Reflection to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Reflection to: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. It was so interesting to me what had happened to him and his personal reaction to the situation. Before this book, I had never heard of locked in syndrome, so that alone was intriguing. Being able to understand his reactions and how he coped with his misfortunes was amazing. I liked Bauby’s writing style a lot. It had a certain sense of sarcasm and dry humor about his very depressing situation. The fact that he could be sarcastic shows a certain level of coping with the circumstance in my mind. It shows that he understands that he is stuck like this, and also thinks that it is ironically funny. But I also look at his sarcasm in sadness, because it also shows that he has intentions of improving. Bauby’s story could be confusing at times. In chapters like The Empress, or At The Wax Museum, I would get lost weather or not he was talking about a dream, a memory, or if it was happening right then. It wasn’t always clear when he transitioned from past to present. In the book, I especially liked the chapters about the present time. I was so fascinated with what his daily life had come to be like. Chapters like Sunday when he is talking about what he is doing right at that moment, help me understand how devastating locked in syndrome is, and how dependent he is on other people. Although these types of chapters could be the most depressing, they were my favorites. Hearing his reactions to his current situation were sad. Starting from when he thought that he would be able to walk again before they put him into a wheelchair, to him hinting to the fact that he wouldn’t live much longer symbolized by the end of summer; every time he spoke of his misfortunes, he lost hope. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was a heartbreaking book, but it was also a book that had me interested the whole time.