Analysis of “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs

The descriptive essay, â€Å"On Being A Cripple,† by Nancy Mairs demonstrates a purpose to postulate the way society has brainwashed people to judge others incorrectly in order to expose the true thoughts of a person living beneath the glamorized world. Mairs strongly feels that â€Å"[she has not] lost anything in the course of this calamitous disease† (37), known as Multiple Sclerosis, a disease that deteriorates the nerves and interferes with brain and body communication because the immune system has eaten away the protective covering on the nerve cells.To assert her confidence, Mairs initiates her essay with a strong, simple term to define herself: â€Å"a cripple† (37). She wants society to â€Å"wince† (37) in order to portray that candy coated euphemisms have made society weak. Mairs does not want her readers to feel sympathy, but to see the perspective of a person with the disease. Towards the end of the essay, Mairs is reflects back on society's w ays by comparing herself to other women who have the same disease and by declating she is â€Å"not a disease† (43) magnifies what this condition is to her on a more personal level.This disease is not just a besetment, it is a part of her life. Mairs exemplifies her suggested use of â€Å"cripple† by alluding to the â€Å"Lindsfarne Gospel† (37), which contains the first use of the word â€Å"cripple. † Mairs uses this to allow the audience to view the world in a more formal way. Therefore, a gospel might put on a different view of â€Å"cripple† rather than an impolite slang term.Her goal is to create an acceptance and understanding of the word and her condition to the society and the people who are living with the condition as well. Mairs points out numerous times that she has as learned to live through her disease in which she compares herself to many others who have MS yet gave up on trying to live their life; Mairs sees herself â€Å"like fat people, who are expected to be jolly,† (41) but states â€Å"cripples must bear their lot meekly and cheerfully,† (41) creating a comparison for herself.Subsequently, Mairs has added on more pressure for herself. Although she claims that she is against society's ways, she cares about the expectations they give her, later adding â€Å"this is a class act† (41). Trying to please society and herself at the same time is difficult for Mairs as she â€Å"[winds] up feeling like Tiny Tim, peering over the edge of the table†¦waving [her] crutch† (41), but prefers to be a â€Å"Caliban, a most scurvy monster† (42).When she feels like â€Å"Tiny Tim† (41), she is viewing herself how the world views her, a person who is disabled. Mairs would rather classify herself as a â€Å"Caliban† (42) or a â€Å"cripple† to evoke society to â€Å"wince† (37) at her and see her as the strong woman that she truly is. Nancy Mairs' purpose is to leave an effect on her readers to help them understand her feelings about the pressure society has established and how it has changed her and the rest of humanity in order to prove them wrong.

Winning at Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Winning at Change - Essay Example The ingredients for good communication are that it needs to be direct and personal and not lean through memos; it should be correct as a precise message produces best results; euphoria is to be avoided at small achievements and the larger goal must be pursued relentlessly until realized; and the blame game must be abandoned. Change programmes should have a large spread with timeline for each segment. Within this smaller goals are easier to understand and become achievable. Effective partnerships must be built with various stakeholders first by engaging the right persons within the organisation for each job and then making strategic partnerships to cement relations with outsiders. Teamwork is essential and forming a winning team means building confidences and delegating authority. The vision is the binding force and it must be meaningful and beneficial for everyone. The intentions must be clear; ambitious but practical. Conflicts between stakeholders must be resolved through give and take, keeping the vision in mind. An organisation has leaders at all levels and each one performs the universal task of explaining the vision and encouraging others to step up their efforts in achieving them. Leadership is critical in change management and a leader is dynamic and caring and the organisational transformation depends entirely on them. A successful transformation requires eight steps. First a hard look at ground realities of market conditions, potential crises or opportunities will establish the need and the urgency for transformation. Secondly, forging coalitions or partnerships and encouraging teamwork to ensure smooth functioning. Thirdly, a clear vision is required to create motives and strategies. Fourthly, the effective communication of vision through any mean is necessary to galvanize actions. Next, people must be empowered and barriers and obstacles must be removed; thinking out of the box

