Essay Questions

How does Baudy use humor and irony to cope with his seriously unfortunate situation?

Jean-Dominique Bauby utilizes humor and irony to adapt to his genuinely unfortunate circumstance. In moments when he winds up in physical or enthusiastic unrest, looking down the profound well of distress he could dive into at any moment, the main thing that pulls him once more from the brink is the practically humorous repulsiveness of what has come to pass for him. Bauby does not avoid those awkward, startling moments—rather, he decides to incline toward them and use them to challenge his reader's originations of the line that exists among tragedy and comedy.

What is the historical context of the ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’?

Bauby references numerous touchstones of French history and culture all through ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’: he envisions being a piece of the clique of Empress Eugénie, the patroness of the Berck-sur-Mer medical clinic and the spouse of Napoleon III. The hospital itself was established in the nineteenth century, and was utilized for a long time “principally for crippled children.” Bauby visited the Sanctuaires Notre-Dame de Lourdes, a significant Catholic journey site (and, in Bauby's estimation, an ostentatious sham) where a vision of the Virgin Mary, or the Madonna, had appeared to a lady in the middle of a grotto. Bauby likewise has a distinct place in history himself; as the widely acclaimed editor-in-chief of French Elle, he held a universally perceived job in the fashion community, and his stroke, takeoff, and demise changed the course of the magazine, however he left his permanent fingerprint of appeal, charm, style, and elegance on Elle for eternity.