Freshman English Paper Oliver Sacks

English Wednesday April 4, 2012 Perspective Matters As children, we learn that at that place be five human smacks sight, sound, taste, smell, and call forth. Upon reflection and memory, I realize that sight is ever listed eldest in the list of senses. It may just be a reflex or a habit to do so, or possibly its just human nature to place high idiom on sight. Sight is taken for granted by most of us, and when we clangoring non-sighted individuals, we control an emotional and physical reaction that were relieved the non-sighted can non see.Reading Oliver Sacks flake To See and Not See, about a man named Virgil, gives me a new and interesting perspective on blindness. I have a wiz who is partially deaf. She and I communicate with ocular cues and our communication is helped by the fact that she can hear some sound and can con lips. In contrast, I can non say I have had an occasion to clear time with a non-sighted soul. While reading about Virgil, however, I felt that I w as given an opportunity to learn about the life of person who lives in a world of scarce four senses.Virgil was born with sight, he before long lost it at the age of 3 while ill, and at age 6 developed cataracts which blocked his vision and made him functionally blind. The life he lived was a modest oneness. He had a soused job and an individuation operator, was self-supporting, had friends, read Braille papers and books Life was limited barely stable in its way. (112) He accept his blindness as only when part of his existence Virgils life was imbued with passiveness. At the age of 47, Virgil became re-acquainted with an creator(a) girlfriend named Amy. Their relationship evolved into a committed one within 3 years.With Amys insistent encouragement, Virgil assented to have mathematical operation to remove one of the cataracts, contempt his familys misgivings over the fluster to his already stable life and identity as someone who is blind. There is a distillation of Virgils aver of creation as I see it, his life is not his own, some other people are making choices for him, and he is not asserting himself. Amy and his mother have strong opinions about if he should live with sight or without sight. Virgil himself sits, waiting for them to make a decision about his destiny.And so began Virgils passive pilgrimage into beholding again. Virgils situation is not different Gregs from Sacks reference The Last Hippie. While Virgil was about to regain his vision, Greg, by contrast, was losing his the result of a stealthy tumor slowly stealing his sight. tho Greg, like Virgil, initially had concerns when confronted by his differently sighted future. For Greg, he accepted the explanation of his swami about the loss of his vision being due to a deeper spirituality, an inner light. He was an illuminate, a great honor. 43) This explanation pacified him about his vision, as it also brought him to a deeper spirituality. Despite their concerns, both Gr eg and Virgil came to accept their destiny being written by other people in their lives. Amy brought Virgil to her ophthalmologist who reviewed his case and ascertained that the old diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa may not have been high-fidelity and he agreed to operate. Before the surgery, Virgil could still see light and dark, the steerage from which light came, and the shadow of a hand in front of his eye (108) Dr.Hamlin did the cataract removal on his right eye, inserted a new lens imbed and after(prenominal) the bandage came off, Virgil could see but only after hear the surgeon speak to him to attract his attention. The first thing that Virgil saw was not concrete or a firm image, but light, motions and colors. This was only a brief indication of the tangled web of sight that was ahead. Sacks states Everyone, Virgil included, expected something untold simpler. A man opens his eyes, light enters and falls on the retina he sees. though there had been a careful surgical di scussion of the operation and viable postsurgical complications, there was little discussion or preparation for the neurological and mental difficulties that Virgil might encounter. (115) While reading about Virgil, I have to induce reflect to a greater extent upon myself and the sense of sight. Very recently, I was diagnosed with early-onset glaucoma. I reliable this news from my doctor with heightened emotion and anxiety about what I would do if I lost my vision. I am lucky that my doctor direct did a procedure to stop the progression of the glaucoma and keep my vision at its current state.I try to put myself in Virgils place and have become more empathetic to him and his particular circumstance. I think of my friend who is partially deaf she says she wouldnt change it for eitherthing it is who she is. Is Virgil conflicted about his identity flat that he can see? When Dr. Sacks meets Virgil, Sacks is struck by the way he acted that Virgil was exhibiting behavior of someone who looks but does not grasp the full picture. He is mentally blind or the definition of agnosic the partial or get along inability to recognize objects or persons by use of the appropriate sense in Virgils case, the sense of sight.For example, he sees in pieces notices facial features, not a composed face. Virgil still continues to use the actions of a blind person for everyday living, having Amy, now his wife, to establish lines for him to walk from room to room in their house. He veritable(a) says he finds walking scary and confusing without touch, without his cane. (120) Virgil is transaction with being disrupted by massive changes having surgery and getting married. The discombobulation he feels about walking without his cane is understandable.The cane was his support for a basic of life another aspect that is taken for granted, putting one foot in front of another. Virgils independence