Mask Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Mask - Movie Review Example The disease is extremely rare and thought to occur in about every 1 in 22 million children. Rocky lived in Los Angeles in 1979 with his mom, Rusty, who is a free spirit and cheerfully irresponsible woman who hangs around with a motorcyclists. Rusty wanted to give her son a completely normal life despite of her disabilities and very soon her boyfriends also start to help her in taking care of her son. Rocky had a hobby of collecting baseball cards and he also saved money to travel Europe with his friend Ben on motorcycle. When trying to get Rocky admission in a new school, Rusty was persuasively refused and advised by the principle to get Rocky admitted in a special school that can help him in a better way. But Rusty was determined to get her son a normal child’s life and schooling so she insisted and very soon Rocky was allowed admission in school because of his excellence in old school. Early in his new school, Rocky’s classmate used to stare at him with amazement due to deformity, and asked him to take his mask off. But Rocky won their hearts by his witty and clever sense of humor. Rocky’s grades were among the best students of the school and very soon he started giving tuitions to his fellow students at $3. The principle who first tried to disown him also appreciated the hard work and intelligences of Rocky who was progressing very well. The principal then offered him a job as a counselor on the summer camp for blind junior students. T first Rocky was not sure what to do but he accepted the job later. Rocky’s mother used to leave him and stay away for several hours with her motorcycle gang. She was depressed most of the times but she tried to keep herself positive and away from all fears & worries by using drugs and alcohol. Rocky hated it so he tried to break her bad habit. At times during the movie Rocky is also seen upset when for example he realizes that because of his facial deformity he couldn’t ever enjoy the pleasur e of having girlfriend. During his camp side job, Rocky meet a very beautiful girl names Diana. She was blind since birth and could not see, but feels his deformity. Rocky and Diana spent time together and falling in love. Rocky taught her the meaning of descried words like pillowy, cloudy, red and blue colors. It became apparent that Diana’s parent were not pleased by Rocky’s presence so they were being overprotective of their daughter and tried to keep Rocky away from her. Diana was then sent to a boarding school to finish her one semester. Diana and Rocky promised to stay true to each other. One night when Rusty threw up a party to cheer Rocky up, he went to sleep early claiming that he has a bad headache. In the morning Rusty discovered that he had died in his sleep. She mourned and was very upset. As Rocky is buried, one of Rusty’s friend arranges the set of baseball cards on his tombstone. Theory The analysis of Rocky’s development throughout the mo vie and how his disability and deformity retarded his psychosocial and psychological development can be well understood by relating it to the following theories: Erickson’s psychosocial theory Freud’s psychoanalytic theory Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory 1. Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory Freud proposed theories that signified the importance of events and experiences during childhood and focused on mental disorders rather than normal functioning. According to Freud theory of child development, a person’

Psychology human development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Psychology human development - Essay Example It would elaborate over the human development theories applied to the individual with respect to her interactions and behaviors observed. Location The subject is observed in a playground of a club that the family visits often. The playground has swings and other recreational equipment such as see-saw, slide, monkey bars and overhead ladder for children. The children found in the playground are usually between the ages of 3 to 11 years old. The subject visits the playground with her mother who usually sits on the benches with mothers of other children. Subject The subject of this naturalistic observation is a girl between the age of four and six years old. She is the eldest child with a younger brother who is between three to five years in age. During the observation, the subject showed a variation in behavior and opened up gradually. The observation was for about half an hour during which the mother was present at the location and was looking over the subject. However, she was in clo se proximity throughout the observation. Interactions observed The observation initiated when the subject was brought to the playground early evening accompanied by her mother. For some time, she stayed alongside her mother and observed the children who were playing on the swings and other activities. Finding comfort with her mother in a place where everyone else was unknown to her displayed her reliability over her mother. According to the development theory of Erik Erickson, this shows that the subject has overcome the stage of Trust Vs Mistrust. The subject was not reluctant to go play in the ground, but since she did not know any of the children she stayed with her mother and observed. As the subject began to interact with the children, she started the conversation about the game that they were playing. She had been observing them and went to the group where she thought she would best fit. This decision was made by her own judgment and could prove that she was demonstrating Eric kson's development theory stage of Initiative vs. Guilt. As the girls she approached were swinging, she found a common interest. She said to them that she could do it to and said "you know I can swing faster than that." The conversation did not involve asking names or any other information but they quickly started sharing their routines and talked about other games that they loved playing. The subject told them about the games that she played with her little brother and her cousins. Behaviors observed At first the child showed a shy behavior when she did not go to play with the children right away. Gradually, she moved on to the children who seemed the most similar to her. She chose to play with girls who were around her age instead of going towards boys. As the subject moved on to play with the girls, the theory of Vygotsky's about principles of guided participation and zone of proximal development could be applied as her mom encouraged her to go play on the swings. Eventually, as the child interacted with the other children she opened up and became energetic and active. She showed a competitive behavior as she said that she could also play the game that they were playing. In just a few moments she had started running around, playing on different recreational equipment with her new friends. It was noticed that within the span of ten minutes of interaction, the child had developed close bonds with her new friends and when her mother called her for supper, she did not want to leave her friends.

