dis/lit 19

In Toni Morrison’s Sula, black bodies have little value and are used and discarded. The death toll is high, but there isn’t a whole lot of anguish or despair associated with any of the deaths. In fact some of them happen so quickly the reader might miss them. The death of Plum by his mother’s hand echoes the killing of Lennie by George in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men in that they appear to be “mercy killings” of disabled individuals by those who claim responsibility for them. 

When Eva’s son, Plum, returns from war he is coping with PTSD. He deals with the complex emotional trauma by using drugs (heroine, I believe?). Plum is possibly Eva’s favorite child, the one to whom she intends to leave everything but when he returns from war, he is profoundly changed. He retains his “sweet, sweet smile” and acts animated, all while falling farther and farther into drug addiction (45). Eva clearly loves her son a lot, but she is also disappointed in how things have turned out. One night she goes down to his room and holds him and rocks him in her arms. He wakes slightly and is comforted by his mother’s presence. Eventually she pours kerosene over his body which he interprets as “some kind of baptism, a blessing…[e]verything is going to be all right” (47). Then Eva sets the kerosene alight and leaves the room, retreating back to her room as others rush to put out the fire. Though it seems like lighting someone on fire would be an extremely violent way of killing them, the reader does not get to see that anguish, and the framing is almost peaceful with Eva’s detached “Is? My baby? Burning?” (48).

At the end of Of Mice and Men, George shoots Lennie in the back of the head for several reasons; perhaps it is because George has decided that Lennie is a danger to others, or maybe it is because he is afraid of what will happen to Lennie at the hands of the other men or the authorities, or because he doesn’t believe that Lennie can fend for himself. At any rate, George does love Lennie and, like Eva, he feels responsible for Lennie. George tries to keep Lennie calm and speaks soothingly to him about the farm they had been planning on buying; like Plum’s, Lennie’s death is relatively peaceful. 

Both George and Eva decide that Lennie and Plum, respectively, are better off dead. Maybe to a certain extant, that is true, however all agency is taken away from both disabled characters. Neither is given any say in his fate. But since George and Eva take responsibility for Lennie’s and Plum’s deaths, they should both have taken more responsibility for their lives. More engagement, understanding, and accommodation might have saved these lives. It is not right for George and Eva to decide that Lennie and Plum cannot fit into this world because of their disabilities and to eliminate them from it without trying to change society. “Mercy killings” become merciful for the able-bodied perpetrator and not for the victim.

It appears that both Eva and George feel remorse for what they have done, but they also both feel that their actions were necessary. Slim consoles George in the final scene by telling him that he “had to do it” (107). Eva feels enough guilt that she attempts to stop Eva’s suicide by immolation. Hannah is still alive when she and Eva are put in the ambulance but Hannah dies on the way to the hospital. There is a little ambiguity though. Could Morrison be suggesting that Eva kills Hannah on the way to the hospital? Does that, too, qualify as merciful? For Hannah or Eva?

Word Count: 623

I pledge: Krista Beucler

A post script: If you need a little more intersectionality on your Instagram, check out Aaron Philip (@aaron__philip), a black, trans, disabled model <3

In our class we discuss how different people have a different view of their life with a disability and the works we are analyzing have provided us with a broad range of different points of view. We have seen it all from Victor’s creation in Frankenstein, George and Lenny’s relationship, the characters in Sula and Aisha Knight in “Until”. Some have a much more negatively skewed view than others. Everyone see’s disabilities in literature differently and our works show this through many lenses.
In Sula, Shadrack is suffering from a mental disability, similar to PTSD, because of his traumatic time spent fighting in World War 1. I would compare the way Shadrack feels to our conversation about John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. In class we discussed everyone’s right to decide for themselves their purpose in life and if they choose to live or not. I feel like Shadrack and George have a very similar way of looking at this topic. Looking at the stories, you can see based off George choosing to kill Lenny and Shadrack’s creation of “National Suicide Day”. These two characters have a very different view on living life with a disability from the woman in the Until- Deaf Poetry video.
The woman in the video takes us through her life story and touches on some specific elements of her past. She expresses her self-identity struggles. People tell her she “isn’t deaf enough” because her English is too good, “not black enough” because her mother is white, so she is mixed. People also said she “isn’t Jewish enough” because she has darker skin, that she is not straight because she is with a woman even though she has loved a man before. This woman is living with a physical disability as well as a mental disability and is choosing to look at her life in a much more positive way than Sula and George. She chooses to openly talk about the events that have shaped her into who she is today and is not afraid to express who she truly is. She chooses to take everything that has happened in her past and shift it into a positive point of view. For example, instead of using the term “rape victim” to describe herself, she chooses to say she is a “survivor.”
I feel like an important piece of this course is the way people view others with disabilities. If a person with a disability views themselves as a ‘burden’ then living life day to day will be difficult. I’ve been able to relate many discussions in this class to my Intro to Special Education course. In that class we talked about why ‘people first language’ is so important. Although some people don’t mind being addressed first by their disability, many other people prefer to be addressed first by who they are. For example, when discussing children in schools, it is more appropriate to say “(insert name) is a child in my class with dyslexia” as opposed to “(insert name) has dyslexia.”
Our society throughout time has become increasingly more accepting of individuals with disabilities. Instead of seeing them as “creatures” and “monsters” we cherish and appreciate people’s unique qualities and have learned to celebrate each and every person as special in their own way. Literature does a wonderful job of expressing how far we have come as a society and how we can view disabilities as unique qualities as opposed to burdening factors.
Word count: 577
I pledge. Stephanie Rizzo