is being encroached upon and there is an erosion of confidence in his abilities that w ere part of his identity as a sightless person. Additional aspects of his new life were just as jumbled, as disconnected. Virgil couldnt identify his cat and dog without touching them while opticly investigating them. Hes confused by distances, light, sizes, angles and perspectives. Sacks says that Virgil was blinded for a minute, until he put on a p communication channel of dark-green sunglasses.Even usual daylight, he said, was too bright for him, too glary, he felt that he saw best in quite subdued light. (131) During the initial exam Sacks conducted with Virgil, they went to a zoo for an outing. Virgil was only able to make out an brute by either the way it moved or by particular proposition opthalmic features, such as height. His heightened sense of hearing was noticed when he heard the lions roaring in the distance. He had a request to touch an animal, and was able to examine a statue of an ape. When he touched the statue, he had an air of assurance that he had never sh own when examining anything by sight. emanding that he kick all that came easily to him, that he sense the world in a way incredibly difficult for him and alien. (132-33) Virgils non-sighted and sighted worlds joined briefly in the moment when it became apparent he could visually identify more features of the ape only after touching the statue. In Virgils journey to see again, he appears to be finding his way by adapting his skills from his past(a) life to his current existence. There must have been a want to do so, so as to bridge the gap and to glue unneurotic who he was with who he is, and who he is going to be.Otherwise, I could see the confusion, disruption and erosion of independence would become overwhelming to Virgil and could therefore stymie any potential for improvement after the upcoming second surgery. Virgil was experiencing periods of severe visual fatigue and spontaneous distorted vision. The fatigue was understandable his visual body was weak and unstable, not yet practiced and strong. The periods of distorted vision that lasted for hours or days were not as easy to understand, and therefore more of a worry.The continuation of the distorted vision became apparent with displays of what Sacks calls psychic blindness speech of seeing while in fact appearing blind and demo no visual behavior whatever. (136) He exhibited another type of drug withdrawal of sight, emotional, as well. When his family came to town for his wedding, Virgil began to need Amy to lead him around due to wooly-minded vision. His family did oppose the surgery and despite the verity even then they did not believe he could see. Virgils emotional withdrawal of sight only ended after his family left post-wedding.Virgil was treated by his family as his former self instead of as his current self his past passivity returned and he gave them what they wanted Virgil as a blind man. His current visual identity must have felt threatened. Due to Virgils inexperient and weak vis ual state, that either neural overload or identity conflict might just push him over it. (138) aft(prenominal) the surgery on Virgils left eye revealed that his acuity was the same as the right eye, there was some improvement but not as much as had been hoped for. He was able to focus somewhat kick downstairs and was able to go back to work after the 2 months since the first surgery.Massage therapy was different for him now that he could see his clients. In order to do his job comfortably, he had to close his eyes and function as a non-sighted person. This experience for Virgil made him revert to functioning as blind quite an than sighted, continuing his identity confusion. His continuing experiences for the next few months were memorable experiencing the holidays with sight, seeing his family and home in Kentucky, seeing the ballet with Amy. He interacted with his family while exhibiting visual behaviors, a big step towards change for Virgil. The change was arrested by his eno ugh critically ill with pneumonia.The result of the illness was lack of oxygen to brain, and Virgils vision was receding. He acted as though he could see even when he couldnt by reaching for things but saying he could not see. Sacks indicates This condition called implicit sight occurs if the visual parts of the rational cortex are knocked out, but the visual centers in the subcortex remain intact. (146) At this even out for Virgil, he is now experiencing even more change after his health improves and he leaves the hospital, he is attached to an oxygen tank which leaves him ineffective to work, and therefore having to move from his home.Of course, these changes have an effect on Virgils visual and emotional states, as they would on anyone. Virgil is now blind again. Even though Virgil has rare moments of minimal sight, he has returned to functioning as a non-sighted person. After the all too-human reaction of rage, Virgil himself has expressed an acceptance of his visual situ ation. Sacks notes, Virgil for his part, maintains philosophically, These things happen. (151) As Virgil says, things do happen. My friend lost her hearing as a toddler I will be losing my vision and prepare myself for this inevitable future.All of us hand out with these stages of life and envelop them into ourselves, our identities. There are different definitions of perspective point of view representation of objects as they might appear to the eye a mental view or prospect. To apply them all to Virgil is to see him as he should be seen, without a need to change him and to accept him with and without sight. full treatment Cited Sacks, Oliver. An Anthropologist on Mars Seven Paradoxical Tales. New York Vintage, 1996. Print. . The Last Hippie. An Anthropologist on Mars Seven Paradoxical Tales. New York Vintage, 1996. 42 76. Print.