Rhetorical Analysis Of Nancy Mairs Multiple Sclerosis

In “ I Am a Cripple” Nancy Mairs uses allusions to share her thoughts on her condition. Mairs begins her essay by articulating how she strongly dislikes the word disabled to describe her. She explains how her word cripple is favorable to her be cause “ It has an honorable history, having made its first appearance in the Lindisfarne Gospel” (Mairs). This word appears around 700 C.E in the Lindisfarne Gospel written to honor God, in the faith Christianity (Appositive Phrase). She gravitates towards this word

Mairs uses a high quality choice in words throughout the essay to describe her condition and herself as a person. In the passage she states that people “wince at the word cripple because they can't handle it .She also states that the other words that people would use to describe her don’t correspond to her condition. In the passage she quotes George Orwell’s thesis which states “the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” She agrees

b. Support: In 2007, it was reported that approximately 2.5 million people in the world have MS.

Someone who is crippled often receives pity and sympathy from others, but do cripples always want this? In this passage entitled “On Being a Cripple,” Nancy Mairs uses interesting word choice, repetition, and a sarcastic tone to touch upon a subject that most mature non-crippled Americans are not entirely comfortable with; using the so widely feared word “cripple” instead of the common “handicapped” or “disabled” to be polite or politically correct. Elaborating to a society, so infatuated with being politically correct, that using a word considered derogatory to most may be necessary according to exact definition is Mairs’s purpose in writing this passage.

“Cripple” seems to me a clean word, straightforward and precise.” This ultimately deems language as an intrinsic factor in claiming an accurate identity. Simply by naming the obstacle when it arises, enables one to regain control over it. Similarly, when placing so many people living disabilities under an umbrella term, it erases the truth and the unique experiences of their ailment, and/or in Mairs’ circumstance, the word may not even appropriately describe them.

In “On Being a Cripple,”  Nancy Mairs describes her life as a “cripple,” being treated different for her multiple sclerosis. She describes how society views her as handicapped or disabled both which are terms that the author dislikes.  Her viewpoint makes readers question their own beliefs on how the terms handicapped, disabled, or cripple influences a person to think differently about each term and its meaning. One of the reasons I chose this essay was because the author shows how different terms could affect the way society thinks about a person. Mairs believes that society often judge others based on their physical appearance and use the terms handicapped, disabled, or cripple to label. She argues that the outcome of this is creates an idea where being a cripple, or being disabled is considered a taboo where you're expected to be treated differently. Mairs claims that society i

In Nancy Mairs short story, “On Being a Cripple”, she reflects on her life handling her disability of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and how it has changed different aspects of her existence. She defines herself as a cripple despite the negative connotations the word may have. Over the past ten years, Mairs has had her MS slowly progress as her body deteriorates. She sees her life as fairly average, but seemingly small tasks have become difficult to her and has required help from her family. Despite their support, Mairs still fears that people's kindness is out of pity. The stigma around physical disfigurement and being crippled causes added suffering to her life. Although the disease dictates much of her existence,

In the essays “On Being a Cripple”, written by Nancy Mairs, and “Living Under Circe’s Spell”, written by Matthew Soyster, both authors strive to communicate to the reader what it is like to live with MS. Although both writers have a similar purpose, they both use exceptionally different methods of communicating their experiences with MS. Overall, Mairs’ essay proved to be more effective than Soyster’s, because of her varied use of rhetorical devices that all work together to create an effective argument. On the other hand, Soyster’s essay was less effective because he only relied on pathos to convince the readers of his argument.

The central nervous system (CNS) comprises grey matter, which contains neuron cell bodies and white matter, which contains the nerve axons. Most of the nerve axons are concentrically wrapped around by lipid-rich biological membrane, known as the myelin sheath. In the CNS, myelin is produced by oligodendrocyte. a type of glial cell. (Pfeiffer et al., 1993). These electrical insulating, multilamellar membranes significantly increase the electrical resistance, in which to prevent leakage of electrical currents from the axons, as well as decrease electrical capacitance to reduce the ability of the axons to store electrical energy (Shivane &

Mairs makes this emphasis and confidence in her character by distinguishing between short and long sentences. The majority of sentences Mairs incorporates in her passage are short to create the emphasis of what her condition is, how the condition has affected the way she describes herself, and how people should not be pitying the affected patients of the disease, such as herself. For example, in her first paragraph, the first two sentences are short, consisting of words not exceeding ten. These definite sentences where she states “I am a cripple. I choose this word to name me,” establish an initial bluntness in tone that makes people want to read on to understand why she has chosen this politically incorrect term to describe her. Throughout the rest of this paragraph, Mairs writes lengthier sentences, causing the audience to be more understanding behind what went on in her brain when making the decision of choosing this specific term to describe her. However, Mairs does not keep this lengthiness going on for long, as she uses the same strategy with her abrupt specificity in diction after thoughtful words, by finishing off the paragraph and the following paragraph with short sentences that finalize her thoughts about the idea of using the term to describe her condition. The first paragraph ends off with a five word sentence stating “As a

Nancy Mairs is the author of the controversial essay On Being a Cripple. Here, she writes of her experiences dealing with the degenerative disease, Multiple Sclerosis, on a daily basis as well as her preferences on the proper terms are for what to call a person who is disabilities. Although she uses the term crippled to describe herself, she believes that no one should use it to describe another. Her argument, though it stands on unstable grounds, is effective in bringing attention in sharing one point of view of what the correct terminologies to call people with disabilities are. On Being a Cripple also has a second purpose that is raising awareness for Multiple Sclerosis. Mairs’s uses many generalizations that are overall untrue and

In the passage Nancy Mairs uses and explains different words to clarify to the reader about why she prefers to be called “cripple” instead of any other words. Mairs defines the different words that have been used on her and explains how they are different and do not relate to her at all. She also explains how a name can make a situation seem less important or less of what the problem really is.

Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a disease of the central nervous system. The central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord. Both have nerve fibers that are wrapped in a myelin sheath. In MS, the myelin sheath becomes inflamed and gradually is destroyed. With the destruction of the myelin sheath comes an array of symptoms that may include numbness or tingling, balance problems, weakness, muscle spasms, and blurred vision.

Multiple Sclerosis, commonly known as MS is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. Scientists have been studying MS since the 19th century. In MS, the body’s immune system produces cells and antibodies that attack myelin in your brain which is essential for the nerves in your brain and spinal cord to conduct electricity to perform its function. The attack on myelin results in vison loss, paralysis, numbness, muscle weakness, difficulty walking, stiffness, spasms, and bladder and bowel problems. MS has varying degrees of severity and affects people between the ages of 20-50, mostly women. Although there are treatments, there is no cause and cure yet.

Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune disorder where the myelin sheath within the Central Nervous System is attacked (National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 2017). The myelin sheath protects the axon of the nerve cell. When the myelin sheath is intact, the axon is able to carry impulses away from the neuron’s cell body, and the message carried is clear. With Multiple Sclerosis, the myelin sheath becomes scarred, hence the word “sclerosis”, and distorts the nerve impulses traveling over the CNS (National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 2017). This may cause the message to be changed or stopped altogether.