"MOVING VIOLATIONS" (JOHN HOCKENBERRY).   Term Paper ID:23072 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: Critical review of paraplegic journalist's autobiography. Paper Introduction: John Hockenberry's autobiography Moving Violations, A Memoir: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence is successful for a variety of reasons. He is a gifted writer, a masterful storyteller, and a man who has overcome an automobile accident at the age of nineteen which left him paralyzed from the waist down. He has lived a remarkable and fascinating life as a world-travelling journalist, and, most importantly, demonstrates not only a powerful determination to succeed at his profession and enjoy life, but also an inspirational sense of humor in the most harrowing of situations. He never uses his disability as an excuse, but instead paints a self-portrait which finally transcends that disability. As he writes in the final words of the book, referring to a Somalian boy who is on the verge of starving to death: "The thin boy could not have survived for long Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. When he looks into my eyes, he sees nowheelchair" (367). . Moving Violations. Hockenberry comes to a sense of peace and wisdom not throughovercoming every obstacle, but through accepting that humanity is flawed,that life is full of disappointments and lost opportunities, and that,nevertheless, we can fulfill ourselves and enjoy life. He does not try to sethimself up as an extraordinary man who succeeds at everything he tries todo, or takes advantage of every opportunity. The one thing he could control on that evening, in the middle of destruction and fire hoses, was me (325). By doing so, he notonly draws the sympathy of the reader without asking for it, but also showshis sense of humor, At its most dark and realistic. At the same time, Hockenberry is no Pollyana. to observe the shelling of Kabul Afghanistan, to witness the dying children of Somalia (3). (69). Hockenberry does not say so, but it is clear that there is anidentification which passes back and forth between the starving boy andhimself. . If a man in a wheelchair can do all this, what right do fully able-bodied individuals have to use excuses with respect to their failures topursue their desires with gusto? . We feel in this book that weare coming to know a man, not a Superman. Hockenberry offersan insight into the situation of the police officer, which summarizes theattitude of society: He had watched apartments fall down and missiles falling from the sky. His thoughts on himself and world events lead thereader to question his or her own tendency to use excuses to explain his orher failures and shortcomings: In my wheelchair I have piled onto trucks and jeeps, hauled myself up and down steps and steep hillsides to use good and bad telephones, to observe riots, a volcano, streetfighting in Romania, to interview Yasir Arafat, to spend the night in walk- up apartments on every floor from, one to five, to wait out curfews with civilian families, to explore New York's subway. All hewants to do is be given the same treatment that other journalists receive,but he is seen too often as a fragile being who needs to be protected fromthe perils of his job. In recounting the anger he felt at being referred to in a nationalinterview as the first would-be "paraplegic" in space, Hockenberry includesnumerous humorous incidents which arose because of that disparagement. He has lived a remarkable andfascinating life as a world-travelling journalist, and, most importantly,demonstrates not only a powerful determination to succeed at his professionand enjoy life, but also an inspirational sense of humor in the mostharrowing of situations. However, even whenwriting of wars and revolutions, he includes consideration of hisdisability, not to draw sympathy but to show his unique experiences, as afemale journalist might include the examples of sexism she faces in dealingwith the same stories. Hockenberry is not only showing how hehas overcome the challenges of his disability, he is also offering achallenge to all able-bodied individuals, as well as others withdisabilities, to not only do their best in life, but to enjoy that life tothe fullest. Healso includes his basic argument --- that he is a journalist rather than aparaplegic. He could do nothing about any of that. . . This is not to say that Hockenberry's disabilityat some point disappears from the book as an important part of his life andwork, but rather that it is seen and accepted as merely a part of the man,rather than what makes him most who he is. In Tel Aviv, during a Scud missile attack fromIraq, Hockenberry has to deal not only with covering the tragedy, but witha police officer who tries to keep him out of the area. He encountersjournalistic dangers and personal difficulties in every assignment. The boy, Hockenberry says, has accepted the nearness, thepossibility, the inevitability of death. He never seeks sympathy for himself, but instead sees himselfas simply a man who is doing his job and living his life to the utmost. We leave Hockenberry's book with tremendous admiration and affectionfor the man, and with a sense of the daily