dis/lit 21

Arden’s Response to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden

In works of literature concerning racism, there is sometimes a white character, who is usually male, that does everything in their power to help an individual or a group of people of a different race. This is known as the White Savior archetype. As we have learned through most of the readings, this kind of character is also represented in books that feature one or more disabled characters. As far as I know, there does not seem to be a technical term for this archetype, but they do perpetuate this idea among nondisabled people that those with disabilities are incapable of helping themselves and require their able-bodied peers to save and/or cure them. Failure to do so would result in the disabled person’s suffering and then subsequent death. However, the disabled community has proven time and time again to be able to advocate for themselves and lead fulfilling lives. Through the chapters of XI and XIX of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel, The Secret Garden, the author themselves sets up Mary Lennox and Dickon Sowerby as the nondisabled saviors for Colin Craven, the afflicted victim.

As young children and friends of Colin, Mary and Dickon only have the best of intentions for him. They believe it would “do him good to go out into a garden” or just outside in general to get some fresh air (Burnett). This is proven to be true by Colin himself when he lies on the floor of his room and “[breathes in] long breaths of fresh air that came through the window, “[making him] strong” as Mary recounts the story of how Dickon came to find a lamb (Burnett). However, whether Colin develops a hunchback like his father and/or has a preexisting disability that affects his immune system that has yet to be diagnose, Frances Hodgson Burnett makes it seem like Mary’s and Dickon’s efforts to get Colin to the secret garden will improve his quality of living by getting rid of what disables him.

The author even goes as far as to characterizes Colin Craven as a hapless victim to further this idea by having the reader wishing and hoping that he will be cured of what ails him, which in this case is his disability. When Mary, as well as the reader, first meet Colin, “he [is] crying” in a room that is hidden away behind a “tapestry” (Burnett). This scene parallels to a knight finding a damsel in distress lock away in a tower. Colin has become “accustomed to the idea that” he “shall” never “live to grow up” because of what hears from others about his disability (Burnett). With that being his state of mind, Colin does not do much on his own to change his circumstances. It is this complacent attitude that the author has written that allows them to set up Mary and Dickon as the able-bodied heroes that strive to “[make him]” feel “better” (Burnett).

In conclusion, while the author Frances Hodgson Burnett does represent disability within the chapters of XI-XIX in The Secret Garden, they portray it in a negative way by making it seem that those within the disabled community are in need of being rescued by those who are nondisabled. People with disabilities do required services, therapies, and accommodations to make certain avenues of life easier to navigate. However, having a disability does not deprive one of happiness or their ability to achieve it as well as being something that needs to be rectified quickly.

Word Count: 580

Sonia’s Response to Burnett’s “The Secret Garden”

Something that has stuck out to me throughout this course is the way other people influence the way a person views their own disability. We have frequently discussed, in both small and large groups, that the idea of a disability is already socially constructed, and the way that both nondisabled and other people with disabilities treat another person’s disability can affect their outlook on themselves and their worth. This concept recurs heavily with the character of Colin in The Secret Garden. The difference in this scenario is that, as far as the audience and Mary can tell, Colin does not have a disability, but rather has been convinced by those around him that he already has one, and will develop more and likely die early because of his conditions. This sort if maltreatment comes from every adult that has taken care of him, including his own father. When Mary first meets Colin, and she asks him why he is locked up in that room, he states that “[his] father hates to think that [he] may be like him,” (Burnett 159). This is referring to the hunch in Mr. Craven’s back, which everyone around them views as a deformity and something to be ashamed of, which has been projected onto this young child. The family and the servants feel as though looking different from everyone else around them is something to be ashamed of, and as a result, they tried to “fix” Colin, before he even showed signs of developing any sort of disability. Colin describes how “[he] used to wear an iron thing to keep [his] back straight” but a doctor made him take it off (160). This is a good and sensible thing for the doctor to have done, considering a brace doesn’t necessarily mean that Colin’s quality of life would improve, nor did he even need it in the first place. However, it is implicit through the rest of the conversation on the topic that Colin resents this doctor for trying to make him see that he didn’t need the brace. This makes it clear that not only does Colin believe he actually has a condition, when really he has just been deprived of sunlight and regular activity, but that anything less than what is viewed as “normal” is something to obsess over and immediately “correct”. The other side of Colin’s projected disability is making him believe that he is going to die at a young age, which is a horribly frightening thing to place on a child, especially with the implication that he will die because of a disability he doesn’t have. This makes the association in the child’s mind that it is not worth living with this disability, or that those who are disabled cannot live as long as those who are abled. The way the adults around him have presented this prospect actually frightens him, breeding, somehow, both a fear of living and of dying. Colin tells Mary that when he thinks about the idea that he could die any second, he will “cry and cry”, but as seen later on in the book, when he gets even the faintest hint that he might be developing a hunch in his back, it throws him into a full-blown panic attack (164). If the adults around Colin, including his own father, hadn’t projected their fear of a disabled child or person onto Colin for his whole life, then he wouldn’t have grown up fearful of developing a disability. Unfortunately, this is something that is still common in the modern day, even as people attempt to become more conscious and aware of the fact that there is nothing wrong with having a disability. Doctors still attempt to “cure” whatever disability someone might have, and if they cannot, they still contemplate the idea of killing the person under the guise that they won’t live a quality life—which is simply untrue. Colin is just as much of a victim of societal projections as someone in the modern day might be.

