Descriptive words or words in general have implications that can be applied to an object whether it is generalized or applied in a concise, accurate terms. These terms can also apply to multiple subjects and may take several forms. Nonetheless, their connotation which contain emotion and indirect association, can have a greater impact towards a work or a person. In “On Being a Cripple”, Nancy Mairs explores the idea of self defining by attempting to understand the purpose and effects towards herself. Mairs’ physical and emotional struggles are apparent and her situation leads her to fight for the control of people's perceptions in the way they identified her. Cripple, the label she adopted, defined her as a person. The word becomes synonymous with “weakness and clumsiness”(31). Likewise, soft toned terms, such as “differently abled”, gave Mairs’ a syntactic variety while averting from the realities of her condition (29). The power to define who she is and her condition provided her a method to share a personal rather than generic experience with Multiple sclerosis (MS). Mairs’ ability to choose the way she is classified and the way people perceived her lent Mairs an opportunity to present her own, unique term: cripple. Words have connotations, …show more content…
Dubbing herself a cripple and creating an uncomfortable environment, Mairs forces people to face the reality and treat her as herself without desecrating language to provide her a distorted hope. On the other hand, her use of diction is an attempt to create a positive and hopeful tone which she later realizes that nothing can suffice when it comes to changing the realities of MS. Therefore, it is understood that the limits and strengths of self-defining depend on the purpose and situation they are