Story Trivia
Nancy Mairs lives with this disease
What is multiple sclerosis?
"Because I hate being crippled, I sometimes hate myself for being a cripple. Over the years I have come to expect-- even accept -- attacks of violent self loathing."
What is pathos?
The tone most prominently used by Mairs
What is humor?
The age that Nancy began experiencing symptoms of MS
What is 28 years old?
"As a lover of words, I like the accuracy with which it describes my condition: I have lost full use of my limbs."
What is logos? / What is pathos?
* Logos: she stated before that words like disabled imply other things, but "cripple" implies how she is only physically hurt
* Pathos: She shares her emotional connection to the word cripple and how much she likes the accuracy of the word
"As a cripple, I swagger."
What is irony?
* She finds truth in labeling herself as something that others may find offensive
Mairs likes to describe herself with this word because it is accurate and she accepts her reality
What is "cripple"?
"And I refuse to participate in the degeneration of the language to the extent that I deny that I have lost anything in the course of this calamitous disease; I refuse to pretend that the only differences between you and me are the various ordinary ones that distinguish any one person from another."
What is ethos?
* Shows how strongwilled her character is and how she is speaking on the truth of her experience
"to feeling like Tiny Tim, peering over the edge of the table at the Christmas goose, waving my crutch, piping down God's blessing on us all. Only sometimes I don't want to play Tiny Tim. I'd rather be Caliban, a most scurvy monster."
What is simile?
* Shows how she feels about being crippled. She will live her life with MS to its full potential although she would rather be someone who is breaking the potential she holds.
Mairs believes this word is "verbal garabage" and does not want people to describe her with it
What is handicapped / disabled / differently abled?
"People --crippled or not-- wince at the word 'cripple', as they do not at 'handicapped' or 'disabled.' Perhaps I want them to wince. I want them to see me as a tough customer, one to whom the fates/gods/viruses have not been kind, but who can face the brutal truth of her existence squarely. As a cripple, I swagger."
What is ethos?
* She is honest and admits she is uncertain about her own motives and she understands other's discomfort with this subject
This device is used often throughout the essay to make it more personal
What is an anecdote?
Mairs uses this word to describe herself after being optimistic about her life with MS
What is Pollyana?
"Then I miss picnics, dinner parties, poetry readings, the brief visits of old friends from out of town. The offspring of a puritanical tradition of exceptional venerability, I cannot view these lapses without shame. My life often seems a series of small failures to do as I ought."
What is pathos?
* Causes readers to sympathize with her losses and struggles
"I am not a disease" - a short yet strong quote with a lot of meaning behind it
What is a telegraphic sentence?