“Yet, as with our own private odors, those of sweat and earwax and even of excrement, there was also something satisfying about this scent, an intimate rankness that told me who I was” (299).
The narrator was diagnosed with psoriasis that came strong after an attack of measles at a young age. Despite the embarrassment, silvery scabs, inability to consume certain foods and indescribable body odor, John Updike was contented because these where the things that defined him as an individual. The scent of his sweat, earwax and excrement was satisfying, frankly because his scent and no one else’s. Each person’s idiosyncrasy defines them as an individual, either it being someone’s oversized nose, ignorance or ridiculously loud laughter, it defines who you are. When I was in kindergarten I was know as the ‘boy with girly long braids’. The kids never used to call me by my proper name but by that phrase that irritated me deeply, but they were my braids and they defined me. I became so deeply rooted into that nickname that even I refereed to myself as the ‘boy with girly long braids that sat behind you in kindergarten’.
“…but my mother, always independent in her moods, seemed saddened, as if she had laid an egg which, when candled by the government, had been pronounced rotten” (302).
I like this quote because it’s interesting how the author compares his life to something that is “rotten.” I think even though he has skin problem his mother still has high expectations for him. To be denied from the military sounds like a good thing but his mother seems to feel embarrassed by her son’s inability to serve the country. This essay reminded me of another essay we read called “On being crippled” by Nancy Mairs. It’s similar in both essayists’ attitude towards their disease and the way they chose to approach it. Both authors seem to be optimistic and rather have a positive view on their life. I really like the last paragraph of this essay in which Updike explained to us the things he did and why he chose to do it. It shows that he wasn’t running away from his problems, rather he chose to grasp on every opportunities he had and make the best out of every single one of them.
I enjoyed this reading. “At War with My Skin” has many similarities to “On Being a Cripple.” Updike talks about a condition he has with is known to be a disease. Like Nancy Mairs, who prefers being called a cripple rather than disabled, loathes the word disease. He feels the word is too strong “for a condition that is not contagious, painful, or debilitating.” The thing I find most interesting is how the title describes his life briefly. Due to the fact he is at war with his skin, the remnants of his battle effects the other aspects of his life. He talks about his fear of learning how to swim in a class with “naked” boys. This is, of course, figurative language but it depicts how uncomfortable he was in his skin. The spots on his skin became a uniform to him to the point where everyone around him was naked.
I feel as though him being at war with his skin made him the person he is today and though many people may not suffer from this, I feel as though we are all the implied reader. The story can be interpreted one of two ways. You can feel as though a fault with yourself (personal appearance or mentality), is hindering your growth as a person. Instead of looking down on yourself and looking for peity, hold your chin up and conquer the war you have within yourself as to make yourself stronger. On the other hand, you can take a certain trait or beauty for granted and after reading this realize how certain aspects in your life make you who your are and should cherish every last quality within you.
“It pains me to write these pages. They are humiliating – ’scab picking’” (302)
I feel sorry for the author because he had to suffer the physical stress from the disease and social stress from others. Even though I don’t have a disease, I can partially understand how he felt during his childhood. I imagined others looking at me with a strange look, being self-conscious about my red, bumpy skin and the teacher saying “Good heavens, child, what’s this on your head?” (301). By just having those images surge through my mind already caused some stress on me so it must of been much harder for John. Growing up with problems such as this one is painful and hopefully one day, when medicine is improved enough, these experiences would cease to exist.
I enjoyed reading “At War with my Skin because it is something I can relate to. In the essay, Updike had psoriasis, a non-contagious disease that causes red, scaly patches to appear on the skin. To treat his psoriasis, Updike had to be bathe in sunlight and stay away from greasy food such as potato chips and french fries. He wasn’t allow to go swimming because of his condition and hydrophobia. I’m similar to Updike a little because I have a condition where I break out a lot. I got it from my mom. In order to treat my zit condition, I had to use face wash everyday and stay away from food that has caffeine.
