The Island of the Colorblind was written by Oliver Sacks to share his experiences in his journeys to Pingelap, Pohnpei, Guam and Rota. Oliver Sacks traveled to Pingelap and Pohnpei with his colleague, Robert Wasserman, an ophthalmologist, and Knut Nordby, a colorblind Norwegian scientist. He went there to study and experience an island where congenital achromatopsia, a severe colorblindness that is normally very rare, affects 10% of the population. They were welcomed by the people of Pingelap, especially those with achromatopsia. They were shown around the island and introduced to many of the people that lived there. Next, they traveled to Pohnpei, where they met more achromatopes. Earlier, in 1993, Oliver Sacks was invited to go to Guam by John Steele, a neurologist that lived and studied in Guam, to study an endemic disease, lytico-bodig. Lytico-bodig is a disease that affects people that live on Guam and has been studied for 40 years, but the cause of it has not yet been discovered. The disease is either seen as “lytico”, which resembles ALS, or as “bodig”, which resembles Parkinsonism. After Guam, Sacks traveled to Rota, a neighboring island, to see the cycads that are native to the island. Sacks had been fascinated with cycads since he was young and wanted to see them in nature. He learned a lot from his visits to the islands.
In Pingelap and Pohnpei, Oliver Sacks experienced communities where colorblindness is much more prevalent than it is in most communities around the world. Congenital achromatopsia, the severe colorblindness seen in Pingelap and Pohnpei, causes those affected to have no cones in their eyes. Cones allow people to see small details and color. People without cones have to use the rods in their eyes instea...
... middle of paper ...
...ized, it produces large seeds that are used by the native people of Rota as food.
I would definitely recommend this book. I really liked The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks. The book is well written and explains in depth many of the topics discussed. Sacks also includes the history of the islands and many details of life on the islands that he visited. I also liked how he included his interactions with the people that have been affected by lytico-bodig or congenital achromatopsia on the islands that he visited. I would recommend this book to people who like plants, because it describes cycads in a lot of detail. I would also recommend this book to people who are interested in diseases, because it discusses lytico-bodig and colorblindness in depth, and to people interested in the culture of Micronesia because Sacks tells of his experiences on the islands.
The book Blind, written by Rachel DeWoskin, is about a highschool sophomore named Emma, who went blind after being struck in the face with a firework. When she first lost her sight, Emma was placed in a hospital for over 2 months, and once she was released, she could finally go home again. DeWoskin uses the characterization of Emma throughout the beginning of the text to help the reader understand the character’s struggle more. Especially in the first few chapters, it was difficult for Emma to adapt to a world without sight. For instance, DeWoskin writes, “And sat down, numb, on our gold couch. And tried to open my eyes, rocked, counted my legs and arms and fingers. I didn’t cry. Or talk” (DeWoskin 44). As a result of losing a very important scent, she’s started to act differently from a person with sight.
They won a science competition by Planet Savers to go to Quito. During the journey on the plane, the plane crashed and only semi. Miranda and Arnie survived. They ended up on the island where they were about to be the next victims of genetic engineering because of two evil scientists, Dr. Skinner and Dr. Franklin. Key themes that are brought in this book are having evil scientists.
The book I read was The Island by Gary Paulsen. It is about a 15 year
I would recommend others should read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Unbroken gives the reader an idea of what World War 2 was like in the Pacific zone of the war. It shows how brutal the Japanese were and a story of one American who lived through it all.
The author Edward Bloor utilizes blindness to symbolize how Paul may be visually impaired but can see social injustice, while Erik and his parents’ can see but are blind to the emotional harm they inflict on Paul and others, and the townspeople are blind to their environment and social prejudice. He has been bullied most of his life for being visually impaired. Paul is used to being judged by others. The injury to his eyes supposedly occurred while looking at a solar eclipse, but there is more to this story.
Within Oliver Sacks, “To See and Not See”, the reader is introduced to Virgil, a blind man who gains the ability to see, but then decides to go back to being blind. Within this story Sacks considers Virgil fortunate due to him being able to go back to the life he once lived. This is contrasted by Dr. P, in “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat”, Sacks states that his condition is “tragic” (Sacks, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat (13) due to the fact that his life will be forever altered by his condition. This thought process can be contributed to the ideas that: it is difficult to link physical objects and conceptualized meanings without prior experience, the cultures surrounding both individuals are different, and how they will carry on with their lives.
Personally, I really liked An Ocean Apart, A World Away by Lensey Namioka because of the insight provided regarding values, beliefs, customs, languages and traditions in the Chinese culture. In general, it illustrated the cultural norms for a Chinese (Zhuang) family which helped me compare it many of the other cultures I have already been exposed to such as Pakistani, Indian, Korean and Canadian. The writing style of the novel is very clear and focused on the main purpose throughout the novel. Additionally, Namioka explains the reasoning and behind the events of Yanyan’s life, her choices, and the political environment in China to reduce any confusion of the readers. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who would like an interesting read, but is unable to set aside the time for a long novel.
