The Lucky Man Analysis

Patrick Solitano Jr., better known as Pat, is a white male of about 35 years of age who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is undergoing treatment. He was released from a mandatory hospitalization in a detention facility after eight months on the premise that he would continue taking medication, attend therapy, and comply with his restraining orders. He was also assigned a parole officer.

If you eat unhealthy, fatty foods your whole life, you have a higher risk of developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or arteriosclerosis. If you have unprotected sex, you may contract a sexually transmitted disease, such as syphilis, gonorrhea, or HIV/AIDS. But, Parkinson’s doesn’t racially discriminate, nor does it care if someone is wealthy, poor, educated, non-educated, male or female. Anyone can develop Parkinson’s disease. The disease begins in the brain, our most intricate, delicate organ, whose complexity is still not entirely understood, even with today’s technology and experts. The brain intrigues me. I find myself curious about brain

What would the world look like if there was no such thing as an illness? Thousands of people each and every day would be saved. Illnesses destroy families all across the globe. In the articles “Parkinson’s Alley” by Joy Horowitz, and “Topic of Cancer” by Christopher Hitchens, the authors explain the fact that the causes for cancer and Parkinson’s disease are not proven to be known. Joy Horowitz also points out; more and more research is being done each day to better the understanding of these terrible diseases. Although Parkinson’s disease and cancer are completely different diseases, they are astonishingly similar. Illnesses like cancer and Parkinson’s disease directly or indirectly affect everyone’s life.

Bertolt Brecht once said, “art is not a mirror with which to reflect reality but a hammer with which to shape it (BBC, 2017).” This forms the fundamentals of Brechtian theatre as it aims not only to show the world as it is, but to challenge, empower and educate audiences to evoke change. Chasing the Lolly Man, is a one man show devised by Mark Sheppard and directed by Liz Skitch. The performance utilises the powerful medium of Brechtian theatre in order to portray dramatic meaning. Throughout the performance Sheppard utilises Brechtian theatre conventions to discuss issues surrounding aboriginal identity and culture. The successful use of Brechtian conventions along with the dramatic elements enables the audience to become aware of the impact that first settlers had on the aboriginal people. This effectively brings to attention the journey to reclaim aboriginal identity accepting the convergence of modern and traditional aboriginal culture.

In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, there are multitudes of social occasions on which a character can be changed as a result. One of these social occasions is when An-Mei’s mother commits suicide and dies in front of the household. As a result of her mother’s death, An-Mei realizes that she needs not suppress her sorrows and remain reticent as her culture defines it, but should develop and assert her own convictions. This event reinforces the message that tradition is vital for people to connect with each other, it is just as necessary for individuals to develop free thought. Tradition is vital for the initial growth of objectives and beliefs, but having tradition as a sole perspective will only come to eliminate autonomy and limit the maturity of ideas.

“I threw away my foolish innocence to protect myself. And then I taught my daughter to shed her innocence so she would not be hurt as well.” (Tan 213). The Joy Luck club is a book containing sixteen stories told by four mother-daughter pairs, as well as four anecdotes about no particular character. The mothers are all Chinese Immigrants. Each mother's story details their experiences in China, while the daughters talk about life in America. The exception to this is with the Woo family, where the mother, Suyuan, has passed away, and the daughter, June, tells her stories for her. In ‘The Joy Luck Club’, Amy Tan uses the stories of the mothers to illustrate the similarities and differences in the ways the mothers and daughters think about

The Joy Luck Club is a book about the struggles of Chinese women and their daughters integrating into American society. Several patterns occur throughout many of the families throughout the book. Daughters’ independence and rebelling against their mothers, repetition of their mother's past actions, and the daughters misunderstanding their mothers. These all contribute to the pattern and themes that repeat in the book.

