I have often questioned my abilities and my future, similarly to Beisser. Throughout the book, Beiss...
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... adapted to his ever-changing circumstances, became a doctor, got married and, most importantly, overcame countless obstacles. He managed to do all of this in the second half of the twentieth century. Given the advancements in technology and greater acceptance of those with disabilities in today’s society it would be easier for him today. Beisser succedded and I will too. I will travel, I will find good jobs that fulfill me, I will surround myself with loving people, and, perhaps most importantly, I will be financially independent.
Works Cited
Beisser, Arnold R.. Flying without Wings: Personal Reflections on Being Disabled. New York: Doubleday, 1989. Print.
Merryfield, Dennis. "17 Wealth Files." Business 111. Wells College. McMillan 121, Aurora. 10 Sept. 2013. Class lecture.
Tracy, Brian. Goals!. San Francisco, Calif.: Berrett-Koehler ;, 2003. Print.
Think about all the physical feats your body can do and how you use your body every day. There are many people across the globe who do not have this privilege. Hold that thought. 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.
These two essays are about two dissimilar disabilities. Nancy Mairs and David Sedaris act as examples of how an author’s writing can change the tone and meaning of a narrative. Mairs message was educational and encouraging as she explained her life with MS and how society sees her. Sedaris use of experience and memories portrays his life with obsessive-compulsive disorder; what he calls “tics”. These two writers take similar topics and pitch them in ways so the reader can see the illustration behind them.
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.
Hutchinson, Tom “Illness and the hero’s journey: still ourselves and more”, CMAJ. 162.11 (2000):p.1597 web (date accessed).
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.
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.
Baddock, David, and Susan Parish. "An Institutional History of Disability." Handbook of Disability Studies. California: SAGE, 2001. 11-38. Print.
Although he spent 10 years in college, he got married and had three children. He helped his mother stand up to her family and make them realize once and for all that she is deaf and cannot be made to fit in the hearing world. He wrote a 175 page paper that made him realize that he could write a book. He also finally found a job as a counselor at PSD, working there once again after a few years at Gaulladet.
‘“Now it’s my turn to make it better for generations that come after, which is why I’ve become, involved in disabilities issues”’ (Open University, 2016a).
Dylan was born with a tumor wrapped around his spinal cord, which was successfully removed however resulted in him becoming paraplegic. The first fourteen years of his life, Dylan defined himself by his disability. He felt ‘weird and different’ because of his disability and this was why he was excluded from his peers. It was not until Grade 9 that Dylan began to see that his disability did not have the power to dictate his life or set a limit to which he could achieve. Since then, Dylan has moved on to achieve phenomenal feats, namely, winning a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics to becoming the world’s number one paraplegic tennis player. Dylan can be found wheelchair crowd surfing at concerts, advocating for people with disabilities and training for the 2016 Rio Paralympics. Dylan is on a mission to ‘mainstream disabilities’ and shatter negative
Shakespeare, T. (1993) Disabled people's self-organisation: a new social movement?, Disability, Handicap & Society, 8, pp. 249-264 .
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
Shakespeare, T (2013) “The Social Model of Disability” in The Disabilty Studies Reader Ed Davis, L D. Routledge: New York
In the essay “Disability,” Nancy Mairs discusses the lack of media attention for the disabled, writing: “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anyone’s life.” An ordinary person has very little exposure to the disabled, and therefore can only draw conclusions from what is seen in the media. As soon as people can picture the disabled as regular people with a debilitating condition, they can begin to respect them and see to their needs without it seeming like an afterthought or a burden. As Mairs wrote: “The fact is that ours is the only minority you can join involuntarily, without warning, at any time.” Looking at the issue from this angle, it is easy to see that many disabled people were ordinary people prior to some sort of accident. Mairs develops this po...
In middle school I was diagnosed with a disability with the way I expressed myself through writing. Ever since, I have gained multiple values and learned several lessons about self confidence. I was taught to push past my limits, in order to be successful in reaching my goals along with my dreams. Today I am a senior in high school who was once thought to struggle, but was able to succeed beyond expectations. To some, a disability may seem like a setback from achieving goals, but to me I used it as a challenge for myself. I accepted myself for who I was and looked at my disability as a unique trait of mine. I was able to provide a message to others that anything you set your mind to is possible with dedication and hard work. It might take