Marcus Meisel , 8C

my left

foot

                by  Christy Brown 

 

 

Author:

  

                     "My Left Foot" was written by Christy Brown, who was born in 
Doublin, Ireland, in the Rotunda Hospital, on June 5

th

 1932. 

His father was a bricklayer in Doublin, his mother housewife. He was one of 
22 children, but he was a victim of cerebrial palsys what means that he could 
not control his speech properly or his movement, apart from his left foot. To 
have the possibility of communication through his left foot, enabled him to 
become a great writer and  painter. He typed  this autobiography with his left 
foot. 
He later wrote an autobiographical novel, " Down all the Days", which was 
very successful. Other novels written by him are " A Promising Career","A  
Shadow on Summer" and "Wild Grow the Lilies", and he also published his 
poetry in "Collected Poems". 
He died in 1981. 

 

Published :

  

                            It´s aMinerva Book, published by Mandarin Paperbacks in 
1990. It was first published in Great Britain 1954 by Martin Secker & 
Warburg Limited. The book was reisussed  and reprinted in 1994. 

Type of book:

  

                                 

It is an autobiography, in a simple but meaningful language. 

"My Left Foot" is a book to be read many times and cherished forever. 
" One of the literary greats of the modern age" - Irish Times

 

" Riveting, funny and inspiring" - Irish Times

 

" A story of courage that is wise and in no way morbid" - Sunday Times

 

 

Subject:

  

                    It´s the autobiography about the development of a child, born 
with a  terrible physical disablement, cerebral palsy,  in a poor  Irish family, 
until a famous author and painter. First in his country and then all over 
Europe. 
The setting of the story is located in Dublin, Ireland, ina very small one 
storeyed building with a small garden.  
It is the story of how Christy Brown fought his way through his life. 
Although he had this disablement, he rose his family into a higher standard of 
living. 
Christie is kind of stubborn and that´s why he never gives up like his mother. 

The most important persons:

 

 
Christy Bown:  

He was a person who tried to proof everybody that he was 

something better than most of the people thought of him and he had not given 
up in any part of his life. As a child he got a lot of support by his mother who 
believed in him, although he wasn´t able to communicate, or even to show 
that he understood what he saw, heard or felt.This was a hard time for his 
mother , his family and of cours, for himself, to be unable to get out of his 
own skin. 
As he saw the chalk, he saw his future in front of him. He recognized that this 
was a chance, the only chance, to get rid of the bandages he got at his birth. 
Christy is a stubborn person, but he always thinks first at his mother and his 
family before he decides to do something extraordinary , e.g. to go in an 
expensive hospital or make trips. So he is an almost  perfect social person, at 
least in his family. 

Christy´s Mum:

 She was the mother of 22 born children. 17 lived,four died 

in infancy, and her tenth child was born with cerebral palsy. 
She had black hair, sparkling blue eyes and  lightness of step. She was 
unconquerable.Christy´s Mum was a very good character.She was very social, 
tried to help her family where she could, a perfect mother and also very 
religious. Mrs. Brown believed in Christie, that he was not an idiot, and that 
only his body was shattered, not his mind. 
Although she got no proof for her instinct she made everything  possible for 
Christyand that besides her other children. She was such a good mother 
because she could feel the half of what her children, especially Christy, felt. 

Christy´s Dad:

 Christy´s father was a bricklayer in Dublin. He didn´t have 

much time for his wife nor his children but although he had not much time he 
cared for them whenever possible.He was very proud of his children, all of 
them! He was the one  earning the money for the family, so he was the main 
person in the house.What he ordered or said, had to be done. 
He also was the idol of his sons.  All of them but Christy, got bricklayers 
 too. 

Christy´s brothers:

 Tony, Peter, Paddy, Jim, Eamon, Seán, Francis and 

Danny. 

Christy´s sisters:

 Lily, Ann, Peggy and Mona. 

