My Left Foot

♦ THEMES AND CHARACTERS ♦

My Left Foot, published in 1954, tells of the childhood and adolescence of Christy Brown, the author. Though Brown is born with severe cerebral palsy, unable to communicate or control his movements, his mother believes that his mind is unaffected. Her confidence in Brown's growing abilities never falters as her son grows up and becomes increasingly aware of his physical disabilities.

♦ SETTING ♦

This autobiography is set in Dublin, Ireland, and almost the entire story takes place in the house where Christy Brown grew up. Aside from some play with his brothers, Brown almost never left his home as a child and teenager, and so the house dominates his autobiography. It becomes a metaphor for the disabled body in which Christy Brown lived: a body which sustained his able mind but did not allow him free movement.

It must have been a crowded house, with two parents and thirteen children. It cannot have been a large one, as when Brown (at eighteen years old) was doing exercises in the kitchen he would bang his leg on the fire-grate or his head on a chair. It was, however, a house that made him welcome. From his early childhood where he lay in the kitchen or garden, through the years where he crawled about and chalked on the floor or painted on papers tacked to the floor, till his family built him a large room of his own, this house was always a loving home but also a de facto prison with all the world outside.

The characters in Christy Brown's autobiography are his family, and the few volunteers and doctors he meets who take an interest in helping him. The father is hardworking and dour, but a considerate care-giver for his son. The mother is never idle, but always willing to give her time and attention to the son in whom she has confidence. Among Brown's twelve brothers and sisters, there are individual voices and natures for some in particular, mostly the older siblings. The younger ones are less clearly depicted. Descriptions of ordinary family dinners sound rather like the hullabaloo of a family reunion.

The main theme throughout is almost surprising�Brown describes himself, as a young child, as almost unaware of the extent of his different abilities from most of the people in their Dublin neighborhood. Increasingly he becomes aware and frustrated by his limited ability to move and communicate. His resentment grows to very nearly suicidal levels. It is through learning to communicate via painting, writing and increasingly fluent speech that Brown achieves some measure of peace.

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