Blink Bauby, Blink Brent.

Will & Way. 

 “The art of speaking clearly so that each word is clearly heard and understood.”

I just cited Wikipedia, but what I mean is that diction is not only the authors word choice and style in a story, but it also refers to how well the author can articulate his words.

In the memoir The Burn Journals Brent has just tried to commit suicide, and as soon as he gets to the hospital he can’t even talk. It’s not that he forgot to do so, but he is just  to hurt to do it. “I wish I could talk and say something so she’d understand me” pg 26. He has “plastic in his mouth” which is “keeping him from saying anything.” He is not able to pronounce anything because he is so hurt and he can’t use his mouth.

At the beginning of the book he is in a lot of pain, and this is one of the main reasons why he can’t enunciate well. He is full of plastic and tubes and he is not able to communicate. I can say that at the beginning of the novel Brent has not yet mastered the “art of speaking clearly.” He is struggling with speech and it’s going to take him a long time to recover.

There is a moment when Brent has to communicate through a board. The people in the hospital point out at the letters and he blinks when he wants them to stop. This is in some ways similar to Jean-Dominique Bauby, a French Journalist, who after suffering from a stroke woke up and realized that he was speechless and that the only movement he had was blinking his left eyelid. He suffered from the locked-in syndrome and even with this condition he wrote an entire memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. He did this with the help of his nurses. They dictated him the alphabet and he would blink when he wanted that letter.

2 years after his accident he published his book in 1997; unfortunately he suffered from pneumonia and died 3 days later. He is remembered to day because of his incredible achievements even though his accident.

Brent Runyon is remembered today as the boy who lit himself on fire.

Once again, this book shows us that in life there will be a lot of obstacles and that even in the most difficult circumstances there is always a way of getting what you want. You know what they say “If there is a will, there is a way.”