I feel sorry for Updike for having psoriasis. Because of it, he wasn’t able to join the army. He had to leave New York and move to Massachusetts because nothing, not even a light bulb in New York can treat his condition.
As i read the passage I came to the conclusion that this story touched me deeply because this person is going through something that not many people have to experience and as a result it makes life a bit more difficult for them. My overall conclusion was that I can proclaim him as being strong because he is able to stand strong although he has something that would have broken many other people. He says that “psoriasis keeps you thinking.”(300) and I found this to be a profound quote because he later goes to explain that “strategies of concealment ramity, and self examination is endless.” (300) I thought of this as something that was well thought out because it explains how he spends his time in the mirror watching himself and as a result he is forced to think of himself as a person based on what he sees in the mirror. He is often forced to think more of himself as to what he sees because of a disease That he did not chose for himself. In summary I enjoyed reading the short story because it made me take a deeper look at myself and the silly things that I constantly take for granted. It have me the opportunity the appreciate what I have and not to take the things that I have for granted.
Similar to ‘On Being Cripple,’ ‘At War With My Skin’ was an informational as well as personal piece. Through this essay I was able to learn about psoriasis, a disease I had never before encountered and therefore knew nothing about. I learned that it is a skin condition that sometimes causes what can be embarrassing scabs during the wintertime, while during the summer the condition can be tamed. It was interesting to see Updike’s form of coping with psoriasis. In a way, it led to a lot more bonding time with his mother. However, his condition became burdensome a lot of the time, it caused him to hate showing off his skin in public and later in life it gave him reason to move further away from the city. The most emotional part, in my opinion, was when Updike speaks of the hereditary traits of psoriases. He says that his mother felt guilty for having passed it down to him. He also notes that he was at one point of his life happy because he thought he could now pass down his condition to his children. Until his fourth child was born and during her late teens it was discovered that she had inherited the condition. This realization emotionally hurt Updike; it was a very unfortunate discovery for everyone in the family. Overall, I enjoyed this essay because it was the perfect mix of education and personal experience.
“There was something about this scent, an intimate rankness that told me who I was” (299).
This quote reminded me of the story about the woman with MS. She talked about how although she had the illness, it made her who she was. That’s similar to the psoriasis and how it made Updike the man he is. He comments on how his skin kept him away from jobs that needed a “presentable” appearance, therefore he became a writer. If it wasn’t for the disease that made him insecure throughout his life, he wouldn’t have become famous and we wouldn’t be here reading his story. He may not have realized it, but in a way the disease was a gift for him. If his skin was clear he might’ve been content with being a teacher or a salesman. For me what I take from essay is that although we may not realize it, the bad things in our lives can result in better things.
“Psoriasis is a metabolic disorder that causes the epidermis, which normally replaces itself at a gradual, unnoticeable rate, to spend up the process markedly and to produce excess skin cells.” (300)
In this essay, John Updike talks about the idea of appearance defining who we are as a person. He speaks about his childhood with psoriasis and how it was a harsh moment in his life. I found it clever that he gave the essay scientific information, so the reader has the necessary background information to relate to his life-long problems.
With the authors style of writing it brought me into the essay and made me feel his pain. He wrote with such description and his tone was not meant to make you feel sorry for him but you seemed to have no choice but to feel his pain. He is just telling his story about his condition and how he suffers from it and feels different from the “normal” people. The write brought me into his essay so much and had me so interested that i took the time out to look up psoriasis and try to find out more information about it. It made me even more sad because the authors condition was not even detected until he was six years old. “Inspecting the many photographs taken of me as child, including a set of me cavorting in a bathing suit in the back yard, I can see no trace of psoriasis”(299). This made me sad because I felt like he was hopeless as if he was trying to figure out what went wrong by looking at those pictures and wanting to go back to those days when he was “normal.” The tone of this essay in my opinion was sad and that is why it made me sad.
I liked this is essay not because of the topic but because of how it is written. I liked how mentions scenes from his past with so much detail. I feel that I am watching him as he sunbathes with his mother and puts on Siroil. It even made me feel a little nostalgic about my own childhood. I was able to connect with this essay because it dealt so heavily with his past and childhood. I felt bad about his psoriasis though.