In ancient Rome, Romans believed “madness” could stem from four main causes: anger, love, the divine and sickness. Anger and love were considered dangerous to one’s mind due to how deeply a person can feel these emotions. To go mad from the divine was to believe one was “touched by god” in which they would speak in tongues, go through oracular frenzies or become epileptic. The last cause Romans believed would cause madness was the mind deteriorating due to the toll sickness would take on one’s mental health. Some of the most popular Roman emperors accused of madness were Caligula, Domition, Commodus and Elagabalus. The talk focused on Caligula who became emperor at the age of 24 and was the 3rd emperor of Rome. Caligula was accused of mad acts such as incest, odd military campaigns, and threatening the senators. Dr. Houghtalin argued the position that Caligula was in fact not mad and he was portrayed as mad due to the lack of creditability during ancient times. He chose to reveal the real power of his position which scared the senators. Because Caligula was not afraid to demonstrate or speak of his powers as the Roman emperor, he made enemies with the senators. Caligula was assassinated in a plot by three of his guards who stabbed him in an underground palace. The senators used his assassination to restore the Republic in Rome and take back the power from the title of emperor. Because history is written by people in positions of power, like the Roman senators, accounts of history are often bias and not credible. Caligula was no longer popular among his people; consequently, who is to say they did not exaggerate? Most of ancient history is speculation because there is no real proof or evidence of stories like these, it is just someone’s word against another. Dr. Houghtalin concludes that there are simply not enough facts to claim that Caligula was mad.

I first read John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, as a junior in high school and it ended up being one of my favorites. This time around I tried to focus mainly on our course topic, disability. George voices his annoyances with Lennie multiple times throughout the novel, however, even with all the trouble Lennie has caused, George still chooses to stick around. I had always seen George as a big brother or father figure to Lennie, as his major goal throughout the novel was to keep Lennie safe and out of trouble. With disability studies in mind, I made connections between George and family members of a disabled person; and I connected all the other characters in the novel with possible societal conflicts a disabled person might encounter.

When we first meet George and Lennie, they are running from their previous place of employment because Lennie is being accused of attempted rape. However, the novel makes note time and time again on Lennie’s pure childlike innocence. It is to be understood that any bad thing Lennie might do, is in no way on purpose or with mal intentions. He is driven to be well-behaved thanks to the help of George who constantly reminds Lennie of what they are working for and what will happen if Lennie messes up. Since Lennie has the mindset of a child, the fear of making his only “family member” upset or disappointed in him is all he needs to incentivize good behavior.

I connected the characters Crooks and Curly’s wife with social conflicts as they took advantage of and manipulated Lennie throughout the novel. Crooks riles up Lennie by planting the idea that George has left him for good. He causes Lennie to get so upset that he ends up threatening Crooks with violence to get him to stop. I concluded that the only reason Crooks was torturing Lennie with this thought was because Crooks himself is a very lonely man. As a black man, presumably in the 1930s, Crooks is the low man on the totem pole. He saw Lennie’s childlike mentality and chose to manipulate Lennie to make himself feel better about his own personal situation. Curly’s wife is unhappy with her marriage so she suppresses her unhappiness and vulnerable feelings by seeking out other’s vulnerabilities and feeding into those vulnerabilities. This causes Lennie to become overwhelmed and startled resulting in Curly’s wife’s death.

