Hannah

Take Home Final- Hannah Harris

Hannah Harris

Dr. Foss

ENGL 384 Section 1

08 December 2021

Entropy:

Order

— Autism—

Chaos

Diagnosticians use the DSM-5 to categorize Autistic Spectrum Disorders according to a “quick-serve menu… establishing groupings of significant autism features and asking mental health practitioners to choose a set number from each category — one from column A, two from column B” (Rodas “Intro” 9). There is a certain irony to this strategy, given the ease with which these professionals jump to pathologize the compulsions for list-making and delineation seen in autistics. Rodas argues that the fixation of non autistic authors on offering explanations for list-making and ordering passes not only a “clinical judgment” but is also “aesthetically charged” (Rodas “Intro” 19). This necessity for order seen in autistics warrants a conversation on entropy, and the science fiction background of Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts, combined with Rodas’ assessments in Autistic Disturbances, provides a way to view autism as intrinsically entropic, and thus unequivocally true to nature.

The scientific concept of entropy falls under the umbrella of thermodynamics, the study of the relation between heat, work, and energy, and the ability of this energy to be transferred from one place to another (Briticana). This branch of study also happens to be the title of Part 1 of Solomon’s novel. The basics of entropy are simple; neglecting all mathematics and symbols besides one, entropy = chaos. Something creates entropy if it breaks apart from one to multiple pieces, heats up and begins moving faster, or expands. The splitting of water to hydrogen and oxygen used to fill a mask (Solomon Chapter 4) involves an increase in entropy. Small instances of negative entropy, contributions to order rather than disorder, can and must occur. The letters being placed strategically beside one another to form these words are one example. However, the overall system, the universe as a whole, must continually fall apart; this is how life survives until it too must succumb to that fate.

There is evidence of entropy in autism, despite its diagnostic characteristic of ordering, in both the literary and biological sense. Rodas first explores the “disparaging” (Rodas “Intro” 17) literary appraisal of list-making in her Introduction. For instance, critics often dismiss Mr. Casaubon in Eliot’s Middlemarch for his “dry collection of dead scholarship” called The Key to All Mythologies. Eliot’s narrator describes Margaret’s interaction with these elements:

She pictured to herself the days, months, and years she must spend in sorting what might be called shattered mummies, and the fragments of a tradition which was itself a mosaic wrought from crashed ruins — sorting them as food for a theory which was already withered in the birth like an elfin child.
Eliot chap. 48, qtd. in Rodas “Intro” 17

Mr. Casaubon’s work is neatly ordered, but meaningless. In fact, it is compared to a disabled, “‘withered’” child (Eliot chap. 48, qtd. in Rodas 17). While this is viewed as a shame, a waste of potential that would be unacceptable for any “normal” “natural” man, the pieces that are shattered and the mosaic that is crushed like ruins are the most realistic representation of entropy. What some see as a negative assessment of the value of Casaubon’s work can and should actually be read as one way in which the character and those like him are more attuned and intimately acquainted to the true necessities of existence than others. They do not simply lack the propensity to put together collections of great value. Instead, they realize the futility of this exercise.

This entropic metaphor is brought to the forefront even more in Rodas’ UnConclusion, even the name itself giving a nod to chaos. In the theory of autism poetics, critical reception of list forms recognizes that the assessment of autistics minds as “rigid, repetitive, [and] rule bound” (Roth “Imagination and Awareness” 157 qtd. in Rodas “UnConclusion” 187) as antiquated and incorrect. Instead, an “‘infinity of aesthetics’” (Eco “Infinity of Lists” 17 qtd. in Rodas “UnConclusion” 187) consistent with the laws of entropy is suggested. Rodas makes an example of Jorge Luis Borges’ list which includes categories as broad as “‘others’” and as hyper-specific as “‘those that have just broken a flower vase’” (Borges “Analytical Language” 103 qtd. in Rodas “UnConclusion” 188). She does all but say the word entropy when reframing the list as “[an] explosive device, bringing into proximity otherwise neutral elements rendered volatile by contact with one another” (Rodas “UnConclusion” 189). All of this is to suggest that, while autistics like order and attempt to create it though list-making and organization, they also readily engage with the “disordered and the absurd” (Rodas “UnConclusion” 190). Again, this naturalizes them, bringing them as close to the unchanging realities of science and the universe as one can be. Thus, their list-making is well informed, realistic, and less of a disease than the medical establishment’s own orderly diagnostic methods.