I like this essay because I can make a connection with the author. A year ago, my apartment was infested with bedbugs and the landlord wouldn’t do anything about it. These small irritating bugs kept feeding off the skin of my leg and leaving noticeable red dots on them. From then on, people would constantly ask what was wrong with my leg? what happened to it? I would always feel so embarrassed because it separates me from a normal healthy skinned person. Like the author says, “Psoriasis keeps you thinking. Strategies of concealment ramify, and self-examination is endless” (300), I had to keep concealing this horrific leg of mine. I stopped wearing shorts and even when I do, I make sure I wear extremely long ones so that when I move around, people won’t notice. Eventually we ordered a steam cleaner to eliminate these insects but then the marks are still there so I’m still concealing my leg to the public.
I saw a lot of similarities between “At War With My Skin” and “On Being a Cripple”. In “On Being a Cripple” the author talked about how having multiple sclerosis affected and shaped her life. In “At War With My Skin”, Updike writes about how his psoriasis made him who he was. I like how he wrote his essay, because the emotions he felt weren’t overdone. You could understand his pain without knowing in depth details. Although I don’t have psoriasis I somewhat understood what he was going through because I’ve seen other people with health conditions get alienated by society. I also admire Updike for writing about his condition. In the essay he said that writing it was painful and he had only wrote about it twice before this one. I really liked this essay because it was informative and interesting without being overly emotional or boring.
“At War with My Skin” is written by an author that has gone through experiences we think no one other faces. John Updiek uses his personal experiences to inform the readers about psoriasis and to let the readers know how it feels to be infected with this “disease”. After reading this I felt bad for him because I cannot imagine being in his feet. To share this experience was painful and “Humiliating-scab picking”. Sharing stories about dealing with skin that has bumps is very couragous. Updike also tells the readers on how he was not treated as well as others. I think everyone can feel his pain because there is always a time when you are the person outside looking in. This story was great and I enjoyed reading it because this is both real, raw and it is coming from the heart.
“‘Disease’ seems strong, for a condition that is not contagious, painful, or debilitating; yet psoriasis has the body and singling you out from the happy herds or healthy, normal mankind.”
It is all about that word: DISEASE! It sounds disgusting and vile. When someone says something like “are you diseased” I automatically squirm. I understand him completely though. As someone with a “disease” (or disorder depending on the doctor and their respective moods) it always sounds weird. I wanna scream on the top of my lungs that I AM NOT DISEASED, rather unfortunate. I mean mine isn’t noticeable, but I can connect to that term. It is just not cool.
When this essay first began I was very upset because I didn’t have a clue as to what the author was talking about or what it was that he was trying the convey. All I say were words that painted an extremely abstract picture. But as I got deeper after fighting off the urge to stop reading I quickly understood what it was that they author was trying to shed light on. By discussing how he dealt with Psoriasis he was actually addressing the issue of vanity, and insecurity, “you are forced to the mirror, again and again; psoriasis compels narcissism, if we can suppose a Narcissus who did not like what he saw.”(300). In this quotation Updike I trying to explain how trapped he felt living with this condition, he didn’t want to see himself in such a light but his constant fixation with his skin and it’s condition draws him to the mirror. “I cannot pass a reflecting surface on the street without glancing in, in hopes that I have somehow change.” On might say if you know your condition isn’t going to change why face such a reality (301)? Why hurt yourself and stress about something that you can’t change.
“The disease- ‘disease’ seems strong, for a condition that is not contagious, painful, or debilitating; yet psoriasis has the volatility of a disease, the sense of another presence cooccupying your body and singling you out from the happy herds of healthy, normal mankind-“ (299).
