Diving Bell & The Butterfly #1

a.) 'Locked-in' syndrome is the condition when the body is completely paralyzed, but the mind is unhindered. Most patients suffering from 'locked-in' syndrome retain a small amount of movement in either the eye, finger, or other small extremity. It is considered a prison because the patient has no way to communicate with anyone around him. The butterfly in "The Diving Bell & The Butterfly" is Bauby's imagination. Bauby can do more or less anything he wants in his imagination unhindered by his present condition.

b.)Bauby wakes up from a week long coma, only to realize that he is now incapable of any form of communication. He is unable to move anything but his eye, and Bauby comes to the slow realization that he will never do anything he one enjoyed again.

c.)Bauby's progress should be measured just as any patients progress would be. Though physical and speech therapy, Bauby may regain simple functions, such as the ability to swallow and having his feeding tube removed. Bauby is able to escape the depression that his condition induces by dreaming and more or less living in his imagination.