Write a 7 pages paper on the diving bell and the butterfly. The protagonist of the film has been shown to have a greatly determined character. Even his disabilities do not discourage him to give up his profession and he puts great efforts into learning a different way of communication. Before his illness, Bauby had been aspiring to write a contemporary version of a classical story of the 19th century. With the help of his speech therapist, he learns to speak through blinking and thus, is able to complete the book he had long wished to write before his death.

The helplessness of Bauby has been displayed through a series of varied scenes and images having a fixed and well – defined viewpoint of Bauby himself (Nowak 32). We, the viewers, witness the world the way he witnesses it and feels the anxiety and desperation as he feels it. Our visions focus and adjust the way he does and we are observed by the same professionals and introduced to the same group of family and friends as he is. This imagery along with softly spoken narration intensifies the process of realization and adjustment and makes us painfully obvious of the fact that Bauby is quite a rational fellow and all his predicaments are only on a physical level and none on the mental one.

Throughout the film, many characters of the variable nature tend to help Bauby with his needs and adjust properly after such intense suffering. All of them make their best efforts to maintain his dignity by blending in his visionary field (Nowak). We might find it surprising but not at all coincidental that most of these helping characters are professionals who are young and beautiful, something Bauby was once as well (David & Schnabel 12).

We also witness a trace of humor, although quite dry, in Bauby’s grudges of being too ill-fated to not have met such elegant ladies in his better times. Such thoughts raise the level of the film to a whole new degree as we realize along with Bauby that his paralysis has made exceptional chances of progression rather than degradation available to him (Bauby). This discovered optimism certainly adds more life to the rest of the story.

Moreover, the images that have been used to depict this tragic tale are quite provocative, stimulating, and powerful (David & Schnabel). In the film, the viewpoint occasionally shifts from the type of the main character to the rest of the members of the outside world. At such moments, we are able to catch glimpses of the heartbreaking appearance of Bauby. This also happens in scenes that show Bauby looking at his reflection in mirrors or glass panels (Nowak). This shifting of the point of view continues to increase with the progression of the film and helps in strengthening the bond binding us to Bauby.