Scoliosis Is The Curvature Of The Spine, Forming An S Or A C Shape

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

I walk into the cold, white hospital, my hands are sweating and my knees are shaking. Even though I have done this every six months since I was twelve years old, it never gets easier. I find a seat in the corner of the waiting room, embarrassed by the large, plastic, butterfly printed scoliosis brace I hold tightly against my side. The door opens, a nurse dressed in plain navy blue scrubs calls out “Emma for Dr. Meyers”. She leads my mom and me down a long hallway, and into a small, brightly lit room. The curse that is scoliosis is hereditary, which means my mom has it, and each of my sisters has been touched by this cruel disease that bends the spine as well. Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine that occurs during the growth period just before and through puberty.

In “On Being a Cripple”, Nancy Mairs, an American poet and essayist, describes her personal battle with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the central nervous system with no known cure. She begins with a personal account of falling into a toilet because she loses control over several motions. Mairs prefers to be called a cripple rather than a disabled or handicapped person, although she acknowledges that this is not the same as others’ preference. She explains her journey from being a young, active child, to losing control of her body and developing a blurred spot in one eye in her late twenties. As her body continues to break down, Mairs tries to stay involved by participating in activities like bridge and

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.

Additionally, Mairs continues to discuss the role of society in her struggle with multiple sclerosis. Though she has a relatively positive perspective of herself, Mairs admits that her self- perception often wavers not only because of the realities of MS, but also from societal pressures. “Part of the pressure arises from social expectations. In our society, anyone who deviates from the norm had better find some way to compensate.” Because of this, Mairs intends to be a “good cripple” and live life to the best of her ability. She recalls her adolescent conflict with self-alienation that was due to the influence of society’s version of an ideal woman, and how those feelings resurged in response to the devastation diagnosis of MS. “Like many women I know, I have always had an uneasy relationship with my body...the self-loathing I feel is neither physically nor intellectually substantial. What I hate is not me but a

In her essay, Mairs describes how society uses different terms to describe people’s appearance such as disabled, handicapped, and cripple. She claims that society’s poor use of language and meaning has resulted in the way society thinks on the terms disabled, handicapped, and cripple. An example of this is when Mairs uses the word cripple as she claims that people wince at the word when they hear it. She says the word makes her appear as a tough customer as she is want to been seen as someone who can face the harsh reality of her condition. Mairs argues “Society is no readier to accept crippledness than to accept death, war, sex, sweat, or wrinkles”(Mairs p.241) which states that society isn’t willing to acknowledge people with disabilities as they are put at a disadvantage. She also states that society doesn’t want to acknowledge the fact that a disability could potentially be worse than death as she uses her own experience to show her audience that the evil of humanity is not only death. She claims that society doesn’t take the issues of disabilities seriously as they treat those with disabilities differently rather than acknowledging them for who they are.

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.

Throughout her essay, Mairs is consistent with being blunt and sometimes too straightforward in her word choice that can be affecting readers’ emotions. However, this criticism of society’s perception of MS and its effects elevates the audience’s perception of how they should see reality. For example, Mairs appeals to the reader’s emotions when she bluntly states “I want them to wince. I want them to see me as a tough customer,” causing readers to feel tension towards what her motives are when using the word “cripple” to describe herself. The readers know that the word “cripple” is politically incorrect and is not polite to say to those with complete loss of the use of their limbs. When Mairs bluntly mentions that she is aware of what the readers feel when she writes her passage, wincing and uncomfortable, readers start to feel awestruck because of Mairs’ straightforward character. Readers did not expect her to be overly confident and blunt, causing them to identify Mairs as a resilient patient of MS, and starting to understand that they should not feel hurt about Mairs’ diction and ironic humor towards them. Also, Mairs’ specific diction such as “swagger” and the phrase “the great race of life,” appeals to readers’ sense of humor due to the metaphorical meanings of her phrases. Although a cripple cannot move, Mairs’ sarcastic terms in which they describe people who have the ability to

The author of the essay “On Being a Cripple”, Nancy Mairs, is a cripple and lives a well off life even though she is a cripple. While most people would develop an essay on why their life may suck being a cripple, Mairs doesn’t use her multiple sclerosis as an excuse for living a bad life yet embraces it in her writings and her life in general such as the opening paragraph where she describes her stall affairs. Mairs uses pathos in her essay to argue that life as a cripple is not particularly bad or good but being able to understand who you are as a cripple will make you better off in the end. First off Mairs is not at all offended and even embraces using the word, “cripple”, because she doesn’t care of the stereotypical informality of the word,

Nancy Mairs, author of this passage, who has multiple sclerosis talks about herself and her decisions on why she calls herself a “cripple.” While she does this, she also criticizes words like “handicapped” and “disabled.” She tells a small story and her views on certain things while also explaining the reasoning behind calling herself a “cripple.” Mairs conveys why she is a cripple in her mind through her tone, word choice, and passage structure. Mairs your in this passage is calm at first but as she gets more into a sensitive topic, for her, she begins to be much more upset.

By stating “Whatever you call me, I remain crippled,” and “I like the accuracy with which [“cripple”] describes my condition,” she presents herself as straightforward and sincere. Mairs is being honest as to what she feels in regards to the word “cripple.” Mairs’s word choice is also to be taken into consideration. She described other words used in place of “crippled” as “euphemisms” and

On her essay entitled ‘’On Being a Cripple, the author Nancy Mairs uses her confident tone and seductive ways of telling details to tell her own story as a person who experienced both conditions of being a healthy attractive woman who becomes over the years someone who depends on a wheel chair in order to help her moving yet independent in her mind accepting her situation and taking advantage of every new day with joy and satisfaction. Mairs Starts her essay with an expressive epigraph that gives the reader a hint about the strong piece of writing that he is about to read. Associating the tittle to Louise Bogan’s quote is a cleaver trigger to hook the reader’s attention, too. The writer, who lives the experience of being crippled for the

Nancy Mairs’ memoir, “On Being a Cripple”, reveals that she made several discoveries about her life from her experiences as a cripple, but the one that caught my attention was her discovery on behavior, which she shares around the halfway point of her work. She begins by looking back on a moment when her mother criticizes Mairs for being selfish and exclaims that people sacrifice for her because of her condition (93). In this reflection, Mairs makes it extremely clear to her reader that the outburst ultimately sprouted her fear that people only pretend to like her because she is a cripple. In fact, she literally writes, “But at the time, as the words thudded home, I felt my first fear, suddenly realized” (93), showing her reader exactly

Scoliosis is a complex deformity or curvature of the spine and entire torso and has been recognized clinically for centuries (Asher, Marc A.). “For a few of the patients an underlying cause can be determined, including congenital changes, secondary changes related to neuropathic or myopathic conditions, or later in life from degenerative spondylosis. However, the cause of most scoliosis is not known and since about 1922 such patients have been diagnosed as having idiopathic scoliosis (Asher, Marc A.).”