"The Handicapped"

"The Handicapped" Randolph Bourne, 1911

 
  Randolph Bourne, born in 1886, was disfigured at birth and became further disabled after tuberculosis of the spine left his back twisted and stunted at a young age. His struggles to live with what life threw at him are documented in his essay “The Handicapped”. It is the story of how he fought his own insecurities as well as the prejudices of others to find happiness, becoming a man who has “come to count his deformity even as a blessing” (Bourne 68) because of the world view it gave him. Once Bourne found his true purpose in promoting his “belief in social progress as the first right and permanent interest for every truehearted man or woman” (Bourne 64), he wrote this essay to share his revelation with others. Bourne promotes the “ideal of character militant rather than long-suffering” so that those who find themselves disadvantaged in life due to circumstances out of their control can have hope. His loud and clear message proclaims that people can better their lives by consciously  choosing the way they think about themselves as well as their situation. To illustrate his rather complex philosophical points, Bourne employs rhetoric in the form of figurative language. He explains, “I want to give to the young men whom I see - who, with fine intellect and high principles, lack just that light of the future on their faces that would give them purpose and meaning in life -- to them I want to give some touch of this philosophy -- that will energize their lives, and save them from the disheartening effects of that poisonous council of timidity and distrust of human ideals which pours out in steady stream from reactionary press and pulpit” (Bourne 64), using metaphor and imagery to paint a picture of understanding for the reader. In honestly expressing how his own demons haunted him and how he overcame, Bourne’s essay causes the reader to turn inward to their own lives to see how they can achieve the sense of purpose that so powerfully drives him.

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