With his short story “The Right Way to Be Crippled and Naked,” author Jonathan Mack introduces to readers, a character that is not only struggling to accept his sexuality, but his physical disability as well. In fact, the character is struggling with the former so much, that he decides to become a Jain Monk at the Digambara as a way to attempt some type of homosexual conversion on himself. What is perhaps most interesting about Mack’s piece, is the relationship the character has between his physical disability and his homosexuality. It becomes immediately evident that our main character despises his physically disabled leg, as when describing it, he says that he “tries not to look at it” and that it remind him of a “half dried wishbone. Like it was meant to snap.” however, as I said it’s more the relationship our speaker has between his disability and his homosexuality that is perhaps the most intriguing part of the story to dive into. Our speaker mentions not only that he believes his disability to be the reasons no other men are interested in him, but he also believes that he was given this disability as a punishment from karma for being gay. The fact that this is the first thing our main character thinks about when he thinks of his sexuality and his disability is very telling about or society and the way it applies negative connotations not only towards individuals with a disability and the way it makes them feel ugly or like a vicim, but also about how a large portion of our society is unable to accept people’s different sexualities, as evident by the way our speaker feels immense pressure to change who he is simply because he feels like an outcast in our world. This is only further backed up in the closing statements of mack’s writing, where the character apologizes to his family for doing harm and being an embarrassment to them, simply because of who he is. Mack’s piece manages to not only portray to readers what it is like for someone who is struggling to accept themselves because of their differences, but also sheds light on issues in our own society that allows these individuals to feel this way.
