Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39785
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Mention it as the reason he cannot speak and then touch lightly on it. If cancer in remission means an altered diet, include that. I have a cousin who must get more sleep to help keep cancer at bay.

Technically, I have a disability. I have epilepsy and never thought of it as anything more than a mild inconvenience. I take medication and go on with my life. If you were to ask me to list ten things about me, my epilepsy would not make the cut. If you were to ask why I took medication, or why I avoid alcohol, I would mention the disorder.

I will say, there is an odd pride some people take in a disorder. Claiming kinship of a sort with Julius Caesar because of a shared diagnosis, or claims that such people tend to be more intelligent can be an intriguing aspect of the ‘culture of the diagnosed’.

A friend of mine was confined to a wheelchair for most of her life due to cerebral palsy, but she never let that define her. She was herself, a whole person with loves, hobbies and ambitions. She ran a print shop for twenty years. I used to say, half in jest, that she ruled the world with a stick in her mouth. If you called her disabled, she would forgive the slip, but if it happened too often, she might rev that chair at you as a reminder of the person she was. Her greatest disability was the attitude of those who saw a woman in a wheelchair and thought her defective. Nothing angered her quite so much as the stupidity of others.

Since your character cannot speak, he must adapt. He might carry a set of cards with common questions and answers written on them. His mutism might end up being beneficial to him, depending on his character.

One of the Paul Harvey ‘Rest of the Story’ tales involved a man in Massachusetts who would electroplate his coins. At that time, a five dollar coin and a five cent coin were identical except for colour, the five dollar one being gold. This man would take his gilded coins and buy five cents worth of something and be given change. He did this many times and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had him arrested. He was found not guilty because for fraud to have been involved, he would have had to ask for change, but he never did. As a deaf mute, it was impossible for him to ask, therefore his disability became his defence.

Original score: 3