Diving Bell and the Butterfly

A split second can be all that it takes to forever alter the course of our lives. In the movie Diving Bell and the Butterfly this is proven when Jean-Do (previous editor of Elle Magazine) has an unexpected stroke while on the way to a movie with his son. He survives with only the use of his left eye, and with the help of his doctors, creates a system of speaking with other people. Throughout the remaining two years of his life Jean-Do's recounts on his life previous to his life altering stroke, and what it was like to be trapped inside his own body, were recorded and published. The movie Diving Bell and the Butterfly gives some insight on the process of Jean-Do's book, and gives viewer's a peek of what he must've experienced in his rare condition.



While in the hospital, Jean-Do is visited by a few of his friends and family. There is one character in particular who has some advice for Jean-Do on how to deal with his 'imprisonment'. He tells Jean-Do "Find that thing inside you that is human and hold onto it...". The term human can be defined in many different ways. The dictionary definition of human states "any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage." I don't agree with this definition of the term human. There can be people who've lost their ability to speak or walk (like Jean-Do) who would still be considered human. To me, to be human is to have an awareness of life and what it is to be alive. So even if you've lost your sense of sight, hearing, or you can't walk, as long as your mind can still think intelliglbe thoughts, and your lungs can still breath, then you're human.

I think the thing inside us that makes us human varies depending on the individual. It could be our memories, the people we cherish the most, or the ability to distinguish right from wrong. I think for most people, the thing inside us that makes us human is our ability to feel emotions. We can feel many emotions ranging from happy to sad. An example of this would be when Jean-Do felt he would rather die than continue living caged up in his own body. This is becuase he was feeling an emotion commonly known as dispair. He might've also been feeling angery and bitter at his situation, and he had choosen to give up on living. The thing that makes us human is being able to interact with other people, otherwise we'd all bottle up our feelings and forget how to socialize with others. I think our ability to socialize with others is what makes us human becuase it's often the source of our emotions, and if we didn't have any emotions, then we'd all be like robots.

There are a few things that seperate us from animals. One of the major differences between us and animals is our need to believe in something with a greater power, something we call god. I think religion seperates us from animals because I've never heard of animals practisings rituals or going to church/mosque/temple ect.

An example of this from Diving Bell and the Butterfly is when one of Jean-Do's doctors take him to sunday mass one day, despite the fact that he didn't want to go. Another example would be when he remembers a trip his girlfriend dragged him on so that she could drink some holy water and buy a madonna statue/night lamp thing. Even though Jean-Do wasn't really a devout man, he still stated that he didn't feel right having sex while the statue/night lamp thing was there.

Another thing I think seperates us from animals is the fact that we live by a mostly universal set of laws. Many countries have an agreement that you shouldn't kill another human being, and that you shouldnt eat another human being. I don't think this rule applies to animals because carnivorous animals kill other animals (of other species and sometimes of the same) and then feed on them.