WC: 675

Breakout Room 3/18 Sec. 2 Group 2

Karlie, Faith, Lily, Salem

Faith: P4,Barker +Murray, “Humanisim is means of ….uncodified certainties.” I like how they broke down what that actually meant.

Foss: Defined humanism. What did you all think about the burn-victims of Japan?
Faith: i think it was interesting that there was a specific name for them

Salem: what did the name translate to? Do you all think that giving a specific name to people who experience a particular tragedy, especially one that results in disability (?) like is that othering those people or like, sympathizing with their pain or both? where is the line between like, pity and sadness versus paying homage i guess

Faith: The name was radiation-effected people, I’m not really sure

Karlie: I read it more as like, a label of their medical condition because it’s such an exclusive condition

Salem: that makes sense, but like, at least in the US medical industry they’ve definitely used straight up slurs against people with disabilities as like, the formal nomenclature for their impairment or condition

Faith: it says “disability in postcolonial…as a generic disabling force.”

Salem: so basically, how it affects you as disability on a societal scale versus personal circumstance depends on the culture you come from and the environment you’re in

Faith: Different environments can make you more disabled than others, depending on your physical surroundings that immobilize you. You’re only as disabled as the society around you decides you are.

Breakout Room 3/18/2021

Taylor Boris, Daniel Huffman, Keona May, Sonia Joshi (note taker)

Sonia: interesting view of what’s considered a disability, never thought of radiation victims as disabled

Keona: connected to another class, exposure for radiation, eye opening

Daniel: breaking down what is or isn’t a disability and also getting into what defines a disability

Taylor: interesting that Japanese culture to have a whole word for people disabled by radiation. Prosthetics metaphor?

Keona: prosthetic means “fixed” but not everyone needs those

Taylor: generalization of prosthesis, everyone under one cloud and needing to expand the definition of disability

Sonia: good to present the generalization to make people aware and break down their preconceived notions

Daniel: there’s no signifier for disability, but people think there is Taylor: something you think you would see

Keona: agree. Going back to TKAM, view of disability has changed, related it to physical sight

Sonia: jokes about severe disfigurement are commonly associated w/ radiation poisoning

Daniel: non-visible effects of radiation vs. visible, initial radiation makes people physically sick which is disabling

Taylor: article focuses on can vs. can’t see, which has been a big focus of this class

Zachary Welsh’s thoughts on some of the readings for 03/18/2021

While I found all of the readings for this week to be engaging, two of them particularly caught my interest. One of which being Clare Baker and Stuart Murray’s Postcolonialism: Global Disability Cultures and Democratic Cultures, and John Lee Clark’s Deaf Blind: Three Squared Cinquain.