This list-making tendency appears in An Unkindness of Ghosts as early as chapter three. Aster’s ordered collection contains items of random nature and drastically varied levels of importance ranging from “clean body (use soap and the scrub brush today)” to “amputate Flick’s foot” (Solomon Chapter 3). This not only serves to identify Aster with those on the autistic spectrum, but it also increases entropy. Perhaps the easiest moment to grasp Aster’s autisitc relation to entropy comes in her theoretical telling of her own story in the beginning of chapter four. Theoretical is the key word here as, “Yes, if Aster told a story, I’d go like that — but she wouldn’t tell a story” (Solomon Chapter 4). Aster refuses to envision such a story because “the precisionist in her hate[s] oral history and memory and that flimsy, haphazard way people sp[eak] about the past” (Solomon Chapter 4). At her core, she despises when people “assign meaning where there is none” (Solomon Chapter 4) as Theo cautions her about early in their working relationship. Again, this clearly links to entropy. Aster is ok with chaos, with the inability to have concrete answers, especially when the answers others try to impose upon her assign false meaning and make connections where there are none. In these claims, she is true to the laws of nature. However, she does contradict her argument in several ways as she investigates her mother’s death, including her incorrect assumptions concerning a link between the poisoning of Sovereign Nicholeas and her mother as well as the identity of Cassidy Ludnecki. Nonetheless, her eventual recognition of these faults within herself and her eventual recognition of the messiness of the past recenters her character as entropic.

Science corroborates the inherent link between autism and entropy. Here, entropy has to do with information theory and statistics rather than thermodynamics, but the principles are similar. An algorithm called sample entropy (SampEn) has been developed to measure the randomness in a series of data without any previous knowledge about the source of the data set (Delgado-Bernal & Marshak 3). A study published this year in “Brain Research” found differences in sample entropy in the brains of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children when comparing their fMRI brain scans to those of their typically developing (TD) counterparts (Maximo et. al, no pagination). While sample entropy was higher in three brain areas of ASD children, it was found to be lower in a fourth region. However, the nature of the brain and the role these areas play in its function means an increase in entropy and randomness of the system may present clinically as a propensity for order (Maximo et. al, no pagination). This scientific explanation, just like the restructuring of autism poetics in literary theory, allows for the coexistence of an appearance of order and an underlying basis of entropy.

Thus, autism can be read as a natural result of the innate ability to comprehend the thermodynamic laws of entropy. Given how much these laws affect life’s start, course, and inevitable end, the nonautistic community could stand to learn about the intersection of order and chaos and how one informs a richer understanding of the other.

Word Count: 1326

I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work. Hannah Harris

References

Delgado-Bonal, Alfonso, and Alexander Marshak. “Approximate Entropy and Sample Entropy: A Comprehensive Tutorial.” Entropy, vol. 21, no. 6, 6, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, June 2019, p. 541. www.mdpi.com, https://doi.org/10.3390/e21060541.

Maximo, Jose O., et al. “‘Unrest While Resting’? Brain Entropy in Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Brain Research, vol. 1762, July 2021, p. 147435. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147435.

Rivers Solomon. An Unkindness of Ghosts. Akashic Books, 2017. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspxdirect=true&db=nlebk&AN=1700262&site=ehost-live.

Rodas, Julia Miele. Autistic Disturbances: Theorizing Autism Poetics from the DSM to Robinson Crusoe. Forward by Melanie Yergeau, University of Michigan Press, 2018. Pagination comes from PDF posted on Dis/Lit website.

Thermodynamics | Laws, Definition, & Equations | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/thermodynamics. Accessed 6 Dec. 2021.

