TED ADANA COLLEGE / 10-B
A Blink of an Eye and the Wingbeat of a Butterfly
Bora GĂK
Everyone has challenges and obstacles that prevent them from achieving their goals , whatever the cause â ego , indolence , insecurities , anxiety . However , for Bauby , it was not a problem ; rather , it was a boulder that had unexpectedly fallen in his way and that he was unable to shift . His body was this heavy boulder .
He had a seizure while taking his son to the theatre . Twenty days later , he woke up in the hospital and he discovered that he could only blink his left eye . Within the first 20 weeks , he lost 27 kg . due to his pseudocoma .
Before his seizure , he had agreed to write a book and signed a contract . The 26-letter French alphabet was arranged by his speech therapist , Sandrine Fichou , in order of frequency of use . She pointed at each letter of the alphabet one by one until Bauby blinked at the appropriate one . On average , a word took two minutes to read . Bauby had to blink almost 200,000 times in two
months . Together with his therapist , Bauby was able to produce a 130-page manuscript .
The resultant novel , The Diving Bell and the Butterfly , became a huge success . It has been translated into 24 different languages and has even inspired a movie . However , two days after he published the book , he passed away .
He discusses another individual with the same ailment in this book and describes his predicament as a butterfly in a diving bell . The butterfly â s desperate wingbeat is used as a metaphor for the hope and the feeling of freedom that his left eye gives him , and the diving bell is the representation of his unfortunate condition that draws him back .
So why don â t we merely circumvent the barriers that hold us back no matter how large and heavy our rocks are ?