I really enjoy this quote because it gives readers the understanding of how Updike feels when he has this problem. It shows the readers that even though it is not a disease, to Updike it may as well be one because it is something that he will have forever and there isn’t much he can do about it. This “disease” has taking out all of his happiness and good health that many people has. He isn’t able to be the same as others because he has a condition that not many people have and it has caused him to lost many opportunities of being the same as others around him. Even though he lost opportunities, but he still didn’t give up on the things that he can and want do. With his condition, he was able to do just as well as others and it shows that everyone will be able to accomplish things even though they have problems.
“I had never gone to summer camp, and pictured the Army as a big summer camp, with extra-rough bullies and extra cold showers in the morning”(302).
This quote reminds me of the concentration camps used during World War II. The Germans used these camps to “get revenge” of the Jewish community’s “influence” of the depression brought upon from World War I. In these camps, it was a fight for survival. People did not know when the Germans were going to kill them off or were giving a chance to live another day. Many times the Germans acted as “bullies” by forcing the Jews to work more efficiently. When it came to letting the people have a shower, the Jews did not know if the Germans were going use gas or “be empathetic” by giving them a shower. It was truly a horrendous sight to see during that time period. In relation to the story, Updike is at war with his skin. He disdains it because it hinders him from getting what he wants in life. I feel empathetic for him having such a disease because it is tough living with skin that a person does not want to show.
“…my mother, always independent in her moods, seemed saddened, as if she had laid an egg which, when candled by the government, had been pronounced rotten” (302).
This quote popped out the most to me, it made me think to parents who have children with “diseases” and how they run away from the child. It made me feel his mother’s strength by sticking by her son through his struggle with Psoriasis. They way he compares himself to an “egg that is rotten” makes me think of how society as a whole categorizes people as good and bad, if you have a disease of some sort you go under that “rotten” category because you’re not fully equipped, like when he was denied entry into the army. I have a mental image of his mother being his moral support and having these expectations for him to succeed in life no matter his obstacles, he can make it if he sets his mind and heart to it.
In his essay, John Updike, tells how he has been able to live with his sickness. He did not have an easy childhood and he remembers how he had to stay away from certain sports and people were cruel to him. His teacher asks him :” Good heavens, child, what’s on your head?”. It is very clear that he suffered and adjusted his life because of the psoriasis. He did not choose any profession that needed good presentation like a salesman or a teacher and he married and has children young because he did not want to lose his wife and wanted to have people around him who were not sick. Although he had to give up many things, Updike didn’t let the sickness rule his life, instead he found ways to control it and lived a full life.
I have a text to self connection with this situation. I know a very good friend who has this disease psoriasis. This person has the same issues that the authors talks about. His confidence is very low such as my friend. They hate the summer because of the summer clothing. He dislikes his skin marks I found out that this story is for everybody. Because I think that everyone at one point has the problem of being comfortable on their own skin. “psoriasis keeps you thinking strategies of concealment ramify and self examination is endless” I think this statement is so true, because with this disease you have too keep on putting ointment and all these other anti-cream in order to control your skin.
Welcome, Class of 2010! I hope you will find this blog to be a useful, expedient mechanism for sharing your writing and responding to the writing of others. Furthermore, I hope you have some fun! There are some rules, however, of which you must be aware.
First Rule
This blog is educational. It is not a space for chatting with your friends (you have myspace, facebook, bebo, etc. for that). You'll be expected to respond to your classmates' writing, but I want you to think of them more as colleagues than friends on this site. The "fun" mentioned above will be in taking others' ideas to task in friendly debate. Therefore...
Second Rule
Writing on this site is FORMAL. For a GRADE. You will be graded on the content quality of your response, not your grammar. HOWEVER...Grammar mistakes will lead to grammar assignments selected especially for you. The fewer mistakes you make, the fewer grammar check-ups you'll be required to complete.
Third Rule
Text message/Chat abbreviations are just that -- for texting and chatting. You won't be LOL-ing, btw, when I pwn ur grade, lolz! (For the record, I love txt lingo -- and it has its place -- but my job is to teach you to write formally -- not be your bff -- hence the requirement that you write with a formal tone here).
