Chapters fifteen through twenty four of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird paints for readers, a clear picture of racial injustice and discrimination, while also touching on topics introduced to us in Puar’s The Right To Maim and Boster’s Here Are The Marks Yet. These pages primarily deal with the trial of Tom Robinson but handle it in a way that portrays the some of the racial disabilities that are accosted with the characters of the novel. These are primarily evident in the fact that during the hearing, Tom Robinson is found guilty when their is not only no physical evidence connecting him to the crime, but actually evidence that the crime itself did not even happen. Further racial disability is seen when Atticus is almost attacked by a mob driven by racism while he is doing nothing but sitting outside of the courthouse, simply. because he’s defending an African American man. and when the book remarks on the judge of the court by saying that he is notorious for “running his court in an informal fashion.” By including these in her work, Lee’s provides readers with insights into how race can be looked at as a disability the the discrimination, obstacles, and stigmatization that comes with it.
Zachary Welsh’s Thoughts On The Woman Hanging From The Thirteenth Floor Window
The Woman Hanging From The Thirteenth Floor Window by Joy Harjo deals with a speaker grieving her of sense of belonging and now is experiencing a sense of severe loneliness. As readers venture further into the poem, they quickly realize why the woman is preparing to jump, as Harjo states “she thinks she will be set free.” The poem deals with underlying themes of when individuals are taken out of their homes and what they know and how that can drive them to experience the very negative effects of solidarity. This is even represented in the poem with the way it handles Lake Michigan. In some places on the lake, the woman found a sense of comfort along the shores, but when she sees the lake in the present moment, as she prepares to jump she describes it as “a dizzy hole of water.” This contrast acts as a way for Harjo to show the stark difference between the speaker’s mental state with the calm, past waters representing a sense of knowing, and the vicious, crashing, present waters representing a sense of feeling lost. By having her poem include two endings, the author allows her readers to not only get a happy ending that they are probably hoping for, but she also gets the, to open their eyes to the very real, very grim effects that isolation and loneliness can have on some individuals.
Eliana Black Thoughts on “To Kill a Mockingbird”
When I originally first read this novel, I was an angsty 14 year old in a freshman english class with not much care for any type of assigned reading. I loved to read, but anything that was assigned to me I instantly distained. Additionally, the theme main focus when we were reading the book freshman year was about social and systematic racism in society and so the Radley family as a whole was much more of a background influence than anything. Fast forward 5 years later reading it for a college class I actually sought out to put on my schedule, not only is it refreshing to reread it from a different lens, but also I much more enjoy the book now. With Arthur Radley becoming my main character to focus on in regards to content for this class, it has changed everything I previously remembered the book as. For this semester I’m actually using the same copy I annotated in high school, so it’s been amusing to say at the least in seeing my old responses to the plot and characters. Even before I read the book I, like Scout and Jem, already had a judgement of the character “Boo” before actually being introduced to him. Even outside of the fictional world of Maycomb, Arthur is a heavily misunderstood character, and reading it from the viewpoint of potential disability has provided much more insight and explanation. Instead of assuming based off rumors and other people’s opinions on Arthur like the rest of the town, I’m able to see him in a new light as an almost reintroduced character.
Breakout Group 1 Section 2 3/2
Brianna, Arden, Nicholas, Daniella, Salem
Tobin-Siebers, Theory in Disability
- Nick, Foucault on the docile body, what does this mean? p 175
- Basically the restructuring of the solider is eugenic sentiment, that people can be removed or corrected from the mass population – Arden
- P 174, pp 2 “the human subject has no body…dependent on its order”
- Objects are defined by the language used around them, disability is made such by the language we use about the body
- Not all “impairments” are disabilities, some are just pain or cumbersome, but arent cause for people to be “othered”
H. Lee, TKAM
- Salem- Perpetuating racism cannot be something that’s disabling because that mindset doesn’t have any negative pushback from the white majority
- Brianna- if you step outside of the norm, it’s separating you from the majority, even if its the right thing to do
- Scout is being influenced by ? townspeople and also Calpurnia
Breakout Group 2 Section 2 3/2
Faith Hopkins, Alaina Taylor, Nathalie Luciano, Shane Mann, Lily Sportsman
A: I like how they use medusa’s sisters as a metaphor
N: “all disablied bodies have to do with the eyes, the hands, the speech”
A: I never thought about it until this article
N: Thought it was interesting how it mentions how disability creates a challenge with the representation of the body; everyone has a different view. Disability isn’t just this tiny picture, there’s so many. All of them comes together to create disability
A: no disability is the same. You can have the same symptoms but every disability is your own
N: The experiences are different, too, even if they have the same disability. Someone with a more visible disability has a completely different experience with someone with an invisible disability. Representation asks to be covered, but it’s so hard to do so with so many disabilities.
