Hugues De Montalembert's Invisible

Suddenly losing his eyesight at a young age and having to deal with living in a whole new world, Marcus Engel tells his story of how he coped with losing his eyesight. Marcus Engel described his hardships and struggles after he became blind in his book, After This…An Inspirational Journey for All the Wrong Reasons. The book begins with Engel mentioning his college life and how he was excited to be going back home for vacation. While he was with his friends he got into a bad car accident that left him blind. The rest of the book tells his emotional life changing story of how he learned to accept his blindness and to do daily tasks. In his stay at the hospital he made a goal to get back to college.

In Nancy Mairs’ article for The New York Times, “Disability”, published in 1987, she expresses her distaste with the media's representation of handicapped people. Mairs, who struggled with multiple sclerosis herself, clearly and sharply conveys this disgust by stating, “I’m not, for instance, Ms. MS, a walking, talking embodiment of a chronic incurable degenerative disease.” (Mairs 13), and that she is actually, “the advertisers’ dream: Ms. Great American Consumer. And yet the advertisers, who determine nowadays who will get represented publicly and who will not, deny the existence of me and my kind absolutely”(Mairs 14). Mairs is greatly upset that disabled people are defined by their disabilities and, therefore, are underrepresented in public media. This might lead to one asking themselves, but why are they? And the answer, according to Mairs, is quite simple, “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anybody’s life”(Mairs 14). Mairs concludes by pointing out how this effacement could have dangerous consequences for both disabled people and, as she called everyone else, TAPs (Temporarily Abled Persons) alike. Treating disabilities as an abnormal characteristic (as opposed to viewing them “as a normal characteristic, one that complicates but does not ruin human existence” (Mairs 15)) can cause one of these repercussions, as it makes the

In Cathedral, the unnamed narrator, husband, defines the character of Robert as an anomaly in which he doesn’t comprehend. “He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me. My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to” (Carver 1983). The media has been able to lead people like the narrator to develop negative opinions towards those with disabilities creating a type of phobia. After hearing stories about Robert, told by his wife, he could not imagine this blind man having a good life, one worth living. He assumes that Robert’s wife, Beulah, had lived a very pitiful life as well, not having her husband ever knowing what she looked like or what subtle nuances her facial expressions could only show through sight.

In her essay “On Being a Cripple”, Nancy Mairs presents her audience with an honest inside view of her life and perspective as a cripple, a word she openly uses to define herself. She brings her world to us by discussing a wide variety of things including language, family, and humor, and how these all relate to her life. Through various stories and insights, she allows her readers to gain an understanding and acceptance of people with disabilities. She examines the public’s view of the disabled, as well as the views they have of themselves, and compares them to her own. She makes it clear that she is not to be defined solely by her disability. In discussing honestly her views, as well as

In Nancy Mairs ' "On Being a Cripple," she deliberates the relationship between the English Language, American Society, and her struggle with multiple sclerosis (MS). Mairs criticizes people for wincing at the word "cripple," and using terms like “differently abled,” because they lack reality and accuracy. She equivalents society’s inability to accept crippledness with death, war, sex, sweat, and wrinkles. Through the usage of ethos, pathos, logos and other rhetorical devices, she effectively tells her story and proves that there is power in words, from which she could come to terms with a new fact of her identity, and to accept the incurability of her disease.

Planet of the Blind is brilliantly written by Stephen Kuusisto; he delves into his life story and gives readers exceptionally realistic descriptions of his experiences. Beginning the memoir, it is clear that Kuusisto is undergoing an obvious struggle between himself and his blindness. Born with retinopathy of prematurity, Kuusisto’s parents do their best to avoid his impairment. Due to this, Kuusisto describes himself as developing a sixth sense of giving off the perception that he could see significantly better than what he actually could. Throughout the memoir, Kuusisto chronologically tells of significant events during his childhood, teenage years, and adulthood and how he came to accept his disability and be confident in himself. During the course of these significant events, Kuusisto uses poetry to convey his emotions while also using the rhetoric of emancipation.

