An Analysis of Disabled Character and Characterization in Me Before You

INTRODUCTION

Many authors have attempted to explore the world of disabilities yet many of them unsuccessfully portray the real experience of living as a disabled. More often than not, these characters tend to be portrayed in a negative light. For instance, in novels such as Moby dick, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Peter Pan, the disabled characters are the antagonist of the story. There are only a handful of literature that portrays disability in a positive light. Susan Naus, a playwright and author argues that disabled characters usually presented as victim, villain, inspiration and monster. Moreover, there is also a set of line on plot about disability. They are either cured, death or internalized. From psychoanalytic standpoint Delayhoyde argues that one may psychoanalyze a particular character within a literary work, but it is usually assumed that all such characters are projections of the author's psyche. Hence why, the inability to literally portray disability and disabled can be justified given the authors who write the works are not disabled. However it should be appreciated that authors who are trying to give podium to disabled are raising readers empathy and awareness.

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The World Health Organization defines disability as an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations. Further, they also mentioned that disability is a complex phenomenon that is not only relating to physical but also social and environmental factors.

Me Before You by JoJo Moyes is categorized as a romance novel. The work was first published on 5 January 2012 in the United Kingdom. The story is centered on the main characters named Louisa Clark and William Traynor. Louisa is an ordinary 26-year-old woman whose life changes when she begins working as a caretaker for William, a paralysed man. She learns to harness her capabilities and step out of her limited comfort zone. Meanwhile, William Traynor is a 35-year-old man who became quadriplegic after being hit by a motorbike. It also changes his life and he becomes desperate with his life. They spend a lot of time together and it makes them fall in love with each other.

A sequel of this novel, After You, was released on 29 September 2015 through Pamela Dorman Books. And then A second sequel called Still Me, was published in January 2018. Then, Me Before You is also adapted into a film with the same title in 2016 and it was directed by Thea Sharrock. Interestingly, the movie receives more award than the novel.
In the novel Me Before You, The protagonist of the story undergoes a drastic change from normal to disabled. This is different from other literary works whose characters are portrayed as disabled from the beginning of the narration. The case in the novel will give a riveting insight on character and characterization of a person who undergoes
transformative change from able to disabled. It is also worthy to note that the disabled character comes from a wealthy social class which further differentiate the works versus other works written about and or involving disabled characters. Thus, this paper seeks to analyze the portrayal of disabled character through characters and characterization in the novel Me Before You by JoJo Moyes. It is also important to note that the focus on this essay is to see the character based on whether the character is static or dynamic and also through characterization study proposes by Dickinson.

RESEARCH QUESTION
How does the author portray a disabled character in the story?

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This research uses analytical approach, a method used to analyse the story. Then it also specifically use character and characterization study to analyse the portrayal of disabled character in the story. According to (M.H. Abram 33), characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work who has distinct ways of saying, action and motivation.Meanwhile, characterization is a way to show and tell the person involved in the narration. Furthermore, (Dickinson 83) proposes two ways to study a character. They are : basic characteristic and appearance from several points of view. Basic characteristics include Physical (age, physical oddities, etc) Social relationship (personal relationship in the other character in the works; wider social-relationship such as social class occupation) Mental qualities (typical ways of thinking, feeling and acting) while appearance from several points of view includes how the character sees themselves How various other characters see them. However, in this paper I decided to analyze the characterization through :

Physical Appearance of the Character
It contains the physical or performance of the characters, such as their age, physical oddities, performance, etc. The use of physical appearance is to describe: how old they are, how they look like, about sex (are the major characters both of them men or women, do the major characters have pale skin, handsome, beautiful, long, black, brown or white hair, etc).

Personality of the character
It describes the character‟s personality such as: whether or not are they responsible, neat persons or discipline, romantic (romantic is a kind of person who can create the condition or situation become beautiful) and careless (is not care the condition around them).

Social status of the characters
This point discussing the background of the characters, such as: their educational background, their life in middle, high modern classes.

Social relationship of the characters
In this case, the writer wants to discuss the relationship between the major characters and other characters surrounding them (minor characters or supporting character).

Furthermore, a Dynamic character is the one who changes significantly during the course of the story. The changes considered to qualify a character as dynamic include the changes in sight or understanding, commitment, and in values. The changes in circumstance, even physical circumstance, do not apply unless they result in some changes within the characters themselves. By that definition, the protagonist is nearly always a dynamic character. In coming of age stories in particular, the protagonist often undergoes dramatic change, transforming from innocence to experience. A static character is a literary character that remains basically unchanged throughout a work. Whether round and flat, their personalities remain essentially stable throughout the course of the story. This is commonly done with secondary characters in order to let them serve a s thematic or plot elements.

ANALYSIS

Physical Appearance of the Character
In the novel Me Before You, William Trainior is portrayed as a man who is being hit by a motorcycle when he was 35 years old. Before he had an accident, the writer portrayed him physically as a man who was handsome, very manly and strong with his athletic body because he had an interest in extreme sports. In other words, Jojo Moyes tried to make “Will” character as an attractive man. Its proved by how Louisa describes William in a photo she saw.