Like all children, mistakes are bound to happen. Lennie, as described, is a reasonably large man so while he has the mentality of a child the mistakes he makes are far from your average childlike mistake. It is these mistakes that lead to Lennie’s death. Today we are fortunate enough to have a plethora of teaching strategies to help grow, prepare, and integrate mentally disabled children into society and the workplace. However, Of Mice and Men takes place long before these strategies were implemented. In the 1930s if you could not see the disability, the disability was not there. Since these invisible disabilities were not cared for or viewed as they should have been, it caused people to outcast, prey on, and weaponize people’s mental disabilities.

I pledge…

Word count: 528

DISABILITY AND LITERATURE – ENGL 384

Short Reading Response

            In Rosemarie Garland Thomson’s introduction, talks about exploiting rare bodies, “their rarity made exceptional bodies instrumental and lucrative to those who appropriated them” (p. 2).  They were used and repudiated, sacrificed, insolated, and called distortion names. Also, talks about how were they exploited in former times and what has changed to the present day. She also invites the reader to future discussion on the topic (p. 17).

First, let’s talk about how they were exploited in the past. According to Thomson, these people were exploited due to their exceptional qualities. Back then, Egyptian kings, Roman aristocrats, and European royalty keep dwarfs and fools as amusing pets (p. 2). An example is the unfortunate dwarf that cheers the princess birthday in The Infanta’s Birthday reading. According to the Infanta’s story, not only, they were exploited, they were also wronged and undermined.

Now in days, these specific people still being exploited but the terms have changed. For example, now the professionalization of authority wage labor change the roles of workers from owners (p. 11). They are not owned by anyone, they have more benefits, and laws that protect them from being mistreated. They can continue to ‘mostrate’ their exceptional bodies as a job. Given their conditions, chances are that perhaps is the only kind of work they can do because discrimination still a fact to deal with. Now, they are not called monstrous they are called freaks, such as Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson’s case is one where we can observe that besides the salary and benefits; not much has changed. The name calling, the percussion, the exploitation was present though almost his entire career. Let me define how he was exploited, for once, magazines, radio stations, and TV stations made lots of money by misleading the news.  

One thing that perhaps make this cruelty to happened less is technology, in the sense that there are more people recording and reporting abuse. I think this is one of the ways that as a community we can help. Also, just as every issue in the world, we can help more when we are informed through the right source of information. In my personal experience with a friend of mine, I observed how frustrated he got when people did not understand his disability and used it as a form of having fun to his expense due to his disability. He had it and fall into a depression that he never recovered from.

There still lots to do in order to accommodate all of us in society and in the world. We are all different.  

Word count: 510

I pledge; I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work. – Odilia Rafael

Works Cited:

Thomson, Rosemarie Garland. Thomson, Rosemarie Garland. Freakery: cultural spectacles of the extraordinary body. New york: New York University, 1996. 1-17.

When reading Oscar Wilde’s “The Fisherman and His Soul” the Fisherman reels in a mermaid instead of fish in his net. Upon examining her he clasps her in his arms and she screams in an attempt to escape, only causing him to hold her tighter. The Fisherman believes that anything caught in his nest belongs to him and the mermaid is his prize. When the mermaid realizes she could not escape she begins to weep and begs for freedom. The Fisherman says “I will not let thee go save thou makest me a promise that whenever I call thee, though wilt come and sing to me, for the fish delight to listen to the song of the Sea-folk, and so shall my nets be full” (Wilde). The extraordinary being becomes a slave to the Fisherman’s pleasure and labor. This phenomenon is discussed by Rosemarie Thomson in her introduction to “From Wonder to Error—A Genealogy of Freak Discourse in Modernity” that Extraordinary bodies exist solely for pleasing man, who is destined to be its master (Thomson 3).
The mermaid is an object of wonder that the Fisherman wishes to further utilize past her assistance in his fishing work. The Fisherman attempts to further his bargain with the mermaid, requesting her hand in marriage. The mermaid rejects him stating that because he has a human soul, she is unable to love him. He must send his soul away in order for it to work. Despite the suggestion, she has no knowledge of how to get rid of one’s human soul and laughs in pleasure in response to the Fisherman’s proclamation to send away his own soul. The rejection was not an option and he is fixated on the exotic otherness and beauty of the mermaid.
Thomson states that extraordinary body forms are rare, unique, material and confounding of cultural categories, they exist as magnets which able-bodied people attach their anxieties, questions, and needs to at any given moment. The body exists to be exploited and useful to everyone but the body itself (Thomson 2). The mermaid is a magnet that the Fisherman secures his needs upon. Throughout the story, the Fisherman never is shown to converse with the mermaid about things other than wanting her. The relationship seems quite one-sided and only exists due to his threat of imprisoning her if she did not uphold her promise.
The relationship between the mermaid and the Fisherman only exists because of the power the Fisherman has over the mermaid. The Fisherman kidnaps her into his net and in turn for allowing her to leave she should be grateful and fulfill his needs with love and his nest with fish. This request is quite unreasonable and unfair. For example, if a child was ensnared in a bear trap outside of someone’s home and the homeowner freed the child while expecting the child to return daily with food. The homeowner feels like the child owes them if the child did not walk into the bear trap they might have gotten food or their flock may have been saved from the wolves. The child should be grateful the homeowner saved them and should return daily with food even though that person’s house was what inconvenienced/injured them. The bargain is not fair.
The conflict that initiates the story is the plight of having the mermaid, and despite this, the plot quickly takes a turn into a new conflict and neglects to give much personality to the source of the Fisherman’s desire that caused him to forsake his soul. “Disabled limbs became a thing of wonder for rich people to collect for their cabinet of wonders” (Thomson 2). The mermaid is only depicted as an accessory to have and is not given much expression or personality, she is something that the Fisherman claims undying loving for and the affection she may eventually grow for him is never depicted. The story seems to parallel to winning a prize such as a car and having it break, it is sad that such a valuable possession should die or break. However, this sadness is only for the owner, the sorrow is not felt for inanimate objects or prizes such as the mermaid.

