Media G322 Coming down the mountain

As a young child, David had a loving family, his Mommy, his father and his two brothers. By the time he was seven, he was being starved and abused by his mother. In his life, David had to face many challenges. One of which is having to play his mother’s “games” that left him half dead. He would also get punished for being a “bad boy” when he never did anything. Later, he had enough courage to tell someone, his 4th grade teachers at Thomas Edison Elementary School.

David's mother got worse and she began to think of new ways to torture David. David was one of a few brothers, but only he was targeted. The other brothers pretended he wasn't even there. There was only one person in the family that still loved David was his father. David’s father would fight for David and would protect him from the mother. But, he would always lose. Whenever David's father went to work, David would get beat. Dave became the scapegoat for his mother's mistakes. David became a slave of the house and did all the chores. If he did not finish his chores with an unreasonable time, he did not receive dinner. David was starved for three days at a time. Once, David got stabbed by his mother for not completing her dishes. Whenever David came back from school his mother forced him to throw up to see if he got any food at school. This happened every

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

David spends the first two chapters eavesdropping into the conversations of his mother and father. This way of finding information in itself is very juvenile but is the only way. Because of the eavesdropping, the information David hears is interfered by his childish ways for example “part of me said to leave, get away, run now before it’s too late before you hear something you can’t unhear.” This quote displays David’s naïve thinking. The naivety of David is also shown though his feeling towards his Uncle Frank, he sees Frank as the charming, town doctor and loving uncle. In David’s eyes, Frank can do no wrong, and when he does, he along with his father does not believe the allegations, “why are you telling me this” “are you telling me this because I’m Frank’s brother? Because I’m your husband? Because I’m Maries employer? He paused “or because I’m the

Everyone has their own way of achieving victory: scoring the winning point in a sport, getting chosen for a job or acing a test in school. A writer for Sport Illustrated's, Rick Reilly, tells Ben Comen’s story, a teenager with cerebral palsy who runs for his high school’s cross-country team, in his article “Worth the Wait.” In the article, Reilly informs the audience of the previously mentioned situation that Ben is in, while also mentioning Ben’s process of overcoming all odds and managing to finish the races with the entire crowd cheering him on. Reilly establishes a triumphant tone with the aid of pathos and arduous-like diction to make light of people with cerebral palsy and to show how they can accomplish goals in life like everyone else

David is an important character because he shows us the idea of acceptance. This is shown when David finds about Sophie’s sixth toe when she injured her ankle, and still wants to be her friend despite her being a deviation. In Wanuk - the place where David lives- deviations, like Sophie, are not accepted are human. David mentions multiple times that he knows being around Sophie is wrong but even though he knew he would be shunned for his actions, he remains Sophie’s friend anyway. Others are not as accepting as David, in fact, most people are quick to disown deviations or attempt to report or harm them. An example of this is when Allen sees Sophie’s six-toed footprint by the river then threatens to report what he saw which would mean Sophie’s capture, exile and/or death and possibly even her families too. This manner of thinking is shown again when the inspector says: “Although deviations may look like us in many ways, they can never really be human,” This, again, shows that deviations are frowned down upon by most of Wanuk. This conflict of acceptance reminds me of desegregation. People of colour would be treated less than human when they started peacefully protesting against their treatment and some were even killed. In fact, most of what is said reminds me of racism.

Reilly uses similes when describing Ben’s injuries during his race, with concrete facts and evidence, resulting with the reader feeling sympathetic for Ben. We can see this at various points throughout the piece, like when his coach says, “I don't think there's an inch of that kid I haven't had to bandage up." We can see it again when his own mother can’t even watch her son run sometimes because his falls are so bad. Reilly uses pathos to really highlight the terrible hardships that Ben has to go through, and to force the reader to feel what it’s like to be in his shoes. This puts the reader in the situation that Ben is in; given the circumstances, would you give up? Now most people would throw in the towel, but that’s the thing. Ben Comen is not most people. This really accents the message because he’s not letting his disability get the better of him. This also accents the passionate tone because Reilly pieces the article together so well that you can tell how passionate Ben is about anything and everything he does in his

Jerry Kenny came in and talked to us about his disability, how it happened when it happened, who all it has affected, and how adapted from it. Jerry’s disability is that he is a double amputee of both hands.

In this portrait David has a blank expression or sad expression on his face. You can see this from his eyes as they look sad.

and his need or desire to be alone all the time, he doesn’t like to be

The characters in the story “The Life You Save May be Your Own” show people with different kinds of disabilities, whether it be a physical disability or a mental disability. Each character shows disabilities that make them isolated from the society and cause them to lose something important in the future. Lucynell has a clear physical disability given from the beginning of the story, but her disability actually emphasizes her innocence compared to other characters in the story. Tom Shiftlet also has a physical disability but shows more of his mental disability where he shows sides of a hypocrite and along with great obsession. Mrs. Crater, similarly to Tom, shows great obsession and greed but in the ends fails to gain what she really wants to and loses what is important to her.

Disability has appeared frequently in recent films (Byrd & Elliot, 1988), a reflection of society’s interest in the subject. These films often misrepresent disability using stereotypes. These stereotypes reinforce negative and incorrect social perceptions of, and attitudes towards,

In fact, disability misunderstandings are also a big source of personal challenges. The play “Kylie’s project”, source two, is a story that well-describes an example of disability misunderstandings. Kylie is a young, shy, handicapped girl who is a very talented rider. She is so shy, that not even her own brother, Phillip, knows that Kylie is talented. In fact, he underestimates her ability of riding, before collaborating with her for a photography project. This is proven in scene four, where Phillip claims “You know, Kylie, I thought you still rode in a ring with a trainer next to you”. This shows how Phillip thought that his sister was at a low level of horseback riding, just because she is handicapped. But when she came out of her shell, everyone admired her talent of riding. This fact is shown to be true in scene five, where Kylie presents her project about riding to her class. Everyone is asking insightful questions, and it seems that they are inspired by her. Questions like “What’s the biggest difference riding has made in your life?”, and “My sister is disabled. Is there a riding program for people like her?” kept coming up. Sometimes, when a person shows their personality and talents, they can change many people’s lives. Other people like that person, handicapped or physically healthy, are encouraged by his/her actions to make a difference. This is what 12-year-old Kylie teaches through this

Understanding Disability: A Study of Sharon M Draper’s Out Of My Mind By Dr Preetha Vasan and Ann Mariya Jose Abstract: This paper endeavours to demonstrate, how application of contemporary ideas about disability to recent literary writings that portray children, give new dimensions to the idea of disability. It provides the experiences faced by the children with disabilities within the contexts of family and society with special reference to the contemporary fiction Out Of My Mind by Sharon M Draper.

“When properly constructed, media representations of characters with disabilities may be able to provide new, more humanizing representations of people with disabilities for the public and to counter act negative models and stereotypes.” This statement, from the reading by EnglandKennedy, is proved by Glee’s portrayal of the character Artie Abrams. I chose to analyze this particular representation of a high schooler with a disability because of Glee’s large audience. The show attracts all ages, but younger viewers are mainly the targeted audience. The way in which Artie is portrayed could have a major impact on how the next generation views people with disabilities.