Stephen Hawking Biography Written by Melissa McDaniel Shows with a Purpose, a Person is Able to Do Anything in Life

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Throughout the biography, Melissa McDaniel makes clear use of her skills as a historian and librarian as she uses relevant information and resources. Having graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, she is undoubtedly adept in synthesizing the information she gains from her research. Furthermore as a former librarian with a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Washington, she is able to research with a defined focal point. Her extensive further reading section at the end of the biography proves her competence and ability to find and extract information from multiple sources, and then put it together in one coherent text.
As a young man and student Hawking had a tendency to be lazy. His superior intellect and intuition for physics allowed him to work less hard than his peers at Oxford. However, his mindset changed when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease that, “…[causes a] loss of control of muscle movement” (15). McDaniel presented the fact that Hawking’s ALS led him to decide that, “For the first time in his life, he was going to commit himself to his work” (43). The author showed that it gave him a purpose in life that was perhaps the factor that kept him alive even after being expected to pass away years before. Even with all the difficulties that arose with ALS Stephen Hawking was not hindered from achieving scientific glory. Melissa McDaniel showed that with a purpose in life one might get through anything.
The harsh truth about going into the scientific field is that most scientists who dedicate their lives to answering a single question never manage to accomplish their goals and are never recognized for their efforts. This was n...

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...nship with the public. She wrote of his various interviews and his reputation with the public. To me, the two first themes were inspirational. They proved dedication and drive to be the upper hand. However I believed the third theme to be infuriating, and his reputation with the public simply being mentioned proved how our society today looks up to fame and holds value in popularity. Reputation should not be the main idea in an individual’s mind.
To counter this, I believe Stephen Hawking was presented in a realistic and objective light. Not only his brilliant sides were portrayed, but also his slight arrogance and flawed decisions were revealed. Furthermore, the author’s writing style allowed the novel to be coherent, and her knowledge on the topic allowed for a thorough biography. Consequently, this biography, gave a great insight to the life of Stephen Hawking.

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