Tony:

 He was a wild kid. He was always getting into trouble, at home and 

outdoors. He was a bit of a Romeo. He had all the girls in the neighbourhood 
running after him, though he didn´t care a rap for any of them, not even for 

Nancy

 who was considered the belle of the place. Tony was  the most 

handsome of the whole Brown Family. He was a tall swallowfaced young 
fellow, very strong, very quicktempered, with curly black hair, big hands and 
white teeth that flashed when he smiled or laughed. 
Everyone was a little in awe of him, and Christy made him his first hero, also 
because he was never afraid to speak with his fists as a last opportunity. 

Peter:

 One of Christy´s little brothers, one year younger. He was Christy´s 

favourite brother because being almost the same age, they could hit and shout 
each other without any restraint, and thus Peter came to know Christy better 
than any of  the other siblings.But  Peter  changed with the years, he became  
more dignified and  a lot more inaccessible for Christy. Peter tried to play the 
mouth organ in his spare time. 

Lily:

 She was one of Christy´s sisters. In the beginning she was a little dark 

haired girl  who often wheeled  her brother through the neighbourhood, 
through the banks of the canal. She put pennies on his eyes to get him 
asleep.She was like a little mother  for Christy and the other children and 
helped Mrs. Brown where she could.  
When she grew older, she became a woman, engaged to be married. 

Mona:

 One of Christy´s sisters. As a girl she was plump, fluffy-haired and 

small with fat cheeks and pudgy hands. With 17 already she changed into a 
pretty young lady with lipstick and powder and enormous high-heels. She had  
various dates, almost every night, and she loved to go dancing better than 
anything else. 

Eamon:

 He was six years younger than Christy. Eamon started writing for 

Christy when he was twelve, after Christy had helped him with his 
homework.Eamon is a nice character. 

Seán:

 Another brother, he also helped Christy in writing down what he was 

dictated . Seán helped Christie in maths and algebra too, because he was very 
good at maths  at school.So he did all the "dirty work" for Chrity who only 
corrected the answers. 

Francis:

 He was a short-trousered schoolboy, as he started writing for 

Christy, but he was different form Eamon and Seán, who just wrote down 
what Christy said. He thought about what he wrote, and critizised Christy. 

Sally and Charly:

 At a Hallowe'en party they got tricked by Christy.As 

they were loving each other in the bathtub , he turned on the water and got out 
of the pantry before he could be seen by one of them. 
Charly had hob-nailed boots, and he was  a sissy to stay with a girl rather than  
with the other boys.Sally had tawny curls, was twelve years old and had red 
cheeks. 
 Neither Sally nor Charly ever came to Christy´s house after that again. o 

"Henry":

 Was the old go-car of Christy. He gave his go-car the name after 

his eighth birthday. It was an ugly  battered old thing that nobody ever treated 
well. It was always being kicked, knocked over, shoved about and trampled 
on. Everybody joked about it. But for Christy it was something loveable, 
almost human. 
Old "Henry", as Christy called him, was his throne. 

Katriona Delahunt:

 She was a young girl when Christy met her first, 

about 18. She was slim and tall, lovely and  moreover had a lovely smile. 
Katriona was an almoner´s student at the Rotunda Hospital. That´s why she 
came to know about Christy. She met Christy´s mother there and learnt about  
him and his left foot painting.Kateriona helped Christy in the lifetime, when 
he needed someone like her very  much. 
She was Christy´s first dream girl.She was a person for whom Christy would 
have done everything. After her marriage she became Mrs. Maguire, and 
Christy was very jealous of her husband.  

Jenny:

 She was Christy´s second dream girl. She was not that tall and 

beautiful as Katriona, but more Christy´s age.  
She lived a few doors away from the Brown Family. She was small, 
energetic,gory, she had a mass of brown curls and an elfin face with lively 

green eyes and pouting lips. Unfortunately Jenny was a coquette; she start a 
riot among all the boys  in Christy´s street by just using her lovely eyes in the 
right way. 

