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Sharon M. Draper's Out Of My Mind

1157 Words5 Pages

“2.2 million people in the United States depend on a wheelchair for day-to-day tasks and mobility. 6.5 million people use a cane, a walker, or crutches to assist with their mobility”. Every single day, people varying in ages, struggle to live their lives due to conditions out of their control. Whether it be life threatening or not, it can have effects that are both socially and emotionally harming. Although some of them may change appearances on the outside, other people cannot forget that all people, not matter the disability, have brains and personalities of their own that may not be seen to the human eye. The book Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper, shares the story of Melody, a girl who is much more than her cerebral palsy: she is brilliant. …show more content…

Draper, makes me wonder what it would be like to live in her shoes for a day. In the novel, Melody expresses the frustrations of the obstacles she deals with in her every day life, whether it be at school or at home. From the outside perspective, Melody looks like she is just a kid with a disability, but she is much more. Melodies intelligence is hidden behind the mask of her condition. The majority of people would not be able to recognize this about her, and would end up going ahead and judging her for something she has no control over. People need to understand that Melody, along with others have feelings too and can get hurt with words. Anyone could learn a valuable lesson from Melody, as I have learned to be more appreciative for a voice and legs that can walk. The human race needs to realize that they should not be wasting their voice on making fun of other people and should not be wasting mobility on physically hurting others. People no matter their state of health are still people, and it should not matter if they have a disability: “a person is so much more than the name of a diagnosis on a chart!” (23). ***CLOSING

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425 Words | 2 Pages

He says, “ ‘Mrs. Brooks,’ he then said, ‘it is my opinion that Melody is severely brain-damaged and profoundly retarded.’ ” (p. 15). Though Melody is not at all dumb, she is the only one that knows that. She is out of her mind, because it drives her

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123 Words | 1 Pages

Sharon M. Draper has used character and an engaging plot to create a novel of contemporary realistic fiction about an eleven-year-old girl living with cerebral palsy. Even though every reader cannot relate to having a disability, almost every reader can relate to Melody’s desire to fit in and be accepted by her peers. Draper uses Melody’s internal dialogue (she is unable to speak) to reveal her personal journey and perspective. The plot further reveals Melody’s internal and external struggles as she tries to merge her world with that of her peers. While the plot flows logically, Draper adds a twist when our protagonist is left behind and misses the competition.

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Nancy Mairs, a feminist writer who has Multiple Sclerosis, defines the terms in which she interest the most with the world. Nancy Mairs will name herself a cripple and not be by others. She will choose a word that represents her reality for example in the beginning of her story she mentioned about her being in the bathroom trying to come up with a story about cripples. She was in the handicap bathroom and when she tried to open the door she fell, landing fully clothed on the toilet seat with her legs splayed in front of her and she said “the old beetle -on-it’s back routine.”

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The book, Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper is centered around the life of a eleven year old girl, Melody Brooks, struggling with an extreme case of cerebral palsy. Melody is stuck in a wheelchair and can not talk but, she has a photographic memory. Melody first describes how her school started “inclusion classes” for the disabled students where they go to classes with average students. Melody realized that she knew a lot of the information the teacher would describe and she so badly wanted to answer questions but she was unable do

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In the book Out Of My Mind by Sharon M Draper, the main character, Melody, makes several very big decisions. Melody was born with Cerebral Palsy which basically means she cannot do many things the others do daily like walk, talk, and move at all. As Melody gets older she becomes more and more aware of the outside world and how she is different. When she is put into a class with normal kids she feels happy but embarrassed and scared. Melody makes a life changing decision to participate in class and be social.

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This is especially frustrating for Melody, because she is unusually smart, but is usually not seen as this by others, because of their ableist prejudice. Melody has a photographic memory. Melodys thoughts throughout the novel reveal that she has never been able to speak a single word, which led most people to assume she is cognitively impaired as well as physically. However, her parents were revealed to have been able to “see the

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Analysis Of Out Of My Mind By Sharon M. Draper

838 Words | 4 Pages

Melody's family and teachers have to learn to accept her the most. Only the people close to her understand her disability. That's why she goes crazy and has her so called "tornado attacks" because people don't understand her. Melody shows that she is intelligent, because she makes the whiz kids team and is the only student ever to get a perfect score on the test to get on the whiz kids team.

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