Fourth Rule
Comment on the comments of others, but remember that there's a person behind that comment. People have a tendency to think that it's okay to be cruel online and to "speak" to others in ways they wouldn't speak to others in real life. Remember: I know who you are.
Fifth Rule
Always use the same username in your comments. If you use a name that isn't already known to me, I'll assume you aren't one of my students and I'll delete the comment -- which means you'll have to write it again under your usual username, and that would not be fun.
21 Comments
November 9, 2009 at 9:47 pm
“Yet, as with our own private odors, those of sweat and earwax and even of excrement, there was also something satisfying about this scent, an intimate rankness that told me who I was” (299).
The narrator was diagnosed with psoriasis that came strong after an attack of measles at a young age. Despite the embarrassment, silvery scabs, inability to consume certain foods and indescribable body odor, John Updike was contented because these where the things that defined him as an individual. The scent of his sweat, earwax and excrement was satisfying, frankly because his scent and no one else’s. Each person’s idiosyncrasy defines them as an individual, either it being someone’s oversized nose, ignorance or ridiculously loud laughter, it defines who you are. When I was in kindergarten I was know as the ‘boy with girly long braids’. The kids never used to call me by my proper name but by that phrase that irritated me deeply, but they were my braids and they defined me. I became so deeply rooted into that nickname that even I refereed to myself as the ‘boy with girly long braids that sat behind you in kindergarten’.
November 9, 2009 at 9:48 pm
“…but my mother, always independent in her moods, seemed saddened, as if she had laid an egg which, when candled by the government, had been pronounced rotten” (302).
I like this quote because it’s interesting how the author compares his life to something that is “rotten.” I think even though he has skin problem his mother still has high expectations for him. To be denied from the military sounds like a good thing but his mother seems to feel embarrassed by her son’s inability to serve the country. This essay reminded me of another essay we read called “On being crippled” by Nancy Mairs. It’s similar in both essayists’ attitude towards their disease and the way they chose to approach it. Both authors seem to be optimistic and rather have a positive view on their life. I really like the last paragraph of this essay in which Updike explained to us the things he did and why he chose to do it. It shows that he wasn’t running away from his problems, rather he chose to grasp on every opportunities he had and make the best out of every single one of them.
November 9, 2009 at 11:04 pm
I enjoyed this reading. “At War with My Skin” has many similarities to “On Being a Cripple.” Updike talks about a condition he has with is known to be a disease. Like Nancy Mairs, who prefers being called a cripple rather than disabled, loathes the word disease. He feels the word is too strong “for a condition that is not contagious, painful, or debilitating.” The thing I find most interesting is how the title describes his life briefly. Due to the fact he is at war with his skin, the remnants of his battle effects the other aspects of his life. He talks about his fear of learning how to swim in a class with “naked” boys. This is, of course, figurative language but it depicts how uncomfortable he was in his skin. The spots on his skin became a uniform to him to the point where everyone around him was naked.
I feel as though him being at war with his skin made him the person he is today and though many people may not suffer from this, I feel as though we are all the implied reader. The story can be interpreted one of two ways. You can feel as though a fault with yourself (personal appearance or mentality), is hindering your growth as a person. Instead of looking down on yourself and looking for peity, hold your chin up and conquer the war you have within yourself as to make yourself stronger. On the other hand, you can take a certain trait or beauty for granted and after reading this realize how certain aspects in your life make you who your are and should cherish every last quality within you.
November 9, 2009 at 11:21 pm
“It pains me to write these pages. They are humiliating – ’scab picking’” (302)
I feel sorry for the author because he had to suffer the physical stress from the disease and social stress from others. Even though I don’t have a disease, I can partially understand how he felt during his childhood. I imagined others looking at me with a strange look, being self-conscious about my red, bumpy skin and the teacher saying “Good heavens, child, what’s this on your head?” (301). By just having those images surge through my mind already caused some stress on me so it must of been much harder for John. Growing up with problems such as this one is painful and hopefully one day, when medicine is improved enough, these experiences would cease to exist.