"Cherry Ripe":

 She was the nurse on the plane to Lourdes. Christy gave 

her this nickname. She had dark eyes, fair hair with golden curls and a sweet 
smile. He met her on the trip  to Lourdes, and had never seen her again, 
although he gave her his address that she could get her picture he painted for 
her. 

Dr Robert Collis:

 He was a well built, friendly man, with grey-green eyes, 

which seemed to Christy, could look into a person while observing the 
outside.  
Dr. Collis saw Christy as a baby and later at a film-show.So he searched for 
him to tell him that he knew a treatment against cerebral palsy. He was the 
founder of the Merrion Street Clinic and chief of the Cerebral Palsy 
Association of Ireland. He was not only a doctor but also a famous author. 

Mrs. Eirene Collis:

 She was the sister-in-law of Dr.Collis. She lived and 

worked as a well-known specialist in cerebral palsy in London. She was a 
small thin woman with greying hair, a handsome face and a light springy step. 
Her slow smile, her complete naturalness and casual manners made Christy, 
as he met her the first time, feel secure. 

Dr Louis Warnants:

 A young man, tall, handsome, with a certain military 

bearing that impressed even while it subduded Christy a little. He was slow 
and deliberate in his movements and his whole manner suggested an easy 
confidence that communicated itself to those about him. He also was a very 
nice gentleman  and his manners were impenable. 
Dr. Warnants drew up a special line of treatment for Christy at home, as long 
as there was no special clinic built. 

Mr. Gallagher:

  He was young, small-sized, with sandy hair and a thin 

pleasant face. He and Christy became very good friends. He helped Christy a 
great deal in his struggle, Christy  connected his name with something 
friendly, understanding. 

Sheila:

 She had fair hair. She was a little above average height, brown 

haired and green-eyed. Her features were of almost classical beauty;they 
seemed so clear-cut to Christy as he saw her first in the clinic, so finely 
chiselled and defined as to have been sculptured out of pure white 

marble.Sheila was the most beautiful girl Christy had ever seen. She was a 
university graduate. 

Mr. Guthrie:

 He was a short stocky freshcomplexioned man of about 

middle age, with keen blue eyes and a humurous mouth. His movements were 
deliberate and precise. His arched eyebrows were expressive, his whole face 
seemed lit with a keen intelligence and a keener sympathy. He had a deep 
resonant voice.  
Mr.Guthrie was Christy´s teacher. The relationship that grew between them 
was friendly, practical and unassuming. 

Miss Dorothy Henderson:

 She was physiotherapist in the Merrion Street 

Clinic. She was a very important little person and very charming too. She had 
an agile mind, that took everything in. 

Other persons:

 Bernie, Dr. Mary O´Donnell, Miss Barbara  Allen, Mrs. 

France Prince, Dr.Patricia Sheehan, Miss Joyce McCroy, Miss Una Kennedy, 
Sid Mac-Keogh, Robbie Collis, Mr. John Huston, Burl Ives. 
 
 

Plot synopsis:

 

                                  Christy Brown had a difficult birth in the Rotunda 
Hospital on June 5

th

,1932.  He and his mum almost died but they survived 

both. Christy was not baptized until his mother was well enough to bring him 
to church.  
Four months after Christy´s birth his mum noticed that his head had a habit of 
falling backwards. She became aware of other diseases later on. At Christy´s 
twelfth month Mrs.Brown told her husband about it. They began to take him 
to hospitals and clinics. 
Although all doctors told Christy´s parents that he was dumb and crippled , a 
lost case, his parents, especially his mum, believed in her son. They agreed 
that they would treat their son on the same plane like the others.  
The first years were a hard time for the whole family and again esp. For Ch´s 
mum. She tried to teach him animal-, flower-, and person names out of 
picture books. As she got no sign of understanding from her son, she almost 
gave up. As friends of the family started to speak of an institution, Mrs. 
Brown insisted on her son not being an idiot. She told them that his body was 
shattered not his mind. 