What specifically caught my attention in the Baker and Stuart reading, was their. discussion about the negative connotations that come with the term “disabled,” and how they can affect the individuals in which we as a society label with this term. The authors state not only state that the term “disability” is used “problematically, as a metaphor for the ‘damaged’ or abject postcolonial body politic,” but also that labels. such as these act as “oppressive representational practices.” With this, Baker and Stuart bring to light the negative implications associated with the labels our society uses for individuals with a disability. This reading also hearkens back to some discussions earlier in our course about the term and I feel as though this reading reinforces some of those ideas. To reiterate, we discussed how the term “disabled” can place the designated individual in which we are associating the word with in a very negative light and almost paint them as a. helpless, weak victim to. their disability and i feel that ideas such as these were very evident in this portion of the text.

The next reading. that really. stood out to me was John Lee Clark’s Deaf Blind: Three Squared Cinquain. With this poem, Clark is providing commentary on the idea that we as a society view a disabled person being able to do an every day task as a huge accomplishment or miracle. Clark further argues that by doing this, we are creating an even greater divide between abled individuals and people with disabilities, as by not normalizing these people being able to do everyday tasks, we are further giving into the idea that their disabilities limit them. Clark specifically uses an example of “a deaf-blind man / who cooks without burning himself!” Clark also provided the example of a disabled individual being able to pick his nose, to which. he states “can”t I pick my nose / without it being a miracle?” By presenting this idea, Clark is not only critiquing certain aspects of our society, but providing specific examples as to how we are contributing even further to those issues.

I would love to hear some other people’s thoughts on the readings, whether they be the two I mentioned or even the others that I did not discuss 🙂

Small Group Notes 3/11

Group Notes – To Kill a Mockingbird

(Taylor Boris, Sonia Joshi, Madison Simpson)

S: Arthur Radley isn’t a dangerous person, but neither is Tom Robinson. Their characters are made out to be by the town, with the rumors and customs.

T: There’s a lot going on behind the scenes in To Kill a Mockingbird, I think we miss some of the stuff the first time around.

S: That’s the issue. We don’t know much about Arthur but maybe we’re meant to believe he’s the stereotypical portrayal of infantilization as we’ve seen in previous novels.

M: Another thing is symbolism in To Kill a Mockingbird, which constantly portrays something that is isn’t goes into that same thought. Tom was seen as a criminal when he wasn’t and Arthur was constantly framed as a danger.

S: Also there’s physical and psychological issues and injury seen in both. If there wasn’t the general understanding of these mental issues or disabilities being projected onto these people by the town, there’s no visible concrete signs of disability or issues in Arthur.

T: I think it’s interesting that there’s a constant focus on the court case and the outward discrimination against Tom Robinson when Arthur Radley receives the same treatment from the town. There’s a wide perspective to be seen.

S: The court case is supposed to be the focus. Even in high school it was the focus, but there’s so much more and fascinating story aspects beyond that to be explored.

M: I agree! Lee hits the nail on the head with the symbolism and characterization.

Small Group Notes 3/11

Participants: Lily Sportsman (note taker), Daniella Colon-Cosme, Brianna Fridriksson, Arden Jones

Arden- Arthur Radley is portrayed as a hero within the story but his only rule in the story seems to be an advocate for the disabled and to bring this into conversations throughout the town but fades into the background when he is finished

Brianna- I am glad he was not killed off within the story as being a disabled character, it is easy as a reader to develop a “softness” for Arthur such as how one would feel towards Scout as a character (almost like a protagonist), Arthur seems more as a misunderstood character but more so than Scout being misunderstood

Arden- People treat Arthur relatively better than if he was say, black and disabled but is treated more with a certain amount of respect being from what family he belongs to

Brianna- If Tom Robinson was treated like Arthur was the story itself would have taken a whole other route

Arden- If Tom was in the place of Arthur he still would have taken the fall for many of the consequences within the story just because he was a black individual

Brianna- Everyone would have just assumed that Tom was a dangerous character even if he had been playing out the same roles that Arthur was taking on throughout the story

Lily- The fact that Arthur comes from a prominent, well respected and white family of the town gives him an automatic sense of respect even as a misunderstood character who is the unfortunate victim of many horror gossip stories that are created around him

