Title of Book: My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey
Author: Autobiography by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D
Section of book - Pgs 48 - 115
(Although this was not a planned section in the previous irb reading outline i posted in the beginning of the marking period, this section of the book was the most interesting and had the biggest impact on me. Therefore I feel it was appropriate to post this group of pages as my last IRB post for this book)
This section begins in the middle of Jill experiencing her stroke. Her brain is gushing with blood that is pouring over the systems her body needs to process language, movement, normal thought connections, speech in general, movement, the ability to connect words with a picture or any meaning at all. She has to focus on each task she is doing with an immense amount of concentration and effort. At this time she is trying to focus on the task of calling for help. Then after hours of fulfilling this task she receives help from a co-worker (she lives alone). The next few days within this section she is being evaluated by doctors, nurses, and is being taught to read, write, and speak again as if she was a child. Her mother comes to take care of her and is nurturing her as if she were a toddler. This section ends with her gaining skills back, one at a time, even though it will take her eight years to fully recover from her stroke.
To fully understand Jill's thought process as she goes through this trauma is hard to grasp. She does her best of explaining through her book what exactly it meant for her body to feel as if it were liquid with no end instead of a tightly packed atom-filled human being. Through extremely sophisticated diction and uses of description and imagery she shows the audience her mind during the time of the stroke. As her mind deteriorates readers follow her through her journey, yet no matter how much she explains through her personal accounts of the effects of the stroke the ending result of what exactly went through her blood-soaked mind will forever be hard to fully understand.
Jill also uses every aspect of the Appeals; logos, pathos, and ethos. She is extremely credible because the first 1/4 of the book is strictly factual information about the brain, brain systems, the different parts of the brain, and medical terms. She is a Ph.D graduate, a brain scientist, and she worked at Harvard University in their medical field. She has surpassed the credibility line. She also uses logic through statistics and pathos through the mind of a wounded woman needing love and comfort from family and friends as her brain lost all power.
Through the use of these devices and her affective use of language her purpose was fulfilled to engage the world in what she had gone through and she has informed the globe about strokes and the important facts every person should know. This book was fascinating and gave me a whole new point of view to the possibilities of the human mind.
- Ali Mason
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