In 1991 Fox was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease (PD), he did not reveal his diagnosis to the public until 1998. (Michael J. Fox Foundation) Parkinson’s disease is complex neuro-degenerative disease and is considered idiopathic with only a small percentage of cases considered genetically linked. Diagnosis is based solely on a patient’s history, age, and clinical manifestations. Early-onset Parkinson’s varies from idiopathic Parkinson’s in that there is a mutation in the Parkin gene.

Dan Crenshaw had been the worship pastor at the church for as long as anyone could remember. Is was odd to Dan that lately everyone was always asking if he was ok. Of course he felt fine, just getting a little older. He was faithful to get his annual physical and always passed with flying colors. He was sure that the finger trembling he’d noticed when waving was nothing; come to think of it, he’d been having a little difficulty typing too. He’d had trouble sleeping for a while, but that was probably normal for his age. He made a note to check with his Dr. next physical, certain that it was nothing but getting older. In February 2013, after a routine physical, Mr. Crenshaw was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. At a mild to moderate stage, treatment will focus on patient safety, and mobility as well as education ( (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2016).

Our disease of focus for the year was Parkinson’s disease, so we learned about the symptoms, diagnosis, current treatment methods, social impact. Every Saturday, I scrolled through genetic data, broke down scientific papers that I only half understood, and pieced together genetic interactions with other volunteers in order to find genetic biomarkers to target in the disease. I also joined the community volunteering committee where we planned outreach activities.

Michael J. Fox uses social media to help spread awareness about parkinson's disease. He started a foundation called, “The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Foundation.” Fox uses multiple different media to get people's attention about the disease. Such as his own website, a Instagram account, Twitter account, and Facebook. He uses these platforms to give information about the cause in many different ways.

Since reading The Lottery by Shirely Jackson, I’ve been thinking more about culture, traditions, and perspective. Not just that, but how it can sometimes take adopting an unbiased, non judgmental, or outside perspective in order to see things for what they really are. The way that the narrator in this story adopts such a position allows for a clearer view of the events of the story.

The two presentations I chose were William’s Parkinson’s Disease and Miguel’s Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE). The reason I chose the Parkinson’s one was that I presented on Huntington’s disease (HD) and people often compare the two. I was saddened to learn that the cause of Parkinson’s has yet to be discovered since they have discovered the faulty gene associated with HD. Both diseases are still in need of a cure, but I feel that HD is just one step closer at the moment. It also interested me that men are more likely to get Parkinson’s, while men and women have an equal chance of getting HD. Another difference is that a majority of Parkinson’s cases are not inherited, while HD is clearly hereditary. Something else I found intriguing was that HD has a stated life expectancy of 10 to 20 years after onset of symptoms. People with Parkinson’s do not have a set life expectancy and may live as long as somebody without the disease. However, I do understand that advanced Parkinson’s symptoms could lead to life-threatening complications which could result in death.

Charcot examined a large group of patients within Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, he had developed a way to observe tremors in action and at rest. “He noted that the patients with action tremor had accompanying features of weakness, spasticity, and visual disturbance. In contrast, those with rest tremor differed in having rigidity, slowed movements, a typical hunched posture, and very soft spoken.” (Goetz 2011) Charcot early tremor studies helped to establish Parkinson’s Disease through his very high publicized findings that neurological entity could be confidently be diagnosed. In 1957 a Swedish scientist Arvid Carlsson found out that dopamine in the brain region that is important for movement control. He showed that the levels of dopamine can be reduced in animals to cause symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease and also by giving the animals levodopa (L-dopa) to reverse the symptoms of PD. PD is second most common neurodegenerative after Alzheimer’s Disease and the most common movement disorder. Over 60,000 people here in the United States are diagnosed every year but they say the numbers can be much higher with undiagnosed people out there but over one million people live with Parkinson daily.10 million people worldwide live with Parkinson’s Disease and April 11th is World Parkinson’s Day. On April 11th, 2017 marked 200 years since James Parkinson publicized his essay.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological condition which can affect talking, writing, swallowing, walking and memory.