ipl-logo

Nancy Mairs On Being A Cripple Analysis

694 Words3 Pages

Nancy Mair’s “on being a cripple “ is a self-reflecting story about her journey through a daunting illness. She puts forward her life before and after the diagnosis of MS. Nancy represents a powerful character who does not bow to challenges. She shows us that illness is no excuse to give up what you love. She has influenced the hearts of many and inspired so many handicapped individuals to pursue their ambitions. Mairs starts her tale by identifying herself as a cripple because that’s the way she liked to be addressed. Mairs says “I haven’t always been crippled, a fact for which I am soundly grateful" Mairs indulges the audience into her life, where she never had MS and shows gratitude towards the chance of an independent life. Mairs used …show more content…

I think she did this because she wanted the reader to have full knowledge of the content coming ahead. She says “ multiple sclerosis is a chronic degenerative disease …… … . . .. .. interrupting nerve’s signals.”( Mairs , 7 th paragraph) Nancy describes her experience with multiple sclerosis, indicating how hard it is to lose your own body slowly. Mairs hated her disease and conforms to many harsh realities of …show more content…

(Paragraph,11) She explains her successful marriage and her brave children who never gave up on her. And our proud possessions, as she states “ she doesn’t have to worry about being a bad or a good cripple” when with her family. Maris shows the fullness in her life even with MS and how it hasn’t let her fall from doing what she loves. She understands that “ the self-loathing she feels is neither physical nor intellectually substantial. What she hates is not herself but a disease.” Mairs is trying to rise above the self-pity she developed and wants to be free of it. Mairs explains a journey of realization and stops defining herself with MS, but “ she was satisfied with her adjustment. She had suffered, grief and fury and terror,….but now I was at ease with her lot.” Furthermore, inclines the essay away from grief, towards the strong approach, that yes, this is the situation but it's not a reason to stop

Show More
Related

  • Write A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Passage Nancy Mairs

    227 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the passage Nancy Mairs has from multiple sclerosis. Mairs uses a complex word choice, her confident tone, and straight-forward personality to present herself in this passage. Maires knows and understands that she is cripple. She uses the euphemism “ differently abled” to convey that the word differently abled doesn’t describe anyone. Furthermore, she does not like to be called differently abled, she much rather be called cripple because that’s what she is, according to her.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Nancy Mairs

    266 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nancy Mairs Essay Crippled, handicapped, or disabled? Nancy Mairs describes herself as crippled even though many people who are disabled hate that word. In the passage Nancy Mairs discusses her view and opinion on the three words. Upon discussing the three words she uses tone, word choice, and rhetorical structure to enhance her claims. Nancy Mairs describes herself as crippled and she goes on to tell us that she “would never refer to another person as crippled.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Nancy Mairs

    239 Words  | 1 Pages

    In this essay Nancy Mairs presents herself as someone who is crippled. Out of many others possibilities of names to be called Mairs states that she prefers being called "crippled" because it is more straightforward and precise. In addition she states that she would like to be seen as a tough person whom fate/gods have not been kind to. The word "crippled" also evokes emotion from people which is also what she would like. Furthermore Nancy Mairs does not like other words such as "disabled" or "handicapped" to be used as a description her.

    Read More

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of Nancy Mairs Cripple

    274 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nancy Mairs describes herself as a “cripple” and only that. In the passage, she describes her reasoning behind her fondness of the word “cripple” and not other terms more openly used by others such as “disabled” or “handicapped.” To achieve getting her message out she uses different tones and specific words. Mairs applied a positive tone when describing the definition of cripple. She makes the reader see “cripple” in a positive way referring to a Gospel and defining it as “a lover of words.”

    Read More

  • A Sympathetic Response To Nancy Mairs

    105 Words  | 1 Pages

    Despite the fact that Nancy Mairs chose a well diction and sarcastic tone to evoke readers empathy toward her essay , she also evokes a sympathetic response to her audience by telling reader that she does not feel sorry for being a cripple. She uses satirical description of her feelings , by allowing reader to see that she also felt sympathy for herself. Although Mairs, evokes empathy when telling her story, her sympathetic response toward her illness shows that she felt disconnected with her illness and that she did not have nothing else than to take what her destiny brought her. According to Mairs “

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Nancy Mairs Cripple

    159 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the passage Nancy Maria prefers to call herself “cripple”. She finds “disabled” and “handicapped” to be inaccurate of her condition. Nancy Mairs uses tone, word choice, and rhetorical structure to convey feelings on the term “cripple”. Nancy Mairs tone throughout the passage was neutral. Statements like “I am cripple.