The Curious Incident Reflection

I went to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time last Friday night, and I found it to be a thought provoking, well done production that connects to what we have discussed in this course on many levels. Very early on in the play, Christopher talks about the other children at his special school and shockingly assigns more value to the tragically murdered dog, Wellington, than to one of these boys who cannot even feed himself. Christopher’s genius in math and his repetition of the prime numbers as a calming mechanism for himself reminded me of several case reports in Dr. Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, one of which follows twin brothers with intellectual disabilities who can do complex math in their heads instantaneously without actually understanding how to do the math. There is a scene in the first act where Christopher’s dad argues with the principal of his school to allow him to take his math A levels that I found particularly relevant to our class discussion. The principal’s reason for not allowing Christopher to take the test is that she cannot allow him to be treated like he is special, all the while he is at a special school for children with disabilities. She comes across as simply very unwilling to ensure equity of access for her students but must eventually have a change of heart as she allows him to take the test even after his mother calls to cancel it. Another small connection I saw to our class was when Christopher names the models of cars he saw driving by in London as a tool for self-regulation. This reminds me of the poem “Normal” by Jim Ferris where the children watch cars drive by out the window of their institution and name them.

To me, the most impactful part of the play was Christopher’s relationship with his mother. The scene at the close of the first act where he discovers she is not dead and that she left him because she did not know how to connect with him and was ashamed by her faults in raising him and her lack of patience was very raw and emotional. His mother seeks to reconnect with him in the end, but, as an audience member, I still was not sure whether I forgive her character. In a way, she adopts the cure or kill mentality and “cures” her son in her mind by running away and idealizing what his life must be like with his father who can better understand him. I was also left to wonder whether the mother had some form of mental illness herself because the first thing Christopher asks when his father lies and says she is in the hospital is whether she is in a psychiatric hospital. Overall, I thought the play gave a rich look at the different implications of living with autism or being intimately connected to someone who does, both the highs, lows, and confusing times in between.

Reflections on Murray and Walker

When we met in class today, we briefly discussed Walker’s article on the definition of neuroqueer. We found it interesting how much of the definition was based on the verb form first. She compares this process to that of the transformation of the word queer from the verb to adjective form. Usually, when I think of the word queer, I think of it as an adjective, but it gives a lot of insight to know that the verb for came first. Walker says, “One can neuroqueer and one can be neuroqueer”, and she defines neuroqueering as actively subverting and defying neuronormative and heteronormative standards. It is a reminder that, not only is this a label one can give themself, but it is also a way of existing and shaping one’s own life.

In skimming Murray’s book, I found the author’s approach to the medical versus social model of autism interesting. Some of the medical evidence, such as differently shaped brains, denser brain matter in certain regions, and functional differences seen on MRI point to the tangible differences that account for behaviors seen in autism. I also liked how Murray made it clear autism is not an epidemic as some people have been recently implying. Yes, the number of occurrences is increasing, but this is due in large part to the broadening of the definition of autism spectrum disorders and increasing awareness of the condition. However, referring back to the medical model, if a biological marker or gene connected to autism could be discovered, their diagnoses would not need to rely on the somewhat subjective questions asked by psychologists that are currently used as criteria for diagnosis. This would take the subconscious opinions of others out of the diagnosis. Moreover, the use of the word epidemic gives a strong negative, frightening connotation that should not be connected to autism. Finding a particular cause would also help lead to a cure, but Murray asserts a cure is not really necessary because autism does not come from a lack of function but an excess of it; it is the most true representation of humanness.

Hannah Harris’ Major Project- Shadrack in Sula

Unintentional Leader: An Examination of Shadrack in Toni Morrison’s Sula

In disability studies, it seems there is no way to just leave people be. Disabled individuals are either ignored entirely or idolized for living with their condition, not that they really have much of a choice. By evaluating Shadrack in Toni Morrison’s Sula, I found evidence of both. Through most of the novel, Shadrack is isolated in his cottage and, while the residents of the Bottom know of him, they are perfectly content to misunderstand him and exclude him from their lives 364 days of the year: “Once the people understood the boundaries and nature of his madness, they could fit him, so to speak, into the scheme of things” (Morrison 15). However, in the final pages, Shadrack is made to be an unintentional leader and the object of “inspiration porn” to his fellow community members. I view this as Morrison’s critique of the way society is inept in its handling of disability either by under or overcompensating.

