The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

In contemporary American culture, disabled people regularly struggle with society’s prejudice, fear, and discrimination. Write an essay that traces the historical roots of the prejudice against disabled people and its contemporary productions of inequality. Then, use The Diving Bell and the Butterfly as a sounding board for advocating for the full rights and humanity of disabled people.

Write an essay that analyzes the vignette structure of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Connect this specific formal choice to the memoir’s content. What specific and distinct meanings does Jean-Dominique Bauby create through his choice to structure his memoir as a string of interconnected vignettes that could also stand alone by virtue of their self-contained fullness? How does this approach to structure differ from a traditional, chronological narrative? How does this structure serve and develop the memoir’s themes and messages better than a more traditional, linear narrative would?

Write an essay that analyzes the central motifs of the diving bell as well as the butterfly. Select specific quotes in which the motifs occur, and trace the development of both the metaphorical and thematic meanings that the motifs generate as the