People who are blind face many different problems in accomplishing everyday activities and becoming an independent individual. Some are able to overcome this issue while others struggle through it in their lives. In “Helen Keller’s Address before the New York Association for the Blind, January 15, 1907” she makes an appeal to the audience that the blind should be helped and made independent so that they can stand up and support themselves. She uses pathos or emotionally packed words, examples and anecdotes and cites from a prominent source to convince her audience that the blind are not helpless, but they are in need of guidance from people who can see in order to live and thrive independently.

Antonio Buero-Vallejo’s play, ‘En la ardiente de oscuridad’ deals with a young man’s personal fight with the acceptance of his blindness. This young man is Ignacio, the protagonist of the play who lives in Francoist Spain in the year 1950. In his opinion he has been burdened with the disability of being blind. It is a disability that buts a division between him and the real world. Igancio is the tragic hero of the play as he stands up against normality and brings a new type darkness to the Centre of ‘los invidentes.’

The narrator does not find joy in learning, does not have close friendships, and superficially judges the world. According to his wife, he has no friends. “Every night I smoked dope and stayed up as long as I could before I fell asleep”. He has a monotonous life. He is also afraid of the blind man and does not know how to interact with him. The blind man’s eyes creep him out. “I’d always thought dark glasses were a must for the blind. Fact was, I wished he had a pair”. He judges the man based on his look instead of his personality. Even before he met the man, he fixated on the blindness. He also feels pity for

The speaker puts Robert in a category that stops him from seeing him as an individual, yet receives an eye-opening experience through the blind man’s knowledge and

We gain many insights from the use of first person in “Cathedral” such as, the narrator’s opinions of blind people, the change of heart of the narrator, and how the narrator felt after his sudden realization. An example of his biased opinion of blind people includes when he said, “In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed” (32). These types of broad generalizations at the start help to show his attitude leading up to his change of heart towards blind people. Through the use of first-person narration (175) and dynamic character (220), we get to see the narrator change his opinion over time. For example, the narrator said, “it was like nothing else in my life up to now” (42).

Physical disabilities can be crippling. Some disabilities can be overcome, but no matter what effect they leave physically, they have lasting effects on character. Sundiata

The story “Cathedral” demonstrates that lack of sight does not necessarily prevent one from perceiving things as they are, or live their life to the fullest. In the story, a middle-age blind man, who is a friend to the narrator’s wife, and used to be her boss at one point, visits the narrator and his wife. The narrator has never interacted with blind people before, and all he knew about blind people was what he had seen on television. Blind people are stereotypically portrayed on television as slow moving, dull people, who never laugh. Based on this perception, the narrator was reluctant to meet the blind man and doubted whether they were going to connect. This is evident when the narrator states, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver 1).

The speaker is Jorge Luis Borges a librarian from Buenos Aires, Argentina. that is slowly going blind. Jorge Luis Borges writes to explain his views on blindness and how he sees this world. Though his primary audience are people all around the world in order to give ignorant people knowledge on blindness, he is also speaking to people all around the world, and he also speaks to the blind. The purpose of the passage is to speak about his blindness and how as a blind man he can still be successful. Jorge Luis Borges does this by using Ethos and Pathos throughout the story. Jorge Luis Borges also uses anecdotes by talking about some of his blind family members and his time as a Librarian. Borges also uses Allusion a couple of times in order to show the readers that he’ll be fine as a blind man. I think that Borges is hopeful and courageous in this story. The prevailing tone

In the short story “The Cathedral,” the narrator’s wife has invited over a blind man (whose wife had just died) she used to work for in the past to their house to reconnect after years of corresponding through audiotape. This visit by the blind man, named Robert, has the narrator feeling uneasy as he possesses a biased point of view towards blind people. This biased point of view takes form to the readers through first person narration (175), allowing the reader to see an in depth point of view of a specific character in this case the narrator. When the blind man arrives, the narrator doesn’t know what to say or do because he has never experienced someone of the sort. His wife urges him to have sympathy for the blind man, but he can only see