The first thing I noticed was Morrison’s choice of name for this disabled figure, and it gave me inspiration for the metaphor of my dance. His name alludes to the biblical narrative of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo in the book of Daniel. Here, these three men refuse to worship the statue of King Nebuchadnezzar and are punished to die in a fiery furnace (New International Version). Like Shadrack, they refuse to conform to society and would rather face death, just like the celerartion of National Suicide Day, than bow down. This also begs the question of what represents the king in Morrison’s novel. Perhaps, as in Good Kings Bad Kings (Nussbaum), it is the system itself and the evil it perpetuates. In Sula, not only is Shadrack scrutinized under the weight of his disability, but the entire community is held down by racism. Through this biblical reading, the minute appearance of Sula at Shadrack’s cottage after she drowns Chicken Little, while traumatizing for her, is Shadrack’s equivalent of the angel appearing in the fire. This is a glimpse of the eternal where one need “not be afraid of the change —the falling away of skin, the drip and slide of blood, and the exposure of bone underneath” (Morrison 157). It lasts just long enough, and her purple ribbon is left behind, giving Shadrack some hope that he might one day be liberated from the furnace and the rule of the bad king.

Shadrack breaks free from the furnace, but it does not lead to his happiness. Those who had ignored him finally praise him for “overcoming”, and they are inspired to overcome their oppression as well. Like the questioners in “Nondisabled Demands”, they “get to say/ [he is] an inspiration” (Weise), but Shadrack never asks to be one. Interestingly, when searching for Weise’s poem on my own, every publication of it I found online omitted the last stanza, “If you refuse to answer then we call/ your doctor. Then we get to say/ You’re an inspiration” (Weise). I was unable to find answers about whether this change was truly an omission from an earlier PDF version of the poem we read for class or if the stanza was added later, although the former seems more likely. It makes me wonder why that portion was removed given it relates to one of the central discussions we often come to during class about “inspiration porn”. I am left to question whether Weise no longer stands by her assertion that society does this even as I have explored instances of this very behavior in Morrison’s fictional society with this project.

This idea of “inspiration porn”, coined by Stella Young, has recently been examined at the crossroads of disability and race. Sami Schalk adds to this discourse in her discussion of the viral “Black Panther prosthetic” video from 2018 where a tattoo artist presents a young black amputee boy with a new prosthetic leg airbrushed with images from the new Black Panther movie (Scalk 100). In examining the media coverage of this video, Schalk sees the first wave of media coverage not as inherent “inspiration porn”, but she critiques the news outlets’ hyperfixation on the boy’s race rather than his status as an amputee, making them ableist in a sense just as bad as “inspiration porn” (Scalk 108-109). However, the second wave of coverage did just the opposite, downplaying race and drawing heavily upon the idea of “inspiration porn” (Scalk 111). I propose a reading of Shadrack as the subject of “inspiration porn”, especially at the end of the novel. Ironically, this fetization of Shadrack does the most immediate harm, not to him, but to the townspeople who sacrifice themselves in the tunnel: “Old and young, women and children, lame and hearty, they killed, as best they could, the tunnel they were forbidden to build” (Morrison 161). Here, the dynamic between Shadrack and his dying neighbors is not complicated by racial difference, but the inspiration received from Shadrack’s yearly event is finally enough to motivate a rebellion of the people against racial inequality. However, I do not believe this was ever Shadrack’s intention, and it links his name and his disabled status to deaths he never could have prevented. This emphasizes the inability to exist in that middle ground for disabled people; either their existence is minimized, or it is larger than the elephant in the room. No one gets free from oppression without being unhappy or dead. An unintentional leader cannot help.

These are the ideas I aimed to capture in my spoken word poetry and dance: the ways in which Shadrack’s character connects to his namesake, and the questions this raises about fighting the system, blind ignorance, and what happens when recognition of disabled inspiration goes too far.

I began by writing the poem which is included below. I selected the background music, “The Way” by Zack Hemsey, edited it to fit with the voiceover of the poem, and added it to the recording of my choreography.

Word Count: 993

Unintentional Leader

No one listened to me, until they did.

At first, I couldn’t even listen to myself.

Didn’t know who or where I was. Didn’t know why

Death hung in the air and crept at every corner.

Decided I wouldn’t bow down to that King

That bad King.