November 10, 2009 at 12:12 am
I enjoyed reading “At War with my Skin because it is something I can relate to. In the essay, Updike had psoriasis, a non-contagious disease that causes red, scaly patches to appear on the skin. To treat his psoriasis, Updike had to be bathe in sunlight and stay away from greasy food such as potato chips and french fries. He wasn’t allow to go swimming because of his condition and hydrophobia. I’m similar to Updike a little because I have a condition where I break out a lot. I got it from my mom. In order to treat my zit condition, I had to use face wash everyday and stay away from food that has caffeine.
I feel sorry for Updike for having psoriasis. Because of it, he wasn’t able to join the army. He had to leave New York and move to Massachusetts because nothing, not even a light bulb in New York can treat his condition.
November 10, 2009 at 12:51 am
As i read the passage I came to the conclusion that this story touched me deeply because this person is going through something that not many people have to experience and as a result it makes life a bit more difficult for them. My overall conclusion was that I can proclaim him as being strong because he is able to stand strong although he has something that would have broken many other people. He says that “psoriasis keeps you thinking.”(300) and I found this to be a profound quote because he later goes to explain that “strategies of concealment ramity, and self examination is endless.” (300) I thought of this as something that was well thought out because it explains how he spends his time in the mirror watching himself and as a result he is forced to think of himself as a person based on what he sees in the mirror. He is often forced to think more of himself as to what he sees because of a disease That he did not chose for himself. In summary I enjoyed reading the short story because it made me take a deeper look at myself and the silly things that I constantly take for granted. It have me the opportunity the appreciate what I have and not to take the things that I have for granted.
November 10, 2009 at 1:09 am
Similar to ‘On Being Cripple,’ ‘At War With My Skin’ was an informational as well as personal piece. Through this essay I was able to learn about psoriasis, a disease I had never before encountered and therefore knew nothing about. I learned that it is a skin condition that sometimes causes what can be embarrassing scabs during the wintertime, while during the summer the condition can be tamed. It was interesting to see Updike’s form of coping with psoriasis. In a way, it led to a lot more bonding time with his mother. However, his condition became burdensome a lot of the time, it caused him to hate showing off his skin in public and later in life it gave him reason to move further away from the city. The most emotional part, in my opinion, was when Updike speaks of the hereditary traits of psoriases. He says that his mother felt guilty for having passed it down to him. He also notes that he was at one point of his life happy because he thought he could now pass down his condition to his children. Until his fourth child was born and during her late teens it was discovered that she had inherited the condition. This realization emotionally hurt Updike; it was a very unfortunate discovery for everyone in the family. Overall, I enjoyed this essay because it was the perfect mix of education and personal experience.
November 10, 2009 at 1:10 am
“There was something about this scent, an intimate rankness that told me who I was” (299).
This quote reminded me of the story about the woman with MS. She talked about how although she had the illness, it made her who she was. That’s similar to the psoriasis and how it made Updike the man he is. He comments on how his skin kept him away from jobs that needed a “presentable” appearance, therefore he became a writer. If it wasn’t for the disease that made him insecure throughout his life, he wouldn’t have become famous and we wouldn’t be here reading his story. He may not have realized it, but in a way the disease was a gift for him. If his skin was clear he might’ve been content with being a teacher or a salesman. For me what I take from essay is that although we may not realize it, the bad things in our lives can result in better things.
November 10, 2009 at 1:51 am
“Psoriasis is a metabolic disorder that causes the epidermis, which normally replaces itself at a gradual, unnoticeable rate, to spend up the process markedly and to produce excess skin cells.” (300)
In this essay, John Updike talks about the idea of appearance defining who we are as a person. He speaks about his childhood with psoriasis and how it was a harsh moment in his life. I found it clever that he gave the essay scientific information, so the reader has the necessary background information to relate to his life-long problems.