F: Soldiers have different outcomes with their “marks of pride” like with a scar, people would say that’s brave or attractive. If one loses legs or arms, it becomes sad.
A: What did you think of the analogy with cyborgs?
N: this analogy is nice, “disability is so unusual that they must be considered extraordinary”
A: Representation in pop culture: Cyborg from Teen Titans. Good representation for disability
F: Goes to show that there are some good/cool representations of disability
N: It’s less “oh he’s disabiled” and more “wow he’s so cool!”
A: looking more into it, he saves people’s lives and has an ordinary life.
N: What did you guys think of Cheryl Marie’s excerpt?
A: I like it because it says it doesn’t have to be a glamorous recovery
N: the good, the bad, and the ugly of asking for help.
MockingBird
F: I feel like this part that we had to read showed a lot of the “otherness” the sexism and
L: Shows the lenses of all the otherness. I like being able to see more than just the racism lens, the sexism and disability lens as well.
A: the lady with the addiction, it was hard to read once we found out that she had an addiction rather than just being a mean old lady
L: Sula showed this as well, having an addiction is like a disability like with Plum and the lady from Mockingbird. She wants to go out on her own terms but her “disability” stops her from living her life
A: Atticus holds her to some high regard and sends Jem to read to her. She gave him a lesson to teach; someone’s story isn’t always visible.
F: The way they humanize Tim Johnson by giving him a human name and being concerned about him; it’s like the opposite with the other novels we’ve read where they dehumanize people through animals.
L: Tim Johnson appears very distinguishable to me, like everyone should know who he is.
Nathalie Luciano’s Response to Tobin Siebers’ “Disability in Theory”
In Tobin Siebers’, “Disability in Theory” the concepts of social constructionism, the new realism of the body, and the presented challenge of representation are discussed. A struggle to understand or even accept the realities of the disabled body and how it should be represented is a present and ongoing issue in today’s society. Disabled bodies often change the process of representation due to the fact that different bodies require new modes of representation. Therefore, though there are many methods and theories in which to craft an image of the body, both social constructionism, the body theory of pain, and the idea of realism all present challenges in crafting an accurate representation of the disabled body.
Social constructionism attempts to define disability through environments that may be hostile to some bodies in comparison to others. Social constructionism can be broken into two ideas: weak and strong construction. The weak construction being that the society’s attitude influences the perception of bodies. Thus, advancing a “commonsense” approach that people may victimize those who are different from them. The strong construction, on the other hand, does not rely on merely the attitudes of society. Rather, it relies on a “linguistic model that describes representation itself as a primary ideological force (Siebers 174).” Therefore, the body itself doesn’t determine its own representation. Scholars insist though, that this social construction either fails to acknowledge the difficult physical realities faced by people with disabilities or it presents their bodies in ways that are conventional, conformist, and unrecognizable to them (Siebers 175).
Pain is a subjective phenomenon, thus making it a tempting way to see it as a way of describing individuality. This can be troublesome because individuality is a social object and because “both medical science and rehabilitation represent the pain of the disabled body as individual, which has also had dire consequences for the political struggles of people with disabilities (Siebers 176).” Pain in body theory is rarely physical pain. Rather it is pain that is created by society and based on guilt or social repression. The pain of disability is much less bearable in this sense because people with disabilities suffer intolerance and loneliness every day because the able-bodied refuse to accept them as part of the human community (Siebers 177). Therefore, the challenge of managing the body’s pain is faced on a regular basis.
The idea of realism is another difficult method to put together. Art works concerning disability or art that is created by artists with disabilities do not hesitate to represent “the rough edges and blunt angles” of the disabled body in a matter-of-fact way (Siebers 179). Their methods are deliberate, as if they are trying to get people to see what is right in front of them but is somehow still invisible to most. Siebers quotes Wade and how she brought out the reality of disability in her passage concerning those who need care, and risk paying for it with their independence and personal self-esteem. “Crudely put,” Siebers writes, “unless all adults have their ass wiped by someone else, unless the caregiver cannot wipe [their] own ass, the people who alone require this service will be represented as weak or inferior (Siebers 179).” Thus, emphasizing the struggle that the disabled may have to maintain a portion of equality with their caregivers.
Though these theories present different modes in which to understand the disabled body, an accurate representation of a disabled person is not cookie-cutter and is instead individual to that person alone.
I pledge… Nathalie Luciano
Zachary Welsh’s Thoughts on Sheila Black’s “The Right To Mourn”
With her poem “The Right To Mourn,” author Shelia Black introduces the idea that becoming “able” is almost a loss. Using lines such as “and I loved it as you love your own country” and “how I would have nested in it,” Black speaks on the idea that regardless of whether or not someone’s body is different, what is most important is that the individual is comfortable in it. Black mentions that she had doctors straighten her legs because society made her “feel like the exile” she believed she was. But Black immediately follows this up by saying she feels lost in her new “fixed” body. This ferocious comparison allows Black to shed light on the main idea she is presenting to readers, that individuals with a disability should not fall victim to the judgements of society, and that if they are comfortable and feel satisfied with themselves, that’s what matters, because when you change who you are to please someone else, you’re ultimately becoming a stranger to yourself.