Like those three Isrealites

Opposed to King Nebuchadnessar.

Except they got caught.

I got liberated.

My answer: National Suicide Day.

And “the rest of the year would be safe and free”¹

Somehow

That yearly celebration barely made up for

That cottage I kept within

The other 364 days.

Lonelier than all I’d even known.

No better than Meshach and Abednigo.

That was my furnace. Stifling.

Then

One day,

A child.

Running, frightened, straight to my door.

Lord’s angel appeared in that furnace.

How long did I wish her to stay?

How long would I fight to defy the dead

And the living with their judgements?

“Always. Always”²

“Assurance of permanency”³

1941: they followed.

I suppose I led.

Didn’t really mean to.

Down they went

Into that tunnel.

Bowed down to the wrong King.

Now why

Should they have done that?⁴

Made a leader

Of a man like me.

I never wanted

Them to say I was an inspiration.⁵

Footnotes:

Morrison p. 14
Morrison p. 63
Morrison p. 157
Mimics style of the final lines of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“Nondisabled Demands” by Jillian Weise

References

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. 26 Oct. 2008,

https://web.archive.org/web/20081026180517/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/GilYell.html.

Hemsey, Zack. “The Way” The Way, Self-released, 2011.

Morrison, Toni. Sula. 1st Vintage International ed, Vintage International, 2004.

New International Version. Biblica, www.biblica.com/bible/niv/daniel/3/. Accessed 12 Nov. 2021.

Nussbaum, Susan. Good Kings Bad Kings. First Edition, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2013.

Schalk, Sami. “Black Disability Gone Viral: A Critical Race Approach to Inspiration Porn.” CLA

Journal, vol. 64, no. 1, College Language Association, Mar. 2021, pp. 100–120. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1353/caj.2021.0007.

Weise, Jillian. “Nondisaled Demands.” PDF on dis/lit course website. Fall 2021.

I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work.

Hannah Harris

“Both end’s the same” in Of Mice and Men

For some reason, the quote where George answers Lennie’s question about the cards stuck out to me:

“‘Both ends the same,’ he said. ‘George, why is it both end’s the same?’ ‘I don’t know,’ said George. ‘That’s jus’ the way they make ‘em,’” (52).

I saw connections to “both end’s the same” throughout the rest of the novel. It seems as if Steinbeck wants us to consider whether the continuation of Lennie’s life, following George from ranch to ranch, is really any different than the ending of the novel. Would Lennie’s life have ever been better had he lived? I also saw this “both end’s the same” mentality in the conversation Crooks has with Lennie when he stops by his room:

“‘They come , an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it. Just like heaven… Nobody ever gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land,’” (70).

Here, Crooks reaches even beyond physical disability to a state of social debility like Puar explains in “Preface: Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!”. No one in this story is able to make something different, something better, out of their lives. It all just ends the same. Even with the “far rush of wind” in the opening of the final chapter, “As quickly as it had come, the wind died, and the clearing was quiet again” (95).

Just something I found interesting.

Hannah Harris’ Class Summary for September 14th

Dr. Foss began class on Tuesday, September 14th by announcing that our class had the option to be dismissed fifteen minutes early due to meetings of the search committee for a new Chief Diversity Officer. This was said to be an effort to keep us on-track with another section of the class, although we quickly cleared up the confusion that there is no other section. Irene also made some announcements about activities relating to Latino Identities Month before we launched into a large group discussion of John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men. We analyzed the representation of Lennie’s disability, the relationship and power dynamic between Lennie and George, and how these culminated to explain the final scene of the novella, including our intended and actual reactions. We also briefly explored the disability of the novella’s other characters. Through this discussion, we concluded Lennie is portrayed in a way that both gives him agency and revokes it, but we struggled to categorize George’s relationship with and actions towards Lennie as either entirely merciful or selfishly motivated. Rather, moments of both were clearly articulated.

Dr. Foss started off the discussion by asking about the class’ prior experience with the novella. Many members had previously read the work, although the lenses through which they viewed it varied. Jamie’s high school class considered all viewpoints while reading the novella, while Miranda’s class focused almost entirely on issues of class rather than those of disability or race. I had also read the novella in high school and remember focusing extensively on class, some on race, and very minimally on disability.

