As I curl up on the window seat, my coziest blanket and mug of steaming hot chocolate combat the bitter cold outside. The arctic winds and sleeting snow only validate my decision to dedicate my Sunday to study. Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly rests in my lap as I consider the life Bauby lived. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is Bauby’s personal account of his experience living the latter part of his life with locked-in syndrome, a condition that left him completely paralyzed less one of his eyes. Bauby was able to communicate his narratives to a scribe using a meticulous method involving Bauby blinking when the scribe said each individual letter he wanted. The carefulness and precision required in writing any…show more content… The importance of Bauby’s family and friends in his life is evident from the number of chapters centered on his relationships. Bauby imagines and laments about how his conditions affect his family and friends as he describes them waiting outside his door gaining strength to come in or his children’s boredom while pending the day with little interaction with their father. He writes a newsletter to his friends and family to clear up rumors about his supposed “vegetable” state; he can still think; he can still communicate. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is in many ways a continuation of Bauby’s evidential support that he is still himself. While this memoir clearly demonstrates Bauby’s consciousness and intelligence, Bauby may have romanticized more, or included more humor, to lighten the mood for his friends and family turned readers. He may have wanted to protect them from the suffering he could not protect himself from. Because the only information readers know about Bauby comes from Bauby himself, it is difficult to determine the authenticity and degree of accuracy in which his diving bell and butterfly dual perspective take shape in his everyday