“There he was on a ski slope, beside a girl with dark glasses and long blonde hair. I stooped, to get a better view of him in his ski goggles. He was clean-shaven in the photograph, and even in the bright light his face had that expensive sheen to it that moneyed people get through going on holiday three times a year. He hadbroad, muscular shoulders visible even through his ski jacket.” (Moyes 126)

However, after he got his accident, he paralyzed from the neck down that leads him can't use his hand and foot as before he had an accident that results him confined to a wheelchair. The writer portrayed him turned out to be different from when he was in the past. The first appearance when meeting with him was very worn as if he gives up on life with his long hair.

“I lay there, watching him breathe, and occasionally wondering what he would say if he woke up and found me staring at him, at his too-long hair and tired eyes and scraggy beginnings of a beard.” (Moyes 125)

Personality of the character
Before he was disabled, the writer portrays Will as a man who is optimistic about the future and loves adventure. William describes that he loved being physical person that loved his jobs, travelling, riding his motorbike, and hurling himself off building.

“But it does define me, Clark. You don’t know me, not really. You never saw me before this thing. I loved my life, Clark. Really loved it. I loved my job, my travels, the things I was. I loved being a physical person. I liked riding my motorbike, hurling myself off buildings. I liked crushing people in business deals. Iliked having sex. Lots of sex. I led a biglife.” (Moyes 1066)

The author describes William's character as a person with a disability in accordance with how the personality of people with disabilities in general.The average of them are hopeless, sensitive, temperamental, insecure, and feels different from the others. All those personalities are exist in William. The writer used the perspective of the other characters like Will`s mother, Louisa, and Nathan to tell how sensitive and vulnerable William is. Because his sensitiveness and desperation, he has a tendency for doing suicide. It is proved in the line .

“Mrs. Traynor closed the door, and turned briefly to face me. ‘I should reiterate, it is very important that Will has someone with him all the time. A previous career disappeared for several hours once to get her car fixed, and Will … injured himself in her absence.’ She swallowed, as if still traumatized by the memory.” (Moyes 105).

Furthermore, at the end of the novel, William keep decided to doing assisted suicide in Switzerland. Even Though he was surrounded by people who loved him sincerely like his mother, his sister, and Louisa, he felt that his present life was not what he really was.

“The thing is, i get that this could be a good life. I get it with you around, perhaps it could even be a very good life. But it's not my life. I am not the same as these people you speak to. It's nothing like the life I want. Not even close." (Moyes 1066)

Social status of the character
Before his accident, William Traynor is depicted as a successful businessman that comes from a wealthy family. This thing is lead him to be a high class person who lives in luxury. He likes to travel and skiing. After he is hit by motorcycle and becomes paralaysed, he cannot travel, skiing, and even work anymore. He just stayed at his family big castle with his caretakers. Even though he is paralysed now, but it does not affect his social status because he comes from a rich family. He is still the rich and high class man. The difference is that after being paralyzed he cannot work again as a businessman or doing something without the help from people who take care of him.

“The difference between growing up like me and growing up like Will was that he
wore his sense of entitlement lightly. I think if you grow up as he had done, with wealthy parents, in a nice house, if you go to good schools and nice restaurants as a matter of course, you probably just have this sense that good things will fall into place, that your position in the world is naturally an elevated one.” (Moyes 152)

Social relationship of the characters
Before he was paralyzed, he was an active person and very sociable. In the first, his life seemed perfect but after the accident, his life turns miserable. However, because of his disappointment with his condition , he chooses to isolate himself from the world by pushing away all the people from his himself. Even, he pushed away his ex girlfriend and his best friend, Alicia and Rupert. For months Alicia tries to be near Will in his hard time, but Will always push her away.
“She looked at me hard then, and I realized that what I felt probably showed on my face. I have never been much good at hiding my feelings. “I know what you‟re thinking,” she said, after a pause. “But I did try. I really tried. For months. And he just pushed me away.” Her jaw was rigid, her expression oddly furious. “He actually didn‟t want me here. He made that very clear.” She seemed to be waiting for me to say something. “It‟s really none of my business,” I said, eventually. We both stood facing each other. “You know, you can only help someone who wants to be helped,” she said.” (Moyes 172)

STATIC OR DYNAMIC CHARACTER
Based on the analysis above, Will is a dynamic character. Despite the changes in circumstance, even physical circumstance, do not apply unless they result in some changes within the characters themselves. As we can infer from the characterization, Will’s general life and motivation, even personality changed after the accident. As he mentioned, “But it's not my life. I am not the same as these people you speak to. It's nothing like the life I want. Not even close."

CONCLUSION

The author portrays disability in form of Will, a charming man whose life turned upside down after a motorbike accident. After the accident which caused him to be a quadriplegic, he becomes bitter and snarky contrasting to his previous life. On the other hand, the author portrays Will to be suicidal and firm on his decision to end his life by assisted suicide.This portrayal gives another bleak views on disability and disabled characters. However, the author gives another twist that Will comes from a wealthy family and was still wealthy despite his condition. This background seems to differ with common perception that being disable goes hand in hand with being poor. From other characters, the author is also tries to portray that being disabled is still stigmatized as seen from how the other characters perceive Will during the first time of interaction. Even will himself tried to conform to the general perception of being disabled especially as quadriplegic. In this story, Will is a dynamic character because his life, motivation and personality has changed due to his physical situation.