    Read More

  • Multiple Sclerosis Nancy Mairs Analysis

    775 Words  | 4 Pages

    Nancy Mairs, a feminist writer who has Multiple Sclerosis, defines the terms in which she interest the most with the world. Nancy Mairs will name herself a cripple and not be by others. She will choose a word that represents her reality for example in the beginning of her story she mentioned about her being in the bathroom trying to come up with a story about cripples. She was in the handicap bathroom and when she tried to open the door she fell, landing fully clothed on the toilet seat with her legs splayed in front of her and she said “the old beetle -on-it’s back routine.”

    Read More

  • Waist High In The World Analysis

    1224 Words  | 5 Pages

    Waist High In the World is a novel that focuses on the importance of accepting everyone with dignity and respect despite their disabilities and differences. The author of the book, Nancy Mairs purpose when writing the book was to create awareness and share her experience as a “cripple” in order to create consciousness and understanding of those who are going through the same process. Mairs uses different persuasive strategies to convince readers to want a world with people like her in it, this includes the use of pathos, logos and ethos.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Robert Murphy's The Body Silent

    1642 Words  | 7 Pages

    Murphy lacks mobility and sensation in his lower body other than the feeling of occasional muscle spasms, and has limited movement in his upper body below the neck including his arms. Murphy writes the story as it recounts events throughout his entire life, from childhood onwards. He was sixty-two when he wrote the novel. The story provides Murphy’s anthropological commentary on the life of a person with a disability and how society views and treats people with disabilities (Murphy, 1990). Murphy’s performance patterns both support and inhibit his occupational engagement.

    Read More

  • Nancy Mairs On Being A Cripple Essay

    807 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the essay, “On Being a Cripple,” Nancy Mairs uses humorous diction and a positive tone to educate people about life as a cripple and struggles of people with disabilities. She does this to show how hard it is to be disabled and how it differs from the life of someone without a disability. She talks about the struggles and the fears that disabled people must deal with on a daily basis. Mairs use of rhetoric creates a strong sense of connection and understanding for the reader. Nancy Mairs is successful in using detailed imagery, diction, and tone to educate her readers about the difficulties of living with a disability.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Harriet Mcbryde Johnson's Unspeakable Conversations

    718 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Unspeakable Conversations” she details her experience. Harriet McBryde Johnson effectively uses the rhetorical appeals of ethos and pathos, along with her uses of first-person narrative and descriptive language, to support her argument that contrary to stereotypes, a person living with a severe disability can live a happy and fulfilling life. Harriet McBryde Johnson was born in 1957 with a neuromuscular disease. At the time of this essay, she had been disabled for over four decades. Born to parents who both taught foreign language, they were able to afford hired help but she knew it could not be for her whole life.

    Read More

  • Cripple: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Nancy Mairs

    226 Words  | 1 Pages

    When people hear handicap they think not able to care for themselves. Nancy wants to be known as a tough individual able to take care of herself. The reader can feel the agony of what Nancy is feeling. The tone of this passage is determination and agony. Nancy feels that cripple is more stronger word than “handicap” or ‘disabled.”

    Read More

  • Susan Wendell's The Social Construction Of Disability

    822 Words  | 4 Pages

    People with disabilities and their caretakers are stigmatized for not being able to keep up, but they are not viewed as not having a “real” disability if they are too productive. Instead of viewing this as a symptom for their disease or disability, Hillyer believes this is a healthier way of living, and she encourages her readers to adopt similar techniques for managing their responsibilities. She especially criticizes the unrealistic, fast-paced speed that women are expected to maintain, despite personal obstacles. Hillyer, having lived in the intersection between the feminist and disability communities for most of her life, emphasizes the importance of allowing women to abandon the traditional concept of a highly productive “superwoman” and instead replace it with the knowledge that every woman dealing with a disease or disability, in themselves or loved ones, is a

    Read More

  • Nancy Mairs On Being A Cripple Analysis

    575 Words  | 3 Pages

    In her essay Nancy gracefully articulated her perception of her situation and chooses to label her as “Crippled”. The struggles that she goes through to in a day to day bases, for example when she starts off the essay by describing her experience in a bathroom stall and how she laughs at her own situation. She insightfully defines her being crippled in the way she pursues and interacts with the world. As I defined the word in a sense of being incompetent in day to day societal procedures which is exactly proven in the essay. She is slow and struggles in her day to rituals and she accepts it.

    Read More

  • Nancy Mairs Disability Analysis

    233 Words  | 1 Pages

    n Nancy Mairs essay, “Disability”, she illustrates the lack of representation of people with disabilities in the media. While disability plays a major role in Mairs’ life, she points out the various ways her everyday life is ordinary and even mundane. Despite the normalcy of the lives of citizens with disabilities Mairs argues the media’s effacement of this population, is fear driven. She claims, “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about the disability itself, that it may enter anybody’s life” (Mairs 14). Able bodied people worry about the prospect of eventually becoming physically impaired.

    Read More

More about Nancy Mairs On Being A Cripple Analysis

Open Document