Nancy Mairs Cripple

Words: 374
Pages: 2

In the essay, Nancy Mairs who has multiple sclerosis refers to herself as crippled. She doe this without the use of any euphemisms as she believes " 'cripple' seems to me a clean word, straightforward and precise." Mairs is not embarrassed or ashamed of who she is, instead she embraces it through diction, tone and rhetorical structure. " I am a cripple." This is how Mairs starts her piece; she starts it by stating facts. She uses a formal diction but one that is still comprehensible. To state her facts, Mairs uses words such as "euphemisms", "calamitous"and even "crippledness" to enhance the effectiveness of her piece. She does not believe she should "participate in the degeneration of the language" which is quite remarkable. Throughout her essay Mairs's tone remains the same. She continued to be informative and talked about real life occurrences such as the transference of "undeveloped" countries to "less developed". This type of tone shows that finds comfort in the way she is and the person she is. She admits she is a "cripple' without the use of euphemisms to show just how comfortable she is with herself. This adds to her informative tone as it informs readers of of the comfort she feels …show more content…
Although Mairs is comfortable with being called anything with the exception of "differently abled", she would not call anyone crippled because she says "it is the word I use to name only myself." She also says "society is no readier to accept crippledness than to accept death, war, sex, sweat or wrinkles." Although, Mairs has gotten ahead with being comfortable with who she is as she has demonstrated through diction, tone and rhetorical structure; society has not reached that level