"Crippled" Essay Ap Lang- 11th grade
In the passage, Nancy Mairs suffers from multiple sclerosis yet she feels no sympathy for herself. She chooses to face her inability to use any of her limbs, something the society around her fails to do. By calling herself a “cripple” Mairs presents herself as a straight forward, strong individual. Mairs decides she doesn’t want to sugar coat what she really is, instead face the truth about herself: “Perhaps I want them to wince. I want them to see me as a tough customer, one to whom the fates/gods/viruses have not been kind, but who can face the brutal truth of her existence squarely”( 10-13). Mairs reveals herself as a being that does not care to hide her true appearance. As she is able to state what she really is, the reader is exposed to a very tough and straightforward personality. Her diction allows the reader to verify her true feelings about the state in which she remains. To her, the word “crippled” is honorable because “as a lover of words, [she likes] the accuracy with which it describes [her] condition: [she] has lost the full use of her limbs” (18-20). In this excerpt the reader becomes aware of the author’s bold sincerity. She is no way considering denying the state that she is in. Mairs tone conveys her strength as she displays it by choosing to realize her situation and speak the truth about herself. Nancy Mairs finds it disturbing to not address her state with correct terms since “these words seem to [her] to be moving away from [her] condition, to be widening the gap between world and reality” ( 26-28). Once again, through her will to be branded a cripple, Mairs shows her strength. She refuses to call herself anything less than a cripple since the term clearly reveals her true state. Mairs also presents herself as a strong individual when refusing to degrade herself to others: “ And I refuse to participate in the degeneration of the language to the extent that I deny that I have lost anything in the course of this calamitous