Oscar Wilde’s tale offers a depiction of otherness that challenges us to scrutinize how we view and treat individuals that are different than ourselves. Wilde shows the cruelty and ignorance of mainstream society and how it affects allies of the community through the Dwarf’s ridiculed performance and the events that follow.

            The story starts and the nobles find the Dwarf and buy him for the Infanta’s birthday. It is disgusting, though not surprising, that the audience reacts to the Dwarf’s performance by laughing at him and insulting his physical appearance. Describing the Dwarf, Wilde writes, “when he stumbled into the arena, waddling on his crooked legs and wagging his huge misshapen head from side to side, the children went off into a loud shout of delight…” . In this section, he is defined by his appearance without knowing what he looks like. This can be connected to individuals with disabilities who don’t know that they have one and aren’t able to pick up on the ways in which they are treated. When the Infanta throws a white rose to the Dwarf as a joke, the Dwarf, “took the whole matter quite seriously, and pressing the flower to his rough coarse lips he put his hand upon his heart and sank on one knee before her, grinning from ear to ear, and with his little bright eyes sparkling with pleasure”. It is easy for people to hide their cruelty with subtle gestures. The fact that the Dwarf was not aware of his appearance made it easier for the Infanta to get away with her taunts and for the Dwarf to remain oblivious to it all.

            What’s interesting is how nature interacts with the Dwarf. The flowers mocked him by saying, “he should drink poppy-juice” and “if he comes near me I will sting him with my thorns”. These are violent threats and it is plausible that individuals with disabilities have heard variations of these phrases directed at them. Contrary to the flowers, the birds and lizards accepted the Dwarf. The birds said that, “they did not mind his being ugly, a bit” and “he had been kind to them[…] but had always given them crumbs out of his little hunch of black bread”. This shows that they saw the Dwarf as more than his appearance and saw him as a caring individual. What’s interesting to look at is how the flowers have a negative opinion of the birds and lizards simply because they don’t mind the Dwarf. The flowers say that, “they are mere vagrants like the gipsies, and should be treated in exactly the same manner”. They demonize them and loop them in with their hatred of the Dwarf because the birds and lizards are not ridiculing him. This shows a bit of the mob mentality and how being an ally to individuals with disabilities can be frightening.

            What’s so disheartening about this tale is the moment the Dwarf sees what he looks like. While trying to find the Infanta, he accidentally sees himself in a mirror and says, “it was he who was misshapen and hunchbacked, foul to look at and grotesque”. He is physically pained to see himself and realizes that the Infanta was mocking him with the white rose. What’s even more gruesome is the fact that the Infanta was only thinking of her own wants because at the end, when the Dwarf dies she says, “for the future, let those who come to play with me have no hearts”.

            While I don’t have personal experience with this, I feel like there is still a stigma surrounding people with disabilities. Even though this is a fictional tale, it reminded me that people are still capable of treating others like this.         

Word Count: 623

Bibliography

Wilde, Oscar. “The Birthday of the Infanta.” 1891. Wikisource. 28 January 2019.

I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work. – Sammie