Suicide In Me Before You, By Jojo Moyes

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 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

Nancy Mair was a self-claimed “radical feminist cripple,” who has accomplishments in writing and degrees. Her remarkable personality “Disability” that was published by the New York Times in 1987. Throughout the story “Disability,” Nany Mair show us a view of her daily life as a disabled person and how the sociality perceives on disabilities. She was a forty-three years old woman, and she spends most of her time in a wheelchair, this is the reason that makes her stand out in the crowd. Her purpose is to show that everyone with disabilities is just like everybody else and they should be welcomed and accepted in daily life, she points out disability can change a person life, but it never kills. In page

The Medical Model regards disability as an individual problem. It promotes a traditional view of disability, that it is something to be ‘cured’, even though many conditions have no cure. The problem is seen as the disabled person and their impairment, not society, and the solution is seen as adapting the disabled person to fit the non-disabled world, often through medical intervention. Control resides firmly with professionals; choices for the individual are limited to the options provided and approved by the 'helping' expert.

In the book, The Short Bus, Jonathan Mooney’s thesis is that there is more to people than their disabilities, it is not restricting nor is it shameful but infact it is beautiful in its own way. With a plan to travel the United States, Mooney decides to travel in a Short bus with intentions of collecting experiences from people who have overcome--or not overcome--being labeled disabled or abnormal. In this Mooney reinvents this concept that normal people suck; that a simple small message of “you’re not normal” could have a destructive and deteriorating effect. With an idea of what disabilities are, Mooney’s trip gives light to disabilities even he was not prepared to face, that he feared.

In her essay, “On Being a Cripple”, Nancy Mairs, an essayist with multiple sclerosis, writes about her experiences with her disease. She wants her audience of able-bodied people to stop pitying towards disabled people and instead show acceptance. Mairs achieves her purpose by presenting herself as similar and relatable to her able-bodied audience with many anecdotes and a blunt tone. This discussion of her condition removes the discomfort about disabilities felt by her audience and allows for them to accept disabled people. While Maris’s primary audience is an able-bodied person who supports disabled people, other readers, like someone with her condition, may be drawn towards this essay as well. Unlike an able-bodied person, a disabled person

The credibility of being a disability rights lawyer demonstrates strong ethos throughout the article presented by McBryde Johnson. She has the personal experiences of being disabled. She is an expert witness with lived experiences that add to the ethos of her argument. This use of double ethos gives her the credibility that others do not possess. This allows her to talk about her situations with personal knowledge of the subject matter. With personal experience, she has knowledge surrounding the issue allows the audience to accept what she has to say. For example, McBryde Johnson and her followers explain how disabled people can live relatively happy lives compared to those people without a disability. “The presence or absence of a disability does not predict quality of life” (McBryde Johnson 3). Demonstrating that people with disabilities can have a high quality of life, as said before, gives McBryde Johnson credibility to further support her argument. McBryde Johnson is a lawyer who exhibits a high intelligence and also deals with the state legislators in disability activism. For example, she helped pass a bill with the hope of moving toward a world where killing is not such an appealing

Unspeakable Conversations by Harriet McBryde Johnson is an article about her experience visiting Princeton University to exchange views and challenge Peter Singer, a professor who strongly believes that all disabled people, like herself, are “better off” not been born at all. The article provides an insight into Johnson’s life as a disabled person. She takes the readers on a journey that explores both sides of her own and Singer’s contrasting beliefs. She protests the prevalent stigma and prejudice of disabled people and gives voice to this marginalized community. Johnson challenges stereotypes of disability, uses her a personal experience to better understand the world and help others, and attempts to directly address oppression by arguing against Professor Singer’s theory and assemble a group of diverse and like-minded people for social change.

If you saw a person in the mall in a wheelchair, would you judge them? Or would you look at them like they are a normal human-being? People who have a disability whether they are physically disabled, mentally disabled, or learning disabled, are still themselves. Nancy Mairs was forty-three year old woman with multiple sclerosis. She wrote an essay, “Disability”, that explained her views of her physical disability.

This essay highlights and discusses models of disability reflected in two separate articles (Appendices A and B). I will identify the models of disability they represent. Both have been recently featured in the Guardian newspaper and are stories on disabled people.

Over 400,000 people in the U.S have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Every day they struggle walking, or they are spastic. Mairs has perfectly described her day to day struggle with M.S. which usually results in paralysis. Mairs does not like being called ‘Handicapped’ because she feels that can summarize many people under one word. The ailments that they are trying to conquer are completely different. Americans who are not disabled understand what it is like to have an ailment, and can imagine what their life consists of. Mairs has incorporated thoughtful allusions and her insightful feelings to aide the explanation of being crippled to a non-crippled reader in her memoir, “I AM a cripple”.

Living life to its fullest capacity was a very important goal for Nancy Mairs. In “On Being Crippled” she examines depression, direction, choice, and family as she went through her battle with Multiple Sclerosis. Not only did she examine her own battle with MS, but she analyses the views that society has on anyone with a debilitating or handicapping disease. For this reason, it is clear that Mairs is speaking to society. She outcasts herself from the rest of society by her comfort with the word “cripple” towards herself. Mairs is able to pull this essay off because she herself has MS and therefore can provide valid evidence on her experiences and those similar to hers.

Peter Singer, claims that “people with very severe disabilities are likely to live lives that are not as good” this blanket statement has raised a lot of questions, whereby, Singer defends his argument by claiming that people with disabilities do not have the same prospects as those born without disabilities. Singer’s claim is based on his assumption that disabled people are not able to achieve a decent level of wellbeing. He argues that people innately believe that disabled individuals are not capable of achieving a normal level of wellbeing due to, his idea, that mothers would not knowingly harm (disable) their children.

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.

Lucy Grealy tells a story about not fitting in, unbearable pain that takes up residence in one’s head as loneliness and confusion, questioning what things mean, being scared and lost in your family, enduring intense physical pain, and most importantly, figuring out who you are. Lucy had no idea she might die, even though the survival rate for Ewing’s sarcoma was only five percent. She does not present her parents as overly afraid for her life, either. Her autobiography is not a story about the fear of death, but about such courage and anguish. Lucy shows how she falls under the spell of her disability, allowing it to control her life and dictate her future to a greater extent than it would otherwise. Having a disability means that