Strategic Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Strategic Management - Assignment Example The company has strategic options like developing strategic alliances with local retailers, offering cost leadership and competitive pricing. Table of Contents Strategic management of TESCO supermarket 14 1 Strategic management of TESCO supermarket 1 Executive summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Business environment 5 PEST framework 5 Political factors 5 Economical factors 6 Social factors 6 Technological factors 7 Porter’s five forces 7 Threat of new entrant 7 Bargaining power of suppliers 8 Bargaining power of consumers 8 Threat of substitutes 9 Bargaining power of competitors 9 Internal analysis 9 Swot analysis 11 Challenges facing the organization 12 Strategic options 12 References 14 Introduction Food retail sector in the United Kingdom employs over 3 million people. This makes it the largest industry in the economy. However, a growing number of supermarkets are coming under intense pressure because of unprofessional treatment meted on stakeholders in the supply chain. Tesco and other supermarkets are committed to strategic development networks that lead to increased productivity. This report gives a strategic management analysis of Tesco supermarket. ... United Kingdom is Tesco’s largest market. In this market Tesco operates under Metro, Express, Extra and Superstore banners. The retailer has diversified to non-food lines e.g. clothing. Tesco delivers close to 40,000 food products. The companies label products operate at three levels. Most of the stores contain gas stations. Therefore, it has grown to become of the leading petrol retailers in Britain. Tesco personal finance is a retailing service offered by the supermarket is a bid to expand its market share. Business environment The business environment on a retailer plays a central role in its profitability. Companies are under intense pressure to acknowledge their responsibility to the society. The introduction of taxes that target the increased advertising of fatty food is bound to affect the performance of the supermarket (Stone 2009). The relationship between consumers and supplies has also been affected because of the ‘fat tax’. The presence of powerful com petitors has led to intense price wars. In some instances, the foreign market environment is hostile and governments try to protect the local industries from foreign competition. Government policies that promote monopoly controls have been blamed for limited access to some markets and segments. Such policies have the capacity to reduce the buying power of consumers. Differentiation is increasingly becoming difficult because of unhealthy competition and government interference. Tesco has developed a policy in which it reduces the prices for fuel based on the amount of sales at its groceries. The retailer compensates by raising prices in other stores. PEST framework Political factors Besides the United Kingdom, Tesco operates in six countries in Europe. The legislative and

How globalization changes Canadas urban development after World War 2 Essay

How globalization changes Canadas urban development after World War 2 - Essay Example These are guided by the primary political objectives of the ruling power and the intricacies of welfare culture’s regional disparities (McBride & Mcnutt, 2007, p. 194). â€Å"Neo-liberalism is a set of economic policies that have dominated politics for the last 25 years. Essentially, neo-liberalism contains many elements. The foundation of neo-liberalism is a free-market economy, where there is as little government intervention as possible (Abu – Jazar, 2009).† In addition, it is one of the primary objectives of neo – liberalism to effect the privatization of public services. It is contended by its votaries that the private sector, being better equipped in this context, will provide these services in a much more optimal manner. Moreover, the proponents of neo – liberalism argue in favor of reduced expenditure on social services. The aim of this reduced spending being the minimization of intervention by the government (Abu – Jazar, 2009). The reduction of governmental intervention and promotion of individuality, ensures that a neo – liberal state is peopled by individuals who compete against all the other residents of that state. This promotes tremendous economic growth, as every individual is compelled to fend for himself, without relying upon the state to lend him anything more than the most basic support. A major criticism that is levelled against neo – liberalism is that it generates socio – economic disasters. An instance being the vast disparity between the poor and rich of the developed nations (Abu – Jazar, 2009). From the perspective of the competition state, the cardinal objectives are to promote economic growth and synchronize policy in a manner that complies with the requirements of the global market. Neoliberals are furnished a useful reference, in achieving these goals, by the global hegemonic ideology and the national policy experiments (McBride & Mcnutt, 2007, p. 194). Furthermore, a

Death with dignity act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Death with dignity act - Essay Example One characteristic of terminally ill patients is excessive pain inflicted on the body by the disease. For instance, cancer patients have to undergo chemotherapy, which is a very painful process. Therefore, patients survive the pain by using strong painkillers that make them loose hair. Other than the pain, the patients lose their independence, sense of self, and failure of some of their systems (â€Å"Washington,† 2010). Therefore, legalizing PAS will go a long way to alleviate pain on patients who will eventually die anyway. Smith et al. suggests that PAS does not indicate a poorer end-life-care but love from the loved ones (Smith et al., 2011). The US government spends an enormous amount of money to treat terminally ill patients who in most cases are neglected by their loved ones and left to die. On average, end-of-life accounts for 10-12% of all healthcare spending. This includes hospice and home care spending amounting to $3.5 billion and $29 billion respectively (Raphael, 2001). Additionally, insurance does not cover end-of-life care, which rests a big economic burden on the government. As the population shifts to a bigger percentage of Americans in the age bracket of 65 years and above, there is need to legalize PAS law to do away with the increasing number of the terminally ill patients at will. Legalizing the bill on PAS will protect people who do not want to suffer lingering and painful deaths by prolonging their lives (UIC, N.d). Most terminally ill patients depend on life support machines such as respirators. Additionally, they have many medical problems including failure of some organs like the kidney. Thus, they require frequent dialysis (Washington, 2010). Therefore, they solely understand the extent of their pain thus the decision of their dying is personal. Legalizing PAS will empower patients to choose when and how they want to die. After all, judges have in the past