November 10, 2009 at 2:30 am
With the authors style of writing it brought me into the essay and made me feel his pain. He wrote with such description and his tone was not meant to make you feel sorry for him but you seemed to have no choice but to feel his pain. He is just telling his story about his condition and how he suffers from it and feels different from the “normal” people. The write brought me into his essay so much and had me so interested that i took the time out to look up psoriasis and try to find out more information about it. It made me even more sad because the authors condition was not even detected until he was six years old. “Inspecting the many photographs taken of me as child, including a set of me cavorting in a bathing suit in the back yard, I can see no trace of psoriasis”(299). This made me sad because I felt like he was hopeless as if he was trying to figure out what went wrong by looking at those pictures and wanting to go back to those days when he was “normal.” The tone of this essay in my opinion was sad and that is why it made me sad.
November 10, 2009 at 2:34 am
I liked this is essay not because of the topic but because of how it is written. I liked how mentions scenes from his past with so much detail. I feel that I am watching him as he sunbathes with his mother and puts on Siroil. It even made me feel a little nostalgic about my own childhood. I was able to connect with this essay because it dealt so heavily with his past and childhood. I felt bad about his psoriasis though.
November 10, 2009 at 2:43 am
I like this essay because I can make a connection with the author. A year ago, my apartment was infested with bedbugs and the landlord wouldn’t do anything about it. These small irritating bugs kept feeding off the skin of my leg and leaving noticeable red dots on them. From then on, people would constantly ask what was wrong with my leg? what happened to it? I would always feel so embarrassed because it separates me from a normal healthy skinned person. Like the author says, “Psoriasis keeps you thinking. Strategies of concealment ramify, and self-examination is endless” (300), I had to keep concealing this horrific leg of mine. I stopped wearing shorts and even when I do, I make sure I wear extremely long ones so that when I move around, people won’t notice. Eventually we ordered a steam cleaner to eliminate these insects but then the marks are still there so I’m still concealing my leg to the public.
November 10, 2009 at 2:52 am
I saw a lot of similarities between “At War With My Skin” and “On Being a Cripple”. In “On Being a Cripple” the author talked about how having multiple sclerosis affected and shaped her life. In “At War With My Skin”, Updike writes about how his psoriasis made him who he was. I like how he wrote his essay, because the emotions he felt weren’t overdone. You could understand his pain without knowing in depth details. Although I don’t have psoriasis I somewhat understood what he was going through because I’ve seen other people with health conditions get alienated by society. I also admire Updike for writing about his condition. In the essay he said that writing it was painful and he had only wrote about it twice before this one. I really liked this essay because it was informative and interesting without being overly emotional or boring.
November 10, 2009 at 3:01 am
“At War with My Skin” is written by an author that has gone through experiences we think no one other faces. John Updiek uses his personal experiences to inform the readers about psoriasis and to let the readers know how it feels to be infected with this “disease”. After reading this I felt bad for him because I cannot imagine being in his feet. To share this experience was painful and “Humiliating-scab picking”. Sharing stories about dealing with skin that has bumps is very couragous. Updike also tells the readers on how he was not treated as well as others. I think everyone can feel his pain because there is always a time when you are the person outside looking in. This story was great and I enjoyed reading it because this is both real, raw and it is coming from the heart.
November 10, 2009 at 3:07 am
“‘Disease’ seems strong, for a condition that is not contagious, painful, or debilitating; yet psoriasis has the body and singling you out from the happy herds or healthy, normal mankind.”
It is all about that word: DISEASE! It sounds disgusting and vile. When someone says something like “are you diseased” I automatically squirm. I understand him completely though. As someone with a “disease” (or disorder depending on the doctor and their respective moods) it always sounds weird. I wanna scream on the top of my lungs that I AM NOT DISEASED, rather unfortunate. I mean mine isn’t noticeable, but I can connect to that term. It is just not cool.
