Harper Lee – dis/lit 20

Mackenzie’s MMP. Poetry: The Motivations of a Caregiver

Mary Lennox’s Mother:

Disappointment

How can she be mine?

I don’t see myself in her eyes.

My beauty, my spirit, my status, it

becomes lost in her dull expression.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this

for mother and her daughter.

She’s sad, she’s difficult, she’s ill,

and I can’t hide my disappointment.

I wasn’t meant for a life like this.

I was expecting a life of ease.

She requires so much attention,

And I just don’t have the patience.

I’ll find somone capable, of course,

to watch her as she grows.

She’ll have eveything a child could want

I’m sure she’ll be just fine.

George:

Protection

I had you and you had me,

we had our futures set.

But it was a dream, just a fantasy,

I’m not sure where you fit.

I love you I really do,

we’ve been partners this whole time.

But I know what’s best for you,

and you don’t know where to draw the line.

It couldn’t be like this forever,

maybe it’s better me than them.

Close your eyes and look ahead,

and I’ll relieve you from this pain.

Eva Peace:

Liberation

To my shadow of a son,

It’s time for you to go.

If you can’t live like a man,

Then you’ll die like one.

That is my last act of love.

You wouldn’t leave and

you wouldn’t grow.

My womb has no more space,

so, this is where I say goodbye.

I’ll hold you and I’ll rock you here,

I’ll let you be my child.

But then I’ll keep my tears away,

And I’ll do what must be done.

Mr. Radley:

Self-preservation

The community whispers

outside our door.

Please just stay inside

where you can’t cause us more pain.

Joanne Madsen:

Concern

Who cares for you?

Who makes sure your safe?

Who listens to your worries?

Who asks what you want?

Who will be your advocate,

when you can’t speak for yourself?

Who knows what makes you happy?

Who tells you that it’s okay to be you?

Ricky Hernandez:

Sympathy

He looks at me with those sad eyes as I hold him in this room.

Just a driver, now in charge of discipline.

I want to show them kindness, respect, consistency.

These kids don’t see that often,

But my job is to to show up when I get the call,

to constrain and remove.

One day, probably soon, I’ll leave this place,

but I find myself hesitant.

I didn’t think it would be so hard.

I didn’t expect to love them so much…

Jimmie Kenrick:

Acceptance

Just can just call me Jimmie.

You don’t have to call me mom,

you don’t have to call me anything.

We have our own rhythm,

we have a special click,

we have an understanding.

You don’t have to call me mom,

you don’t have to call me anything.

You can just call me Jimmie.

I have created poems based on the point of view of various characters from novels we have read throughout the semester. These are characters that have found themselves in some sort of caregiver position. These characters include Eva Peace from Toni Morrison’s Sula, Ricky Hernandez, Jimmie Kenrick and Joanne Madsen from Susan Nussbaum’s Good Kings, Bad Kings, Mr. Radley in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Mary Lennox’s mother in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, and George from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. These characters, whether parents, paid professionals, or friends, are put into the role of having to take care of someone with a perceived disability. All of these characters were chosen to represent a range of different types of caregivers and how successful they are in fulfilling their role. The first-person narratives allow for the exploration of the motivations behind these characters’ actions and the corresponding pieces reflect the character’s motivating emotion. Eva Peace was overwhelmed as her role of a mother of a child with a mental disability. Her son did not fit the expectations she had for him and that ultimately led her to orchestrate his death. This could be comapred to George killing Lennie in the end of Of Mice and Men. George was a friend but also a protector to Lennie. Throughout the novel they say they look out for each other, but it is never truly an equal partnership. George often acts according to what he feels is best for Lennie, but perhaps sometimes his actions are for selfish reasons. This raises the question of whether or not his killing of Lennie was really to protect his friend or to relieve himself from the stress of a caregiver position. Either way, he makes the decisions about what happens in Lennie’s life. Other caregivers, such as Mr. Radley and Mary Lennox’s mother, will keep their children at a distance. Maybe they can never accept their child’s differences or maybe they are unwilling to make the necessary adjustments to their own lifestyles in order to care for their children, either keeping them locked away in the house, as Mr. Radley does, or giving the responsibility to a paid worker, as Mary Lennox’s mother does.

There are positive examples of caregivers, too. Joanne Madsen, Ricky Hernandez, and Jimmie Kendrick from Good Kings, Bad Kings all behave more appropriately in their interactions with those they care for. Joanne, while not specifically a paid caregiver in the nursing home, offers the children guidence in accepting their identities as people with disabilities. She also looks after the best interest of all of the residence of the home. She treats the children as individuals and gives them room to grow and express themselves. Ricky, while he struggles with the ethics of his job, also tries to treat the children as individuals. He cares for them on a more emotional and personal level than many of the other paid professionals in the home. Lastly, Jimmie’s personal connection with Yessenia Lopez influences her decision to become her foster parent. All of these positive representations are similar in the way that they allow the other person to be an individual, not defined solely by disability. In cases where caregivers are unsucccessful in their roles, it is because they cannot accept the individual, whether that takes the form of making decisions about what happens to that person or releasing themselves from the caregiver role altogether.

