Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper, is the story of Melody, a young woman with a brilliant mind who is unable to communicate verbally and thus lives solely inside her head. She has deep, complex thoughts but is unable to express them to anyone. Thus, she feels isolated from the rest of the world, and not only isolated, but invisible. People ignore her. Thoughts and feelings define who a person is, and being unable to express them, Melody had no voice.
People were unable to see her for the individual person that she was, and thus, they saw the only what she projected on the outside—a woman with a disability who had no thoughts or feelings to express at all. For a long time, Melody was defined by her disability, as the thoughts and feelings that distinguished her as a person remained trapped inside her mind. Thus, the book is about Melody’s quest be seen—to be heard—to be recognized and understood. For Melody, that meant coming out of her mind, freeing the thoughts and feelings that defined who she was as a person, and thus, making herself visible to the people around her.
Friday, December 23, 2011
What is Sharon Draper's purpose for selecting Out of My Mind as the title of this book?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
"Mistaken Identity" is an amusing anecdote recounted by the famous author Mark Twain about an experience he once had while traveli...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman was enormously influential. We can see its influences on early English feminist Mary Woll...
-
As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him of...
-
In both "Volar" and "A Wall of Fire Rising," the characters are impacted by their environments, and this is indeed refle...
No comments:
Post a Comment