Arden- I’m not entirely sure what disability Bibi had but it sounded maybe like epilepsy? There could be some type of triggers that those around her may not be familiar with

Brianna- I’m in the same boat about not being too sure about what disability she may have but in the first paragraph telling us about what she went through made me a little nervous to find out about what we were about to read

Lily- The fact that exorcisms are still the number one choice for some people, even now in modern times instead of looking into other avenues of help is incredibly eye opening but also incredibly sad that certain forms of disabilities could be viewed as some sort of devil possession

Arden- During the time period of the reading it makes more sense for the exorcism just because of how little information was available about certain disabilities and the skewed beliefs towards certain types of possessions

Brianna- Even within the last two years the amount of knowledge that has been gathered is incredible in terms of understanding certain disabilities, and the strides made towards making disabilities into less of a scary and taboo subject- it’s not something to be ashamed of anymore

Arden- The fact that the reading made it seem like disabilities could be “passed on” or “caught” from someone who has a disability was so aggravating while I was reading it and the lack of information surrounding the topic

Lily- It’s incredibly obvious of the cultural aspects that have influence over Bibi’s experiences and how different the thought processes can be based on which culture you personally come from and those you are most familiar with

Breakout Group 3/11

Hannah Foleck (writer), Emily Kile, Daniel Hoffman, Benjamin Sweeney

To Kill a Mockingbird

B: Scout dressing up as a Ham symbolizes anything? Ham comes from pigs does that mean anything?

H: ends on a climactic note of the murder of Bob Ewell, the idea of saving Boo Radley from the eyes of the public after killing Bob even though it was in defense of children. There is a worry that he will be accused or condemed for the murder becuase of his disability. “Let the dead bury the dead” why even bring it up to court in the first place

B: Did Bob ewell face justice?

H: would a court case even be righteous? We saw bob get away with essentially murder the first time simply by lying his way through court so why couldnt he do it again? On top of that the only other person in the case would be Boo who has a disability which makes him different giving Bob an advantage over him even if he is guilty.

B: Harper lee did a poetic justice by killing Bob just like how Tom was murdered. I think he faced justice even though it might have been more satisfying to see him go to court and jail

D: maybe it wouldn’t have gone the same way, the court case, because lee wrote it so that the court is not just, we know what a court case can look like against an innocent man

B: should maybella receive punishment for what she did?

Bibi Haldar

D: man not medicine will heal all, the idea I got from the story

H: i almost expected for the people in the town to find her dead

E: liked it up until the last sentence, couldn’t tell who the “we” was, really liked how they kept pushing to make sure she was ok, continued to try to help her even after her cousin was treating her so horribly

H: how the town continues to help Bibi through the whole story, helping her when she has seizures and when she lives alone and again when she opens her own store to support herself and her baby.

E: character with the best morals tend to be less interesting to read but the townspeople in this are the ones i want to emulate

H: terrible treatment that comes from her family, the cousin not caring about her seizures

E: takes all of her agency away by refusing to help her in any way, says he knows what’s best for her but it is actually what’s best for him. Disabled people are seen as a burden for people, especially economically, a harmful mindset, this reading was interesting because the only time there were money issues are when the townspeople stopped buying from him because he treated her terribly.

H: the idea of her being contagious to the baby is just giving her family another reason to hate her and turn her into an outsider. It seems to me that the relationships that she makes with the townspeople and her baby are what helped her

E: positive relationships cured her

Zachary Welsh’s Thoughts on the readings for 3/11/2021

Of the four readings that we did for today, the two in particular that really stood out to me was The Treatment of Bibi Haldar by Jhumpa Lahiri, and the assigned chapters of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee ,so I really wanted to talk about those for today’s discussion.