November 10, 2009 at 3:29 am
When this essay first began I was very upset because I didn’t have a clue as to what the author was talking about or what it was that he was trying the convey. All I say were words that painted an extremely abstract picture. But as I got deeper after fighting off the urge to stop reading I quickly understood what it was that they author was trying to shed light on. By discussing how he dealt with Psoriasis he was actually addressing the issue of vanity, and insecurity, “you are forced to the mirror, again and again; psoriasis compels narcissism, if we can suppose a Narcissus who did not like what he saw.”(300). In this quotation Updike I trying to explain how trapped he felt living with this condition, he didn’t want to see himself in such a light but his constant fixation with his skin and it’s condition draws him to the mirror. “I cannot pass a reflecting surface on the street without glancing in, in hopes that I have somehow change.” On might say if you know your condition isn’t going to change why face such a reality (301)? Why hurt yourself and stress about something that you can’t change.
November 10, 2009 at 3:36 am
“The disease- ‘disease’ seems strong, for a condition that is not contagious, painful, or debilitating; yet psoriasis has the volatility of a disease, the sense of another presence cooccupying your body and singling you out from the happy herds of healthy, normal mankind-“ (299).
I really enjoy this quote because it gives readers the understanding of how Updike feels when he has this problem. It shows the readers that even though it is not a disease, to Updike it may as well be one because it is something that he will have forever and there isn’t much he can do about it. This “disease” has taking out all of his happiness and good health that many people has. He isn’t able to be the same as others because he has a condition that not many people have and it has caused him to lost many opportunities of being the same as others around him. Even though he lost opportunities, but he still didn’t give up on the things that he can and want do. With his condition, he was able to do just as well as others and it shows that everyone will be able to accomplish things even though they have problems.
November 10, 2009 at 3:49 am
“I had never gone to summer camp, and pictured the Army as a big summer camp, with extra-rough bullies and extra cold showers in the morning”(302).
This quote reminds me of the concentration camps used during World War II. The Germans used these camps to “get revenge” of the Jewish community’s “influence” of the depression brought upon from World War I. In these camps, it was a fight for survival. People did not know when the Germans were going to kill them off or were giving a chance to live another day. Many times the Germans acted as “bullies” by forcing the Jews to work more efficiently. When it came to letting the people have a shower, the Jews did not know if the Germans were going use gas or “be empathetic” by giving them a shower. It was truly a horrendous sight to see during that time period. In relation to the story, Updike is at war with his skin. He disdains it because it hinders him from getting what he wants in life. I feel empathetic for him having such a disease because it is tough living with skin that a person does not want to show.
November 10, 2009 at 4:05 am
“…my mother, always independent in her moods, seemed saddened, as if she had laid an egg which, when candled by the government, had been pronounced rotten” (302).
This quote popped out the most to me, it made me think to parents who have children with “diseases” and how they run away from the child. It made me feel his mother’s strength by sticking by her son through his struggle with Psoriasis. They way he compares himself to an “egg that is rotten” makes me think of how society as a whole categorizes people as good and bad, if you have a disease of some sort you go under that “rotten” category because you’re not fully equipped, like when he was denied entry into the army. I have a mental image of his mother being his moral support and having these expectations for him to succeed in life no matter his obstacles, he can make it if he sets his mind and heart to it.
November 10, 2009 at 6:59 am
In his essay, John Updike, tells how he has been able to live with his sickness. He did not have an easy childhood and he remembers how he had to stay away from certain sports and people were cruel to him. His teacher asks him :” Good heavens, child, what’s on your head?”. It is very clear that he suffered and adjusted his life because of the psoriasis. He did not choose any profession that needed good presentation like a salesman or a teacher and he married and has children young because he did not want to lose his wife and wanted to have people around him who were not sick. Although he had to give up many things, Updike didn’t let the sickness rule his life, instead he found ways to control it and lived a full life.
November 11, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I have a text to self connection with this situation. I know a very good friend who has this disease psoriasis. This person has the same issues that the authors talks about. His confidence is very low such as my friend. They hate the summer because of the summer clothing. He dislikes his skin marks I found out that this story is for everybody. Because I think that everyone at one point has the problem of being comfortable on their own skin. “psoriasis keeps you thinking strategies of concealment ramify and self examination is endless” I think this statement is so true, because with this disease you have too keep on putting ointment and all these other anti-cream in order to control your skin.