This book, Brain on fire: My Month of Madness, is about the author Susannah Cahalan, a young woman who has a disease which no doctor could figure out and her journey to find a diagnosis. Susannah had many symptoms which ended up fundamentally killing her brain. Susannah gets put in a hospital after having another seizure and was labeled violent, psychotic, and a flight risk. Susannah had to stay in the hospital twenty-eight days before being released with the diagnosis, Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. Susannah has been treated and officially cured, but still struggling with memory loss,using her experience to help others. Susannahs purpose for writing the book is to inform readers about Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. I am confident this…
The biggest overall theme of the book is acceptance. Although it is not always easy, everyone around Melody has to except her for the person that she is. Melody’s family and educators have to learn to accept her the most, they have to realize that she is still a person, not just a disease. Since it is a packaged deal, everyone in contact or around Melody have to learn how to tolerate her disorder. She craves to be a normal fifth grader, but the doubters squash her…
Nancy Mairs author of Disability- a self-claimed “radical feminist and cripple” with many accomplishments and degrees under her belt, Nancy is known to “speak the ‘unspeakable’” in her poetry, memoirs and essays, especially in Disability which was first published in the New York Times in 1987.…
In other words, she sees the looks teachers give her, and it inspires her to do better in her school work and prove to them that her image does not define her personality. Her mother tries to get her to act like the rich kid she is, but the more her mother tries, the more she rejects the idea and rebels. She wears black and dyes her hair unnatural colors to hide where she really comes from, a rich family. She also hides her love for playing piano because she does not want to be classified as a rich kid, but doing so gets classified as a punk or a goth. Antonia, the other main character, is classified as smart or a teacher’s pet, so a teacher’s pet and a punk; that is not usually the types that are best friends. In the beginning of the book, they did not even want to be seen together. By the end of the book , that did not matter anymore because they were proud of each…
Annie is the smartest student in the class. She is both liked by the teachers and the students which leads to her befriending a girl named Gwen. Everyday after school Gwen and Annie walk home from school together. Annie then decides that there is a chance to try and replace her relationship with Gwen for the one that she used to have with her mother, but then realizes that is not possible. Annie makes another friend; the Red Girl, who has a very different personality and different morals than Annie and her family. Annie's relationships with Gwen and the Red girl are ways that she has used to deal with the changes with her relationship with her mother. This relationship becomes a way for Annie to rebel against her family, especially her mother. Annie is trying to find her own way to become her own person. The Red Girl is a tomboy who runs around dirty and scruffy. This is something of which her mother does not approve. Annie really enjoys this difference in family morals. Even though she understands it goes against what her family believes in, Annie decides to start playing marbles which then leads into picking up the negative side of Red Girl. She decides to start stealing and lying daily. One day Annie's mother finds out about her new personality and starts to search for the things that she has stolen but is unable to, which amuses Annie. This new Annie starts to die down when Red Girl moves…
In the book, Jeannette starts with a scene of her on her way to an event, worried about being over-dressed and sees her mother going through a dumpster. She feels guilty but shamed and gloom as well and realized she was socially privileged and skipped the party to embrace her comfortable home that showed individual influence. Due to this incident, she suddenly starts reminiscing her childhood and how her parents choices affected her.…
Melody was born with cerebral palsy and was declared retarded and mentally handicapped at a young age. During the exposition of the book the future did not look bright for Melody, and her family decided to enroll her at Spaulding Street Elementary school. Although Melody was consider retarded she is actually very wise and has an amazing memory. However, she did not learn much at school leading into the…
In the U.S. about 2% of all babies are born with physical disabilities. Physical disabilities are not only a very important talk in the population of babies; they are also very important topics in literature. Two of the most well known pieces of literature that are about physical disabilities are “Hunchback Girl” and The Glass Menagerie. The characters that have disabilities in these stories are Laura and the Hunchback Girl. They both have similarities and differences including their physical disabilities and how they feel about them, their parents, and the way society treat them.…
She is nicer to people then people without disabilities. She also is not afraid to try something new. She is obedient and when she makes a scene it’s to warn someone or something. “I kicked at her with my feet. I screamed. I kept pointing in the direction of the blocks.” (16-17) She is always willing to help. Others are to lazy and won’t help. Melody also loves everything she doesn’t care what it looks like.…
In the book she works hard and is watched but she does not really mind it because one of the main goals she has is to make money. The other side of her is a girl that does not care about the money she just cares about love and herself and the men in her life. As the book moves on she shows us this side towds the end when vermeir gives her the earings and once he dies she trades them in for money, also she ends up marring peiter and we will never know if she did it for the love or for his…
This book emphasizes with Sara Louise and helped me see her point of view and better understand that all people have their own talents that they may not have discovered yet. This twin sister relationship was based off of jealousy and beauty that would have never have been if they were both treated equally and their mother and grandmother didn't play…
She feels that she is a “burden” to him because of her “nervous troubles”. John seems to treat the narrator as if she really does have something wrong with her even though her “case is no serious”. He tells her that “nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fantasies”. He puts the narrator in a “nursery” as if she is a small child. He refers to her as a “blessed little goose”. He also tries to keep her away from all contact with people. He tells her that her baby makes her “so nervous” and when she wants her cousins to visit he tells her that “he would as soon put fireworks in my pillow-case as to let me have those stimulating people about now”. The narrator describes the wallpaper as “torn off in spots and it sticketh closer than a brother,” which talks about her relationship with John which is strong but they still have a few problems. Also she says, “must have had perseverance as well as hatred” which means that she believes in John and thinks that he is doing what’s best for her however she does have a feeling of hatred sometimes for him because he keeps her locked in and doesn’t treat her as a normal…
Have you ever imagined something so strongly you felt you were actually experiencing or seeing it? Chances are you either have a really good imagination or you have an Overactive Imagination. Having an overactive imagination can be the best thing ever or give you the worst scares of your life.…
Cited: Anna. "Latimer Is Dead Because Her Father Is a Murderer." Forward. Wordpress, Hybrid, and…
Even though it seems like Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind and R.J. Palacio’s Wonder are extremely different, if you look beneath the surface, you see that the novel’s themes are very similar. This is despite the fact that the main characters have different afflictions, they’re treated very differently, and they aren’t even the same gender. Despite all of that, they both share the theme of not judging a book by its cover. Out of My Mind also has an extra theme, which is that you can do great things, despite your disability.…