Some might refer to "seeing" as simply to watch with a naked eye, while some would refer to it as being able to witness an event and recall upon it later. In fact, some would even go as far as that if someone hasn't witnessed something visually, he basically hasn't "seen" it. However, in his essay "The Mind's eye," Oliver Sacks seemingly breaks the norm. In his essay, the blind's adaptation to their disadvantaged is talked about. Yet, it seems like those who were victims of the neurological disorder seem better off blind. Furthermore, another question hanging in the balance is whether the blind people are actually "adapting" to their new lives or rather "reforming" how they will live? Through various stories of blind people, he is able to
The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham is a great novel in my opinion. It occurs in the future but it focuses on
The brain is one of the most enigmatic organs in the human body. It can adapt to all types of physiological conditions and be programmed to see the environment in a certain type of way, whether it is deliberate or not. Oliver Sacks discusses the state of being blind and the role of sensory functions in his essay, The Mind’s Eye. He discusses the concept of connections and perceptions, in which the former leads to the latter. A connection is the interaction between the senses simultaneously, while perception is defined as the interpreted reality caused by the connection of the available senses. Perception is partially constructed by one’s environment, which allows the creation of different interpretations of reality. In blind and sighted individuals,
It was determined that infants develop color vision at or around three months of age and that when final results were evaluated and compared to adult (only) measures, actually have better quality color vision (Brown et al., 1994). An interesting study by Chase (1937) made efforts to discover the identities of color in which infants that aged 2 to 10 weeks old were tested to find out what colors they could perceive. The results they came up with were that very young infants could tell the difference between the primary colors and combinations but there were numerous limitations to the study (Chase, 1937). The study had placed infants to lie down and view a screen while observing eye movements (Chase, 1937). Findings by Franklin, Pilling, and Davies (2005) explain that color categorizing occurs in four month old infants and adults alike. A study by Bornstein, Kessen, & Weiskopf (1976) has supporting evidence that color is categorized in 4 month old infants and determined the boundaries within...
Before the land of what we no class Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and other countries in the middle east grains, such as wheat and wild barley, could be seen growing in the wild without human hand to cultivate and nurture it (Authors 2007). Over time, humans began to recognize the benefit of the plants and began the first signs of human agriculture. The skill of farming took time and trial and error, but along the way, humans began to settle down to tend to their crops. Though the first crops were nothing more than seed s thrown about without rhyme or reason to the process we know today such as fields having, rows and sorting out the seeds to create a higher yield each harvest (Authors 2007). Because of the trial and error process, agriculture of plants did not take place of a short period but took many, many years to evolve to what we know today as agriculture; the new fa...
Amblyopia is a condition in which visual acuity in one eye is greatly reduced. It is caused by lack of stimulation or disuse during visual development (Rose, 1998). Because the eye is not fully developed at birth (Jarvis, 1992, as cited in Rose, 1998), infants need stimulation to complete the visual neural pathway. When one or both eyes are inhibited, for example due to misalignment of one eye (strabismus) or a large difference in refractive power between two eyes (anisometropia), the neural pathway for the inhibited eye develops abnormally, or does not develop at all. At approximately six years of age eye development is complete (Stager, 1990, as cited in Rose, 1998). Before visual development is complete amblyopia can be treated. If it is caught and treated at an early age, normal vision can be preserved (Rose, 1998).
The moment you are infected with a disease, you are label by the many imaginations of society. These imagination are not only creative and limitless in culture, but they ultimately create a division between normal and abnormal. In the novel illness as Metaphor, the American author Susan Sontag critiques how speaking disease metaphorically has many consequences by leading to the stigmatization of a disease beyond its scientific condition. Sontag teaches us that stigmatization of disease causes society to become counterproductive by developing an unfair bias when talking about disease and those afflicted with the disease. In particular, the way society discuss blindness based on metaphors create negative stereotypes of blindness and people afflicted with blindness, which by extension makes society counterproductive in understanding
Color Blindness means that you have trouble seeing the colors green, blue, or red or a mix of these colors. It is an abnormal condition characterized by the inability to clearly distinguish different colors of the spectrum. It is very rare that a person doesn’t see any color at all. Color Blindness is also called color vision problem. The difficulties can range from mild to severe. Color blindness is a misleading term because people that have it aren’t really totally blind. They tend to see colors in a limited range of hue. The scientific name for total color blindness is Monochromasy. Having color blindness would change a normal person’s life. It makes it harder to read and learn, and you may not be able to have certain careers. Although having color vision problems can affect your life greatly, you can still learn to make up for your problems seeing color. There are many other types of color vision problem. Deuteranomaly is a type that is considered green weak. Dichromasy is another type, which can be divided into Protanopia and Deuteranopia. People with this see no difference between red, orange, yellow, and green. Protanopia has much reduced color vision of the colors red, orange, and yellow. Deuteranopia is the same thing as Protanopia except without the abnormal dimming which makes it different. Last would be Tritanopia and Tritanomoly. Both of these types of color blindness are blue-green –color blindness with not many differences between them. In Tritanopia the s-cones are completely missing from the eye, and in Tritanomoly the s- cones have some kind of mutation.