The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Bauby opens this chapter by recounting the day that his wheelchair arrived in his hospital room. On that day, a bevy of white-coated medical staff, including nurses, orderlies, a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, a psychologist, a neurologist, interns, and even the department head arrive in his room for the unveiling of the chair. Bauby, however, confesses that he could not make the connection between the wheelchair and himself, and instead thought that he was being ejected from his room to make room for another patient. Because no one had yet clearly articulated his situation to him, he had clung to the belief that he would soon very quickly recover his ability to move and speak.Rather than thinking about such a thing as a wheelchair, his mind was occupied with “a thousand projects: a novel, travel, a play, marketing a fruit cocktail of [his] own invention” (8).

On this day, the members of the medical staff dress him by painfully manipulating his limbs into clothing. Two attendants then lift him from the bed by his shoulders and feet, and dump him “unceremoniously into the wheelchair” (8). It is through these occurrences that Bauby realizes that he has crossed the threshold into being a full-fledged quadriplegic, rather than merely a patient with an uncertain prognosis. Sardonically, he remarks that the medical staff came close to applauding this moment, which he clearly recalls with grief that is, notwithstanding, laced with his unique levity and wit. He recounts his feelings of utter devastation as the medical staff pushes him all the way across the medical floor to check for any spasms the chair and movement might trigger. He laments his physical helplessness and fully realizes his new life as a paralyzed person who uses a wheelchair. He reveals that he sees the wheelchair as a life sentence, and that the realization of the truth of his new life is “as blinding as an atomic explosion and keener than a guillotine blade” (9).

Then, the numerous medical professionals suddenly leave his room, and the orderlies lay him back in bed. He closes the chapter on a melancholic note—recalling the abandoned wheelchair in the corner of the room, his father’s favorite quiz show on the television, and the streak of rain on his windows.