In class, we have been talking a lot about the types of disabilities. A conversation has begun about what is considered a disability and the different definitions and models of disability. I have learned\u00a0about\u00a0certain illness\/disorders\u00a0that are considered by many to\u00a0be a disability\u00a0or disabling\u00a0that I have never thought of in this context, such as addiction and\/or\u00a0drug\u00a0abuse, age, etc. Another interesting topic of discussion is invisible disabilities. An invisible disability is a disability which is not immediately apparent to the outside world, and an example of this is mental illness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Joy Harjo\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window,<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>the woman being described is not described as having a physical disability. This character is described as having a mind which differs from\u00a0what society has deemed the\u00a0normal\u00a0<\/em>way of\u00a0functioning. She \u201chears voices\u2026 [which] come to her in the night when the lights have gone dim\u201d (Harjo). These voices\u00a0are implied to be\u00a0auditory hallucinations, but she also hears\u00a0the voices of the people outside her window.\u00a0These auditory hallucinations\u00a0can be caused by any number of things, but in addition to these hallucinations, the woman also seems to be suffering from depression.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman in the window seems to be in a similar situation as\u00a0some characters from Harper Lee\u2019s\u00a0To<\/em>\u00a0Kill a Mockingbird.\u00a0<\/em>Mrs. DuBose, along with some physical\u00a0disability which causes her to have a\u00a0mobility impairment, suffers from morphine addiction.\u00a0Mr. Raymond also seems to have an addiction to alcohol\u00a0(though we learn later that this is all an act to excuse his behavior).\u00a0As discussed in\u00a0our\u00a0class, addiction is often considered a disability due to the individual having no control over\u00a0their addiction\u00a0and the disabling side effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\u00a0both of these\u00a0works,\u00a0an individual is described as having a disability which is not physical, but mental. It is interesting to look at the ways\u00a0the characters are described. The general tone of the descriptions is different in each\u00a0work. In Harper Lee\u2019s novel, the characters who are suffering with their mental health\u00a0issues are not very good characters. Mrs. DuBose is a mean old woman who throws around insults and\u00a0is just generally crotchety, and Mr. Raymond, while not actually a drunk, still is representative of the connection between\u00a0alcohol\/drug\u00a0addiction and \u2018bad\u2019\u00a0behavior. The representation is all around negative.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Harjo\u2019s piece about the\u00a0woman hanging from the window, the tone is\u00a0definitely a\u00a0little bit depressing, but overall is not\u00a0being judgmental and negative. There is a sense of\u00a0hope at the end, where Harjo writes \u201cas she falls from the 13th floor window on the east side of Chicago, or as she climbs back up to claim herself again\u201d (Harjo).\u00a0The woman is not with certainty doomed to fall\u00a0to the ground. She is not\u00a0set\u00a0to meet the same fate as\u00a0Mrs. Dubose, who\u00a0would inevitably die regardless of\u00a0whether or not\u00a0she kicked her addiction, or as Mr. Raymond would spend the rest of his life pretending\u00a0to be an alcoholic and acting the part.\u00a0This woman was a daughter, a mother, a wife, and many other things other than just someone suffering.\u00a0I think an even closer look at these characters would be a good idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Word Count- 548\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n I pledge\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In class, we have been talking a lot about the types of disabilities. A conversation has begun about what is considered a disability and the different definitions and models of disability. I have learned\u00a0about\u00a0certain illness\/disorders\u00a0that are considered by many to\u00a0be a disability\u00a0or disabling\u00a0that I have never thought of in this context, such as addiction and\/or\u00a0drug\u00a0abuse, … Continue reading “Rachel\u2019s Analysis of Joy Harjo\u2019s The Woman Hanging From the Thirteenth Floor Window and Harper Lee\u2019s To Kill a Mockingbird”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,121,42],"class_list":["post-1800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-illness","tag-to-kill-a-mockingbird"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcJhts-t2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1801,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1800\/revisions\/1801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dislit2020.chris-foss.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}