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Posted on: 2012-08-03 07:01:43
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Title: Whose Life Is It Anyway

Type: Argumentative Essay
Theme: Whose Life Is It Anyway
Author: Rachel Corbin
School: Alameda High School
Class: -
City: London, Ontario
E-mail: RacheCorbin@rhyta.com

Text
The physical struggles or hardships that can arise from physical handicaps are explored through the fictional play ‘Whose Life Is It Anyway?’ The text centres on Ken Harrison, a talented sculpture, who is totally paralysed as a result of severe injuries received in a car accident and he finds himself confined to a hospital bed. He has been deprived of physical, emotional, logical and artistic satisfactions he previously enjoyed. Clark uses the gardening metaphor in Act One to highlight Ken’s physical dependence on those around him for even the most basic tasks. When John the orderly comes into shave kens beard for him, ken says “come to trim the lawn”. Ken refers to Dr Emerson as the ‘head gardener’ who is responsible for “fertilizers and pruning and bedding out”. Ken sees the hospital as a place that “grows the vegetables”. Both of these metaphors reflect Kens view on his physical limitations and his general outlook on the hospital as a whole. Ken tells John that it is the ‘compost heap’ where he belongs because he knows that his situation will not change.
My left foot shares similarities with Clarks play because the main character, Christy brown, is also limited by a disability with his being cerebral palsy. The studied extract, unlike ‘Whose Life Is It Anyway’, is a real story and recalls the speaker’s difficulties and anxieties through a very personal story. The challenge for the speaker is to come to terms with his annoyance with the fact that he is unable to control his movements, and therefore cannot communicate. Brown, up until the time documented in the extract, lived in a body which sustained his able mind but did not allow free movement, much like Ken’s experiences after the accident in Clarks play. Browns use of emotive language not only shows his physical frustration but his inner turmoil at being trapped inside a “little bundle of crooked muscles and twisted nerves”. Brown also uses juxtaposition to contrast Christy’s world, where his physical challenge obstructs him from using his mind to communicate, with the “real world” where his brothers and sisters play, draw and live a “normal” childhood.
However, it is the emotional challenges and vexations that arise from physical challenges that provide the main focus for each text as both protagonists seek to gain some control over the direction of their lives. In Clarks play, Act One clearly establishes Ken’s sense of helplessness with the contrast of power and conflict/tension between Ken and Dr Emerson. Towards the beginning of Act One, we see a biblical reference to Dr Emerson’s status at the hospital, as being one of the head doctors. The clear contrast between the powers of patients to doctors is seen through Ken’s line “I suppose he will swoop in here like Zeus from Olympus, with his attendant nymphs and swains”. Kens helplessness is also noticeable through the use of the ‘valium scene’. Clark uses very powerful means to exhibit the tension of the scene with the use of the abrupt dialogue “i didn’t give you permission to stick that thing in me”, referring to Dr Emerson injecting Ken with valium. The use of the word ‘stick’ implies that Ken was angry and frustrated at his physical state and lack of control over what happens to him. The valium scene becomes the catalyst for Ken’s battle with hospital authorities to be able to make decisions about his medical treatment and assert his rights as a human being. His experiences have leaded him to the decision that life without dignity is not worth having.
The right to control one’s own fate becomes the challenge that defines Act Two of the play as Ken embarks on a legal course of action to assert the only power he has left, his consciousness. The question of ownership in this story, begins with the title ‘Whose Life Is It Anyway?’. The rhetorical question used poses the question of who does have the power when circumstances such as these arise. This question is seen in Act Two through the contrast of the medical code of saving lives verses Kens own moral code ‘life’s not worth living at any cost’, ‘dignity starts with choice’ and ‘any reasonable definition of life must include the idea of being self supportive’. Through characterisation, Ken is used by Clark as a vehicle for a most sensitive and powerful articulation of arguments in favour of not prolonging life. The court scene is a big turning point in the story in terms of power and self determination. The key point in the court scene is the speech given by the judge in particular in the line “the cruelty doesn’t reside in saving someone or allowing them to die. It resides in the fact the choice is removed from the man concerned” with the man being Ken. Kens equality of power is furthered with the judge’s use of the line “i shall therefore make an order for him to be set free”. The judge treats Ken’s case like an ordinary court case, with no difference to any other case; even know he knows the verdict will lead to Ken’s death.
The notion of a defining moment for moving towards overcoming some of the challenges posed by disability is also forwarded in My Left Foot. Christy, much like Ken Harrison, wants to be heard and while he may not be able to communicate verbally, writing becomes the turning point for this character. In order to achieve this transition from a world of isolation as revealed in the quote “..i was lonely, imprisoned in a world of my own, unable to communicate with others cut off, separated from them as though a wall of glass stood between my existence and theirs’. Christy has to fight for what he desires. Clark establishes this challenge through the use of verbs. Verbs are used in the line ‘I shook. I sweated and strained every muscle’. This line expresses the physical challenges that Christy had to overcome, because of his disability. The overcoming of this challenge is seen through symbolism and punctuation. The letter that Christy draws is the letter ‘A’. ‘A’ is the first letter of the alphabet which symbolises Christy’s first communication. The elation of this first communication is expressed through Clark’s punctuation in the line ‘I had done it! I had started- the thing that was to give my mind its chance of expressing itself’.

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