Philip Schultz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and author most recently of My Dyslexia, who is diagnosed with the severe learning disability dyslexia, shares his journey in his book. Being dyslexic made his life very difficult and made him feel not normal. “More than once he says that a special cruelty of dyslexia is that those suffering it lose patience with them and come to consider themselves inferior to normal people” (Olson). It took Schultz years to read and write. At age of fifty-eight, Schultz discovered that he was dyslexic after finding out about his son being diagnosed with the same illness.
Schultz mentions that one in five people are suffering from dyslexia. Most people don’t know much about dyslexia and makes fun of the one that are suffering from it. However, Schultz has given a great description of the way he feels. He says that people who are suffering from dyslexia feel that their mind gets locked, they stand staring into space, unable to say anything or defend oneself and respond appropriately (Schultz 55). Schultz did not know how to read until the age of eleven, but his dream was always to become a writer. Back in the 1950s, no one knew about dyslexia, so everyone made fun of Schultz and he thought that being dyslexic was his fault. “I never wanted to be made fun of or anger my teachers or keep an entire class late because I didn't understand a concept. But that's what often happened as a consequence of my learning disability” ("Prize-Winning Poet”). Throughout his life Schultz was isolated culturally, physically, and mentally.
Schultz was isolated culturally by him not knowing or understanding his religious book. Reading was always challenging for him and he was ashamed of not knowing how to read his own holy book. For example, one day when his family was over at their cousin’s house, despite of being aware of his learning disability, Schultz’s family was expecting him to read Hebrew, their religious book. When he looked at