Zachary Welsh’s Thoughts on To Kill A Mockingbird Chapters 9-14
While going through these chapters, we as readers are introduced to a new and rather intriguing character named Tom Robinson. The character himself really stuck out to me due to the fact that I feel as though he embodies one of the previous topics we had discussed earlier in the course. Specifically, I feel as though the character of Tom Robinson as well as how his character affects other supporting characters, hearkens back to the ideas and concepts introduced and touched on in Jasbir Puar’s The Right to Maim. In her piece, Puar mentions how one’s race could essentially be looked at as a disability in the fact that individuals of certain races face problems and stigmatization that others do not and I feel like that is clearly seen in Tom Robinson’s character. This is evident in the fact that Tom Robinson is an African-American male who is being accused and tried for the rape of a white woman even though he is innocent. He also must face the debilitating circumstances of being an accused African-American being tried by an all white jury. On top of Robinson’s case, hist story and unfortunate circumstances also lead to other African-American characters directly linked to him being faced with hardships. Atticus, the person in charge of defending him is being stigmatized and called racial slurs, Helen Robinson, Tom’s wife, is unable to get any work due to her husband’s current status, and main characters Jem and Scout become subjects of whispers and glances around the town. The character of Tom Robinson directly embodies the ideas presented in Puar’s The Right to Maim and displays them to the reader in hopes to increase awareness of and to shed light on these issues that are still happening today.
Katie Blair’s Response To Kill a Mockingbird
Reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird for the second time has created a different view for me when reading it in the lens of disability studies, specifically with Arthur Radley’s character. In particular, the nickname ‘Boo’ Radley stood out to me as having an underlying meaning that I hadn’t noticed before. Although the Radley house is generally disliked by the town, there is a difference in how the adults view them and how the kids view them; specifically, the nickname made me think about how the kids may be interpreting the name ‘Boo’. When Scout is asking Miss Maudie about Arthur Radley, she referred to him as Boo and was quickly told Miss Maudie to call him by his real name. Here, it is clear that Miss Maudie, being much older than Scout, sees Arthur Radley as a real person rather than dehumanizing him with a nickname like ‘Boo’. This is also seen when Atticus tells his kids not to play the ‘Boo Radley’ game because he understands that it was immoral. Scout and Jem are too naïve as children to understand how the game and nickname neglect Arthur as being a real person. This also made me think back to when I was younger, and about how the types of things that scared me as a child seem silly to be scared of today. Jem and Scout probably view the Radleys in similar ways and don’t fully understand how the nickname and game could affect Arthur. With that being said, the adults in the town should do a better job of not creating the Radley house to be a scary place because it translates down to the children to view Arthur in a negative, neglectful way.
Breakout Rooms 2/25/2021 recorded by Zachary Welsh
Members: Zachary Welsh, Taylor Boris, Jessie Harper, and Daniel Huffman
To Kill A Mockingbird:
Jessie: What do you think of boo?
Taylor: He’s an enigma that’s for sure. After taking this course, reading this book feels different and there’s things that I hadn’t noticed before.
Jessie: I dont think hes a monster like everyone thinks he is
Daniel: Why do you think Lee included his character?
Jessie: If it wasn’t for boo I don’t think the kids would’ve considered the race issue as much.
Daniel: Speaking in terms of race and disability, I can’t help but feel like we have to discuss them together.
Jessie: No, they definitely run parallel with one another. I can’t wait for my kid to actually read this book so I can get their perspective on it.
Zachary: I feel like Boo kind of represents the stereotypes that are associated with people with disabilities. Like these characters know nothing about him and yet he’s described as a recluse and a freak or when he’s called a malevolent phantom. And I think it’s interesting because even today people stereotype disabled individuals even without knowing anything about them, so its an important thing to discuss..
Taylor: Yeah that’s definitely true, I think that’s a good point.
Daniel and Jessie: I feel like he might be on the spectrum but I could be wrong.
As Good As It Gets:
Taylor: It talked about the queer side of disability which I thought was interesting because I feel like that’s one of the most marginalized groups that aren’t talked about.
Jessie: Yeah that group in general isn’t talked about.
Taylor: There’s a lot of good points that are brought up in here
Jessie: Yeah it’s like a whole group that isn’t even talked about here
Daniel: No one ever breaks down the LGBT community so it was really nice to get an article about that
Taylor: I feel like this reading talks a lot about how there’s a lot more to people than others assume.Jessie and Daniel: This is such a massively under talked about group because people don’t think about them.