With five years, in the afternoon of a cold, grey December day, Christy 
Showed his family  the first time that he had  besides his body also an 
intelligence. He took the yellow chalk out of his sister´s hand - with his left 
foot - and drew with the chalk between  the toes of his left foot on the floor. 
Everybody looked at him as if he were the Eighth World Wonder. 
His sister Mona drew an "A" in front of him and told him to copy. After a few 
tries Christy Did it. He drew the letter "A". His mother started to teach him 
the whole alphabet. Soon he was able to write his initials (C B) and his first 
word by his own. He learnt many words of objects he saw and every word he 
learnt he showed his mother. There was one word that made Mrs. Brown 
proud of her son: MOTHER. 
When Christy was seven, his brothers took him out with them, so that Christy 
Could start to associate with children of his age. His brothers pushed him 
through the streets by a rusty old go-car they called  his "chariot".CHRISTY 
loved his go-car, so he named it " Henry". 
The kids of the Brown Family and the other kids from the same street played 
many games together and had a lot of fun. Once, at Hallowe'en  Night, 
when Christywas eight, and Mr.and Mrs. Brown were out, the kids made a 
little party with some pals. When they played hide-and-seek, Sally told Mona 
that she would  hide herself in the pantry where noone would dream of 
looking for. Christy heard that and crawled there as quickly as possible 
because he wanted to play a trick on Sally. 
After one of the boys,Charly, got in the pantry too, Christy Turned on the 
water when both, Charly and Sally were in the bath. 
Christy Mother tried to get her son interrested in catechism, but that never 
appealed to him as much as the story of King Lir for example. Christy also 
liked watching a movie in the cinema. His brothers carried him on their back 
there. Once Peter pinched a pack of cigarettes from his father and he and his 
brothers smoked it in the cinema. They also gave Christy One but he ate the 
cigarete and grinned, waiting for more. He got no more. 
When Christy Was about 8 a half when he and his brothers made a little trip 
to the near canal to swim. Christy's brothers placed him on a point where he 
could see all that went on. 
Suddenly Christy Felt the same way as he had felt on the day when he first 
drew the letter "A" - a queer eagerness, an unconscious determination to do 
what others were doing. So Tony helped him. Jim borrowed him his togs, 
Tony wrapped them round Christy And finally swung him into the canal. 

Christy Did quite well, and it wasn't his last swim for he had many others in a 
little rocky stream which they discovered one summer in a wood. 
One day Henry broke down: the axle snapped, the seat collapsed and nobody 
could do anything with it. With that Christy's life changed a lot. He started 
thinking. He now realized that he was somehow different from the others. He 
was about ten years old as he thought about that he was a cripple.  
ChristyStarted to compare his body parts with those of his siblings.  
A few weeks after this Mrs.Brown managed to buy Christy a new car but 
taking CHRISTY out was not the same as before. He became more sensitive, 
more apprehensive to those he met outside his home. He had become a 
spectator instead  of one of the participants.  
So Christy went out no more, except once or twice a year. Christy's mum 
noticed the change of her son , Christy was sure she knew why, but she said 
nothing. She understood him better than anyone else . Ch: was ten and a half 
and beginning to sink deeper and deeper into himself and nothing could rouse 
him.  
Then, one Christmas, Paddy got a box of paints and Christy a box of toy 
soldiers .At the moment Christy saw the paintbox he fell in love with it.  
Because Paddy didn't like the paints, they changed presents and both were 
happy. 
One quiet afternoon Christy started to paint. His mother got him some paper 
and water. He found a new way to communicate with the outside world. 
As time went on, he became more and more advanced in painting. He read 
books and practised a lot. When Christy was about eleven, his mother became 
ill, and was shifted to the Rotunda Hospital, where a few weeks later she gave 
birth to her last child, a boy, completing the total of twenty-two. She 
remained ill.  
Without Mrs.Brown at home the house seemed to go dead.  
One day it knocked at the door and Miss Katriona Delahunt stood outdoors. 
She had heard at the hospital that Christy painted with his left foot and so  
wanted to meet Christy. She had also another motive in coming. Mrs.Brown 
was very worried about her family, so  Katriona came and made Christy to 
write a little note for his mum.  
Next time she came she brought a whole load of paints and brushes and 
drawing books along with the good news that Mrs.Brown was improving.  
Christy's mind began to stretch itself. He understood more about himself and 
the scenes that went on about him.  