futility disabled people mustface in trying merely to live their lives and do their jobs. Hockenberry knows and shows that life can be hard, cruel, horrificand immensely unfair, but he never allows this harsh reality to stop himfrom his work and his joy at being alive. Hockenberry, in other words,with his humor and verve for life, turns his disability into merely achallenge. Down long corridors, possibilities beckon and vanish at the horizon. There wasn't much to do to pass the time. I found a ballpoint pen next to some lint, and on one of Martha's bed slats I scratched out a message: 11/6/86 I was here," and then as an afterthought: "You never came" (2 4). There are times when his humor after-the-fact saves him whenremembering what must have been a truly excruciating experience, as whenanother man, however ineptly, is making love to the woman he loves while hehides under the bed. Hockenberry is effective atshowing us the process whereby wisdom is born from suffering,disappointment and loss: Life's end points come in pairs . Hockenberry most importantly chronicles the world events he coveredas a journalist, demonstrating again and again his intelligence, insightand skills as a writer, and his courage as a man. He never uses his disability as an excuse, butinstead paints a self-portrait which finally transcends that disability.As he writes in the final words of the book, referring to a Somalian boywho is on the verge of starving to death: "The thin boy could not havesurvived for long after I left the village. Riding over a landscape that seems to be endless and always arriving somewhere new and wonderful . He asks for no special treatment, and uses every bit of hisintelligence and imagination to make up for his disability in carrying outhis duties as a Journalist and his daily activities as a human being amonghuman beings. He refers to himself as a "crip", and to a "crip job" and "crip sex,"in order to face head-on the harshest and most cruel attitudes a fearfulsociety can have toward him and other disabled people. Again and again,Hockenberry uses this sense of humor to ease painful situations, but neverto run away from the reality of those situations. The foregoing example is one of many which show how poorly peoplewith disabilities are treated in the United States. Heshows himself above all to be a humanistic journalist who happens to do hiswork in a wheelchair. He suggests that theremay be more technology available in the United States for disabled people,but the attitude of the people remains inferior to that of people in otherlands with less technology. New York: Hyperion, 1995.----------------------- 8 It is with pain and resentment preceding wisdom that we gradually discover the doors that have been closed behind us and how the straight path ahead is not ours, though we may claim it as our own dream. Works CitedHockenberry, John. He does not romanticize hisdisability, but he is capable is using his writer's imagination totranscend that disability. Life removes possibilities one by one from the pillows beneath our sleeping heads (41). Ironically, in the following passage, ameditation on the wheelchair itself leads to a reverie leaving thewheelchair far behind: Sometimes in my wheelchair I achieve a moment of unity between the chair, the arms that push it, and the mind that observes it all, when I feel like a character on horseback in an elaborately constructed Tolstoy or Dickens novel. It is ironic that Hockenberry emphasizes the role of his paralysis inhis development as a man and a journalist, for this reader by the end ofthe book was thinking more about the wonders of life than about theparalysis of the author. He is a gifted writer, a masterful storyteller, and aman who has overcome an automobile accident at the age of nineteen whichleft him paralyzed from the waist down. Hockenberry is not merely working hard to fulfill himselfprofessionally and to overcome his disability, he is also showing thereader how much there is to enjoy and wonder at in life, even in the midstof war and other human suffering. Perhaps Hockenberry has notaccepted death, but he has certainly accepted his paralysis, and haslearned to deal with it successfully and with abundant good humor. For example, he writes of the help he received inJerusalem while covering the Palestinian conflict, and compares thatexperience with the difficulties he faced in New York while trying toattend a play: "In the Middle East, among Arabs or Jews, I would haveencountered more steps and fewer lawyers, judges and wheelchair lifts, butI have no doubt that in Jerusalem I would have seen the show" (263). Lying under the bed while Martha and her lover sleepafter sex, Hockenberry writes: I lay there tense and completely still for about eight hours. . Or perhaps he is living now.I can still see him watching me. This acceptance ofreality is at the heart of Hockenberry's life, just as acceptance of deathis at the heart of the understanding of the starving boy in Somalia. John Hockenberry's autobiography Moving Violations, A Memoir: WarZones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence is successful for avariety of reasons. 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