We turned our discussion to the topic of Lennie’s disability and Steinbeck’s portrayal of it, where we found instances of both stigmatization and infantilization because of Lennie’s mental disability. However, we also saw that, in many ways, Lennie is not infantilized as much as may be expected given he is ultimately held responsible for all of his actions. Moreover, Lennie also garners a great deal of respect from characters like Slim, Crooks, and even Curley, although it was mixed with intense hatred. One example of this comes after Lennie easily breaks Curley’s hand (60). In a male dominated world like this novella, strength is immensely valued, and this is one of Lennie’s biggest assets. We even postulated that his strength and willingness to work hard is one of the reasons George continues to travel around with the big lumbering bear (2).

This led us into an examination of Lennie’s relationship with George. Here, we raised the question of whether George truly respects Lennie. While George cares for Lennie, allows him to join him on his travels, and defends him in front of Curley and others who question his competency, he is also downright rude to Lennie on many occasions. Often, the things he says about him, including how much better his life would be if he did not have to worry about Lennie, are surely extremely psychologically damaging. This was likened to a sibling relationship where “No one can be mean to my brother but me!” However, there is certainly an unequal power dynamic at play between the two characters where George is seen as the master and Lennie as the “terrier who doesn’t want to bring a ball to its master” (8). Regardless, Lennie and George’s relationship is, indeed, reciprocal. Lennie needs George to keep him out of trouble, and George needs Lennie to enable himself to dream like a child and inspire others like Candy.

From here, we posed the question: “Did Goerge give up on Lennie?” We are clearly supposed to see the end of the novella as a mercy killing given the setup to this event where Carlson kills Candy’s old, miserable dog. Here, Candy laments he “‘shouldn’t ought to have let no stranger shoot my dog,’” (58). This is intended to make us feel the same way about George killing Lennie. With input from many class members, we felt strongly that George should not have performed this “mercy killing” without Lennie’s understanding and consent because this only solidified the issue of the power imbalance between the two. However, it was questioned whether there was enough time to explain the situation to Lennie in a way he could understand, and it was agreed upon that the mob would certainly have killed Lennie if given the chance. The idea of infantilization was again mentioned as leaving Lennie out of this final decision is one last act of babying him and rendering him incapable of controlling his own life.

Dr. Foss brought up an interesting point, asking why George wants the burden of killing Lennie himself rather than letting him run away into the woods. This is, of course, the opposite scenario of that between Victor Frankenstein and the Creation. I think the answer has to do with genuine love and respect, which also lends evidence to the earlier point that George truly does respect Lennie, even if it is sometimes hard to see through his actions. There was no affinity between Frankenstein and his Creation, only disgust and fear, which is what causes Frankenstein to run initially and continue running after the Creation to his eventual downfall. Dr. Foss also mentioned a list of questions that teachers often ask their students regarding this novella. These were examined by a student doing an individual study. This student found the questions always asked what a student would do in the end if they were in George’s shoes, automatically assuming the reader would give themselves the custodial role. There was never any consideration of how they would feel if they were Lennie or how the final scene might be different if the figure was black and disabiled like Crooks.

Lastly, we had a brief discussion on the unifying characteristics of some of the other minor characters. Crooks and Candy are both old and lonely, and Crooks is also physically disabiled and black. In many ways, Crooks is similar to Lennie, but there is no one there for him, no George-figure to guide him and take his side. Curley’s wife is also lonely; in her conversation with Lennie preceding her death, the two speak to each other about their various musings and concerns without ever really hearing each other or connecting about anything. Just when they start to connect, Lennie kills her, leaving the two isolated and lonely yet again. With that, the time had reached 1:30 pm. Dr. Foss offered to let us stay for the rest of class to discuss Puar in small groups, but, after a few somewhat awkward moments of silence, Hollis spoke for us all when he said we had had enough, and we all departed.

Overall, the class discussion led to productive discourse about Steinbeck’s representation of disabled character(s) and their social standing in his society. We focused on instances in which these character’s rights were usurped and how readers are conditioned to respond to the novella’s end as a compassionate act. However, when viewed through a disability studies lens, these actions are far from entirely merciful.

I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work.

Hannah Harris