Painting became one great love in his life. It was the fact that he painted ,not 
just to please himself, but to please someone else: the feeling of being useful. 
Most of the paintings from this time of his life he gave to Katriona, his dream 
girl. 
One day Christy read in the Sunday Independent of a painting contest. The 
task was to colour an ordinary black -and -white reproduction of  a grey 
ballroom scene with Cinderella and her Prince Charming.  
Christysaw the picture already finished before he started but he didn't want to 
have anything to do with the competition. As long as Miss Delahunt said he 
should. 
 It was an ultimatum for him. 
A few days later some reporters came to check out if it was true that Christy 
had painted the picture with his left foot. As they saw him on the kitchen 
table surrounded by his brushes and colours, they were convinced and took 
some pictures of him. Next Sunday Christy was in the newspapers, as winner 
of the drawing competition. 
With thirteen another dream girl had come into Christy's mind. Jenny. He 
worshipped her from his bedroom window, what made him lazy in painting. 
One day she smiled up to his window and after he had managed to smile 
back, she threw him a kiss. He took an old jotter and that's how the short 
relationship  started. They exchanged innumerable little notes and saw each 
other every Saturday night. 
One night Peter got suspicious and went outside. As he saw them together, he 
slammed the door angrily and in the following weeks he tried to discourage 
Christy by telling him many wicked tales about poor little Jenny. What he 
didn't know was that Jenny broke up  her relationship to Christy that evening 
he saw them. 
Christy didn't hear from her anything for a long time.  
Life at home was changing too. It seemed to Christy that everyone had grown 
up all of a sudden. His brothers became men, his sisters became women and 
before Christy knew it, he was fifteen. His mum managed to give a party 
where some of his old pals came along.  
Christy didn't like the party because it made him conscious that he was no 
longer a child but neither was he a grown-up. He realized that he was poised 
between the blissful ignorance of childhood and the awakening pain and 
frustration of adolescence. 

Christy went on painting but painting had also changed. He still liked it but 
he didn't love it any more. One day, in a fit of despair, he tried to jump out of 
his  bedroom window to kill himself. A short moment before he jumped , 
 he thought of Katriona Delahunt... He got down from the window and began 
to cry like a baby.  
A long time after Christy was sixteen,  a new idea invaded  his mind: to write 
stories, so he sat down with a sixpenny jotter and began to write down 
whatever came into his head. That's how he started writing stories. First 
American Wild West, then sentimental, and then detective thrillers. 
Short after Christy's seventeenth birthday Katriona Delahunt came once again 
to visit Christy but she had an enagement ring on her finger. Some months 
later, on a fine June morning, she married and was now no longer Miss 
Delahunt but Mrs. Maguire. Christy was very jealous of Mr. Maguire, a kind 
man. 
The months went by and family life kept changing. Christy felt more and 
more like in a prison at home. Then it happened. Mrs. Maguire came to him 
and said ," Christy, what about your going to Lourdes?"  
It was a great experience for Christy He really enjoyed Lourdes. He met a 
great number of people there but most of them were suffering. He saw that he 
was not the only person suffering in this world and that others had bigger 
pains than he had.  
But all this turned very fast only to be a memory. At  home he was 
surrounded, not by a great multitude of  the afflicted, but by his family, 
strong, healthy, normal individuals who made him feel rather like a puppet in 
contrast. Christy felt like a bird locked in his cage again.  
A few weeks later, on Thursday evening, doctor Collis appeared in Christy's 
life. He told him that there was a new treatment for cerebral palsy and that it 
was possible - if Christy wanted to - to be cured. The only thing was that 
Christy had to want to. This was no problem. 
Everybody in the Brown's house was happy. That night, before Christy went 
to sleep, he prayed a prayer of thankfulness - a repentance for having 
doubted. 
Next day his treatment started with Dr. Warnants who came to his home once 
a week. Dr. Warnants made Christy go through exercises and pointed out to 
him where he went wrong. After some weeks Dr.W. mentioned that either 
Christy grew too big or the house too small. 