I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work

Word count: 564

Rosemary’s Response to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Jillian Weise’s “Nondisabled Demands”

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Arthur “Boo” Radley is seen as the town’s crazy resident, who never leaves his home and has all sorts of negative rumors spread about him. Jem and Scout’s curiosity about Boo Radley leads them to seek answers and pry into his strange life. Meanwhile in Jillian Weise’s “Nondisabled Demands,” Weise describes the entitlement that nondisabled people have when it comes to knowing personal details about people who have disabilities. In both of these works, the authors dictate the exploitation that people with disabilities face from able-bodied and -minded people on a daily basis.

In the fourth chapter of Lee’s novel, Jem, Dill, and Scout are looking for something to do when Jem comes up with a new game to play. He says “‘I know what we are going to play… Something new, something different… Boo Radley’”(43). This is essentially a proposal to use what little knowledge they have of Arthur to role play as what they would understand to be a crazy person. Not only is this notion rude in that they are using a game as an opportunity to make fun of Arthur, but they are also planning to participate in false assumptions about who he is. In the next chapter, Dill says “‘We’re askin’ him real politely to come out sometimes, and tell us what he does in there’”(52). Yet again the children are using what they think they know about Arthur’s disability as a means of entertainment. They are hoping that he will have some wild stories to tell, or that he really will be a commodity that they can observe. Arthur’s disability is exploited by the children as they intend to use it for their own enjoyment.

Weise’s poem also approaches the entertainment value that many nondisabled people take in learning about the lives of people with disabilities. “We’ll rope you / to the podium and ask / What do you have?” (lines 13-15). The image of being tied to a podium is very indicative of the resentment that some disabled people feel when they are bluntly and frequently asked about their disability. Weise later writes “then we get to say / You’re an inspiration” (lines 17-18). She is highlighting the tendency that many nondisabled people have to pity disabled people and view their disability as something they had to overcome. This attitude is then applied to their own lives in the general notion of “if they can overcome that, what do I have to be upset about?” This in itself is exploiting the lives of disabled people to make themselves feel better, or better themselves. These nondisabled people are using the narratives of people with disabilities for their own benefits.

Overall, both authors exemplify the derogatory views that are associated with disabilities and push the reader to consider what it might feel like to constantly be exploited in such a way that Arthur Radley, the speaker in Weise’s poem, and many disabled people are.

Word Count: 516

I pledge. Rosemary Pauley

Gina-Marie An’s Response to Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird: The “Different” Characters

The text starts out by introducing Scout’s family and how they fit in their Southern town, Maycomb. Right away, Scout’s brother is a character that is visually different than others – Jem broke his arm and his arm is described as being “somewhat short than his right” (3) But, despite becoming slightly different in this way, he is described by Scout as not caring at all as long as he can pass and punt around (3). I think Dill’s wittiness matches this carefree attitude Jem has. When Jem teases him about his height, Dill says, “I’m little but I’m old.” (7) It’s very characteristic of how he feels about being noticeably small at seven years of age. That is not the only way he is described as different, though. Scout portrays him as “a curiosity,” (8) with “snow white hair.” (8) It seems like Dill might have albinism, but it isn’t obvious in the text because Scout and Jem’s don’t have out-loud reactions to that specific part of his appearance. I think children are not born to be prejudice – they learn prejudice through adults. They are, however, born with curiosity and it was clear that Scout did think a lot about Dill’s appearance. It didn’t impact their friendship though. It’s brushed off and soon enough, the couplet becomes a trio.

I think this is important to think about – how the text is in the young child’s perspective. I know there may be arguments about how kids bully or how kids are inherently scared if a person is drastically different from them. But that is rooted in our parenting and culture, to be afraid of what is different. And that is seen all of the time in people with disabilities.

The man in the house is possibly a misunderstood character who can be looked at from a disabled perspective – and I think this character will be built onto more as the story goes on – the Radleys from “The Radley Place.” There are a lot of negative connotations and rumors going around about this “peculiar home,” stories of attempted murders and creepy faces staring at you through the window. Calpurnia also seemed to dislike him and spat at the sight of him – but he is sick. He is literally dying. From a disability perspective – I thought, perhaps he might be mute, as he never spoke to anybody… and he is further isolated as the townfolk don’t take the time to know how sick he is and to what extent. When his older brother takes his place, the children make a game out of touching this “haunted” house, but nobody really knows who this Mr. Nathan is all about.

I’m also interested in chapters 2 and 3, as we are introduced to characters that the narrator does have definite prejudice against. It is very straightforwardly described by Scout: these characters deserve less because they already have less. I’d like to start with Walter Cunningham, the farm child whose family was economically shot. Lee writes them out to be sympathized with: they don’t accept anything they can’t pay back, they’re very righteous. Yet, because this is made normal in Maycomb town, the young girl Scout thinks that is what he deserves because he is already made out to deserve less in their town.

Then when you think there can be no one less well off than Walter, the author introduces us to Burns Ewell who is even less fortunate than Walter. Scout’s conceptually thinking the same thing here- that he deserves what he is – a filthy, mean boy… and the reader may wonder how or what it feels like to be him; poor and unwanted by everyone around him… may even pity him. Yet, all of the first graders don’t pity or care at all – they all console the hurt teacher and give her their sympathies for how awful the child was, not even giving a second chance to sympathize over his situation. And it’s not a surprise – this is his third year in first grade and it’s obvious the system and the town have made this the boy’s reality. And Lee beautifully frames the idea of societal constructed prejudice when talking through Atticus… “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (33)

Word count: 730

I pledge. Gina-Marie An.