Diving Bell and the Butterfly Essay Example

no longer change. Another important use of time is stated when Bauby realizes where his life now lies. He realizes that his past life is over and this new life is all he has.

Bauby confirms this by saying, “I have indeed begun a new life, and that life is here, in this bed, that wheelchair, and those corridors. Nowhere else” (Bauby 129). Throughout this memoir, Jean Dominique Bauby depicts many scenes in which imagery is a major device. Bauby uses imagery to illustrate the scenes in Paris. He describes “the streets were decked out in summer finery” and depicts many images of the Paris scene (Bauby 78). Bauby says that nothing was missing, except himself. This use of imagery and overall scene shows

Bauby’s lost opportunity of how the city continued to grow and that he only wished he could have made a bigger impact. Another great use of imagery is illustrated when Bauby and his children visit the beach on Father’s Day. Bauby expresses the beach as “a transition between hospital and everyday life” (Bauby 70). The depiction of the beach relates to the pure beauty of the beach and Bauby’s lost chance to share that with his children in his past life. Foreshadowing is another literary device that relates to Bauby’s theme of lost opportunity. Foreshadowing occurs in multiple occasions while also tying in with the theme of lost opportunity.

Bauby always had the idea of creating a novel about a man with locked-syndrome, which is quite ironic and a bit of foreshadowing due to the fact that this is his same condition. The lost opportunity deals with the writing of his novel. Another instance

of foreshadowing occurs a week before Bauby’s stroke. Bauby helps his old-aged father to shave his face because his father can no longer do so without assistance. After Bauby’s stroke when he can no longer shave himself, he says, ““Now I am the one they shave every morning, and I often think of him while a nurse’s aide laboriously scrapes my cheeks with a week-old blade” (Bauby 45).

This bit of foreshadowing also reflects upon the lost opportunity of Jean Dominique and his father’s relationship. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is filled with rhetorical devices in which really point out the overall theme of lost opportunity and missed chances in Bauby’s past life. While reflecting on past memories and with his wide imagination, Bauby uses time, imagery, and foreshadowing to express exactly how he has missed out on opportunities.