Author: Smahgou2

Word Count: 1,056

Stephen Kuusisto’s short story, “Plato, Again,” is about a woman who recently underwent cancer surgery. The story illustrates how many women get treated in the workplace. Like most of those women, we see Caroline Moore, experiencing ableism, sexism, and racism. In the beginning of the story, Caroline thinks about everything she went through, saying that it was “easy.” The only thing she did not find easy about was the idea of getting to keep her job. She did not have much interest in her course management software before her illness; however, being back now, she was ready to work hard, wanting to get her mind off her illness. Unfortunately, nothing was the same when she returned to work. Caroline got demoted and was treated differently by all her coworkers. Simple mistakes were now seen as because of her illness and she was told that her hours would have to change to part time which can easily lead to her getting dismissed.
Mitchell and Snyder’s Introduction of “The Biopolitics of Disability,” they quote that, “sought to counter-balance an over emphasis in the social and minority models of disability on environmental restrictions experienced by disabled people wherein the ability to fully participate as citizens in a democracy (for example) is impinged upon by real bodily limits” (125 ) Going back to, “Plato, Again,” we can see that Caroline was quickly seen as unfit to do her previous job just because she “lost a breast.” Sure she was ill, but she wasn’t even given a chance to prove she’s still capable of completing tasks, she was called in to the office and told she’s been demoted on her first day back. Caroline’s story can be relatable to many people. She is a character with so many things she can be discriminated against for in today’s society. Caroline is a fifty-two-year-old, black woman with a disability. Just simply being a woman leaves her vulnerable for discrimination in the workforce. Whether they have been sexually harassed, racially discriminated against, or stigmatized because of a disability, anyone reading this story will find something to relate to.
Mitchell and Snyder also talked about how people with disabilities come across “inflexibilities of key social institutions that require them to “fit in” or try to get by without showing their disability too much. They speak of how society sees disability as an infringement on aesthetic ideals of national imagery. It’s sad that Caroline’s disability being just missing a breast, something that isn’t as visible someone with a missing limb, can affect her life so much making her “unfit” to do the tasks she has previously done. Due to her cancer, Caroline is not seen as an abled-body person and her missing breast is to referred to as, “it.” We have seen this same situation in O’Conner’s “Good Country People,” where Hulga’s prosthetic leg as “it.” Both characters, who were once “normal” humans with friends and coworkers were suddenly treated as strangers by the people who they felt closest to.

Word Count: 506
I pledge… Sara Mahgoub