Nancy Mairs Cripple Analysis

In the passage by Nancy Mairs, the author, Mairs describes herself as a cripple. She does not use this title because it is forced on her but because she has chosen to identify herself as a "cripple." Mairs uses rhetorical features, such as tone, word choice, and rhetorical structure to present herself, her state of well-being, and her feelings.
In the passage, Mairs brings forth a tone of seriousness, while also explaining her reasoning as to why she calls herself a "cripple." She has accepted of her state of well-being. "As a cripple, I swagger," she says knowing that she is in a condition where she does not have control of some of her limbs. She does not let her disability her in a negative way. Mairs does not prefer the title, "disabled"
because it implies one "incapacity, physical or mental." The word "handicapped," Mairs says, implies that she has been "put at a disadvantage."
"And I refuse to participate in the degeneration of the language to extent that I deny that I have lost anything in the course of this calamitous disease." Mairs won't accept that her disease and disability has held her back or made her different as a person in any sort of way. Mairs use of word choice suggests that she feels as though her state of being empowers. Knowing that people "wince at the word 'cripple', " Mairs would rather people wince and see her as a "tough customer."