Christy's mum knew that and so she started saving money and after she got 
apart of the money she needed to build a small house in the back yard, she 
simply started. When her husband and her sons came home from work, seing 
their mum doing their job, they told her to go back to her dishes and went on 
building Christy's house. If Christy's mum hadn't started, they would never 
have built the house. 
After being finished, the furniture moved in piece by piece and Christy started 
to live in there.He started to read because he had enough place for himself 
now. 
One day Dr.Collis decided to send Christy over to London to see Mrs. Eirene 
Collis ,a specialist on cerebral palsy, before starting a full-scale rehabilitation 
programme.  
Mrs.Collis decided on Christy's future and she decided that Christy would be 
healed if he wanted. But Christy had to give Mrs. Collis a promise. He had to 
promise that he would never use his left foot again.  
Back in Dublin agaib, his treatment in the clinic started. Although Christy 
was the oldest among the other children he started scaling the walls that 
surrounded him down. He was breaking lose from them. But Christy also 
realized that no matter how well he might conquer his handicap he would 
never be a normal individual leading a normal life because his lack of really 
"normal" human expression and relationship. 
One effect of the clinic upon Christy was that his mind was full of ideas and 
because he wanted to tell everybody about it, he thought about how to bring it 
to paper. He decided to let his brothers write for him down what he dictated 
them. As an exchange he helped them with their homework. 
So Christy started to write his autobiography. But it was everything else but 
perfect. Driven by this fact he wrote  his S O S letter to Dr.Collis and asked 
him for help. He came and helped where he could. In these times Christy 
became to know that Dr. Collis was also a famous author of some well-known 
books, to say, a teacher with experience. Dr.C. brought Christy some good 
books which he should read to improve his writing style. That helped. After 
reading many different books, after having received many lessons by Robert 
Collis, Robert mentioned that Christy's education was too tiny  to develop his 
talent. All education Christy ever had was learning the alphabet from his 
mother at the age of five. So Robert Collis organized a man to school Christy 
with the help of Katriona Maguire. It was Mr Guthrie who taught Christy in 

all different types of lessons. After this official  programme they stayed on for 
a while and discussed  many things.  
Because of talking much more and because of going through many exercises 
in the Bull Alley Street Clinic his speech had become much better and also 
his uncoordinated movements became less.  
Christy was not only improving his education but also working on his third 
version of "My Left Foot". 
One evening when Christy felt particularly isolated, he started to use his left 
foot again because he wasn't able to express his feelings in words any more. 
Dr.Collis saw this but said that that wouldn't matter if he only used this option 
in cases when he had to.  
After the third and final version of the first chapter was finished, Christy was 
about to hit the audience. Dr.Collis  got the chance to hokld a speech about 
cerebral palsy on the Burl Ives' Concert in Dublin. But instead of an ordinary 
speech he would like to read them the first chapter Christy's book. Christy 
gave his okay, also that he would be sitting near the podest, in front of the 
audience. 
And that was how it happened. Everybody in the audience listened fascinated 
to Dr.R.Collis's reading of a book written by a crippled person. After having 
finished and somebody had brought forward a huge bouquet of roses, the 
doctor stopped and took them. He walked over to Christy's mother and held 
up his hand. "I think you will agree, that there is only one thing to be done - 
Red Roses for Mrs.Brown! For you, Ma'am!" 

Ideas, opinions and comments:

 

 
I enjoyed the book because it was written very realistic and  truthful, 
but also moving and sometimes funny, in a way. While reading the 
book there is a constant romantic feeling as well. 
I can really recommend the book  to all people but they should be over 
the age of  15 or 16 so that they are able to understand the meaning 
of this book.