The Treatment of Bibi Haldar really stuck out to me because the title character, from the description given to us in the text, seems to not even have a physical or mental disability in the story. However, despite not having any physical disabilities and not being diagnosed with any mental disabilities, Bibi is treated as an outcast or a monster simply for being seen as different than the others. Throughout the text, Bibi is abused by her family, denied a marriage, forced to stay away from the other people in the house, forced to sleep in the basement, etc., allowing Lahiri to highlight the gross and fallacious ways that some abled people treat those viewed as disabled. However, the most interesting aspect of the story comes at the end when the baby “cures” Bibi, because at the beginning of the story, she is seen as unable to even care for herself, let alone another life. However, after she is left. alone by her family and gives birth to her baby, Bibi is able to take hold of and get her life together, against the popular belief of the community. The story not only gives meta commentary on disability and how disabled individuals are seen and treated in the community, but by giving Bibi that ending, the story also highlights the strengths of people in scenarios such as these.

While I may be incorrect tin the assumption that Bibi does not actually have a disability, I, first of all am not in any position to tell someone whether or not they are disabled, but second of all, I feel that it can also be left to interpretation. However, I feel as though regardless of the answer, Lahiri is able to portray the themes and messages of the the story to readers. That being said though, I would love to hear some other people’s thoughts on the story and what they thought Lahiri was trying to say.

The second reading that really stuck with me for today was the assigned chapters for To Kill A Mockingbird. I feel as though in a way, these chapters of the book were what a lot of readers, myself included, waiting for. We finally get introduced to the mysterious, disabled, hidden-away, Boo Radley, and he’s…

just like any other character in the book. His appearance in these pages is shorter than expected and he isn’t explored as much as I wanted him to be, but I’ve come to realize, that’s the beauty of it all. Boo’s is treated just as another side character in the book, essentially providing Lee’s meta commentary that these individuals who society deems as different or disabled are just like any other people. There’s so much beauty in the simplicity that is Boo Radley and how he is handled in the book and I loved that.

I’d love to hear how other felt and reacted to his character when they read these parts!

Brianna Fridriksson’s Response to Petra Kuppers’ “disabled lilacs.”

Having taken a poetry course in high school, I have a fondness for poetry that I feel really effects the way I look at reading in general. I have enjoyed all the poetry we’ve read so far this semester, but there was something that really struck me about Kuppers’ “disabled lilacs.” Firstly, the title intrigued me before the page loaded, there was a great paradox between the two words that struck me. Disability paints one imagine in the mind and lilac paints something that is almost on the entire opposite side of the spectrum of thought. Second, the repetition of “disabled” in the first eight lines stuck out because it was something that I have never seen in poetry before. Lastly, there was something even more interesting about the fact that Kuppers’ didn’t continue this repetition throughout the entirety of the poem, but chose to end with four verses that I felt were more weighted than the other verses.

My first reading was not easy. There was something about the wording that made me feel like it was too hard to read. In fact, the reason I chose this poem as my sole response topic was because it made me think more than any other reading. Removing the word “disabled” as I read made it feel more comprehensible but I found that it took out the meaning of the word. Then, I was as guilty as those who overlook disability because they don’t understand it. So I reread again and included the word as I read and found the greater power of the word that time. When you exclude the word “disabled” you can still read it as a poem but the addition makes an impact that you can feel. Kuppers’ uses the lilac to represent the disabled individual, they are seen as delicate like flowers, like they are an object that has to be tended to and carefully dealt with the keep it growing. Her verses are filled with incredible imagery that seems like an incredible dream or an adventure out of a Disney film. It’s a bold stance that says that the disabled are not the incapable. They can still live full and true and worthwhile lives that are worthy of being told like a story.

The final four lines are quite possibly my favorite lines of poetry I’ve read. “I float on my pillow, navigate the veins, sing to you, dance a disabled world.” To me, this illustrated someone having a dream of fantastic adventure, leaving out the word disabled from this section makes for the the two “worlds” of able and disabled people to intersect. These four lines allow for anyone to see themselves in this place and be able to know that feeling of a fantastical dream where you felt removed from the world you know. There is something special about Kuppers’ saying “navigate the veins” I once heard someone say that the veins are the bridges of the body and arteries are the tunnels and this reminded me of that. As people, it feels like life is a journey and for disabled people it can feel like they have had a more difficult journey than others but it’s not always about the journey, but the destination.

Word count: 544