I chose the movie I am Sam to challenge my own opinion on how people with disabilities should be treated under certain circumstances. I am Sam is a movie about a mentally challenged man, named Sam, striving to raise his daughter, Lucy, alone. Diagnosed with Autism, Sam’s intellectual capacity cannot exceed the age of 7. As we watch Lucy grow up under Sam’s roof, we are able to see the love they have for each other. When Lucy reaches the age of 8, social workers see this as an issue, so they place Lucy in a temporary home while Sam goes to court to try to win Lucy back. Sam’s lawyer, Rita, took this “pro bono” case to impress her coworkers. At first, Rita doesn’t believe Sam is capable of raising Lucy along with the social workers who …show more content…
As Sam and Rita are preparing for the trial, Sam states that he feels he is smarter than Lucy in some ways. He then tells Rita he is in some ways smarter than her, too. Here, Sam is displaying the confident side of himself. On the other hand, Sam seemed to parallel my assumption that disabled people can be fragile in ways that are not related to their disability. We see this after Sam loses hope of winning his case as he says to Rita, “You don't know what it’s like when you try and you try and you don't ever get there! Because you were born perfect and I was born like this. People like you don't know what it’s like to get hurted, because you don't have feelings. People like you don't feel anything!” Many people tend to perceive disabled people lacking emotion or feeling, or that their emotion is just part of their disability. It seems that Sam thinks that feeling sad is part of his disability, but what he doesn’t know is that everyone experiences intense emotions. He lacks the realization that anybody getting their child taken away from them would have feelings similar to his. His statement raised questions in my mind about how all disabled people perceive able bodied people. Sam also displayed one of my assumptions that “disabled people are more comfortable around each other compared to being with abled people”. Sam’s best friends in the movie all happen to be disabled in some way as
The credibility of being a disability rights lawyer demonstrates strong ethos throughout the article presented by McBryde Johnson. She has the personal experiences of being disabled. She is an expert witness with lived experiences that add to the ethos of her argument. This use of double ethos gives her the credibility that others do not possess. This allows her to talk about her situations with personal knowledge of the subject matter. With personal experience, she has knowledge surrounding the issue allows the audience to accept what she has to say. For example, McBryde Johnson and her followers explain how disabled people can live relatively happy lives compared to those people without a disability. “The presence or absence of a disability does not predict quality of life” (McBryde Johnson 3). Demonstrating that people with disabilities can have a high quality of life, as said before, gives McBryde Johnson credibility to further support her argument. McBryde Johnson is a lawyer who exhibits a high intelligence and also deals with the state legislators in disability activism. For example, she helped pass a bill with the hope of moving toward a world where killing is not such an appealing
Lost in a Desert World relays the story of the life of Roland Johnson, a man born with an intellectual disability and placed in an institution who eventually went on to be the president of Speaking for Ourselves, a group that encourages those with disabilities to stand up for themselves and their rights. This memoir offers a rare first-person, nonfiction account of the life and experiences of someone with an intellectual disability. Though filled with the harsh realities of the treatment of those with intellectual disabilities, the book is also one of passion, strength, and hope.
The moment she got trampled under the stomps and shoves of others, one could identify what she’d been feeling like previously - a witness to her own inconvenience. This incident not only exemplifies but also symbolizes the burden she feels having been born handicapped, unable to provide assistance or gain to the world. These feelings Adahs has for her life are later rebutted by her longstanding dreams of attending medical school and improving science. By achieving her academic potential, she finally recognized herself as an important asset to the world- no longer being seen as handicapped, physically or mentally.
The name of the film selected for this case study is I am Sam. (2002) The protagonist of the film is Sam Dawson, who is played by the actor Sean Penn. Sam Dawson is a developmentally or intellectually challenged adult male, who has a young daughter, primary school aged, named Lucy. Sam and Lucy live together without her mother, who is a homeless person. There is not extensive information provided in the film regarding Sam's upbringing, but based on his present situation, he is a well adjusted person in a middle class atmosphere. It seems he has enough assets to provide for himself and his daughter in a fairly independent basis. His daughter, Lucy, is happy and taken care of, but the tension begins when Lucy exceeds Sam's mental capacity. Her peers ridicule her and her father because of his intellectual deficiencies, calling him a "retard." The character's family consists of Lucy primarily, and some of Sam's other disabled friends who all help each other. One of Sam's greatest and most prominent "likes" is that he is a huge fan of the band The Beatles. One of his strengths is his love for his daughter. Another strength, although it is perceived as a weakness by others who might prey on him, is that he goes through life with a sense of awe and naivete. Of course, this is a result of his disability, but even still, he could have
In this clip, the representational issue of disability is displayed through the juxtaposition of Ben, who is mentally disabled and his brother, who is able and seen to be more mature and responsible. The whole clip demonstrates continuity editing as each scene is followed by another creating a sense of reality and time moving forward.
The difficulties faced today in society by those with serious intellectual disabilities are very large hurdles faced by many in today 's world. These disabilities along with the pressure to remain independent question how we deal with those intellectually challenged individuals. The film, I Am Sam details the struggle of Sam Dawson- a man living with mild intellectual disabilities- and his fight to maintain custody of his young daughter. This film details many different important psychological principles that are taught and studied in modern psychology. These principles are brought up and make us question the validity and extent of principles that are held sacred in the psychological world today.
The characters in the story “The Life You Save May be Your Own” show people with different kinds of disabilities, whether it be a physical disability or a mental disability. Each character shows disabilities that make them isolated from the society and cause them to lose something important in the future. Lucynell has a clear physical disability given from the beginning of the story, but her disability actually emphasizes her innocence compared to other characters in the story. Tom Shiftlet also has a physical disability but shows more of his mental disability where he shows sides of a hypocrite and along with great obsession. Mrs. Crater, similarly to Tom, shows great obsession and greed but in the ends fails to gain what she really wants to and loses what is important to her.
On April 11th, I attended SOAR’s People First Neenah-Menasha program. This program is an advocacy program and it teaches individuals with developmental disabilities how to address their own needs within their communities. There are higher functioning and lower functioning participants in this advocacy group, but it was amazing to see how these individuals understood the concept of social justice. The participants address their rights as human beings when they encounter unethical situations in their own communities. This program teaches the participant’s the skill of self-advocacy and it enhances their self-determination. On this day one of the participants referred to an event that SOAR and at this event a participants rights were violated.
Disability has appeared frequently in recent films (Byrd & Elliot, 1988), a reflection of society’s interest in the subject. These films often misrepresent disability using stereotypes. These stereotypes reinforce negative and incorrect social perceptions of, and attitudes towards,
When discussed what, it means to be a discriminated or oppressed as an individual, especially a person with an intellectual disability, we must first look at the terminology and how it will be relatable for their circumstances. For discrimination, it is described as people or groups of people, which include race, class, gender, age, sexual orientation, who are and continued to be defined as “other,” when they are perceived through “dominant” group values. These groups are treated in exclusionary ways, and subjected to all kinds of social injustice and economic inequality, (Anderson & Collins, 2013). In other words, persons with intellectual disabilities tend to be treated less favorable, or not given
“I am Sam” is a great movie to watch in diversity class. It focuses on a diversity issue that is overlooked in society today. The main issue of the movie was that the main character Sam has an Intellectual disability and he is struggling to take care of his daughter. Intellectual disability is a disability that interferes with a person’s cognitive abilities and the functions they use in everyday life. This includes everything from their social skills to the way they behave (Chadwick, Wesson, & Fullwood, 2013).
Peter, a boy diagnosed with Down Syndrome, was first seen filmed as a third-grader entering his first year in a general classroom rather than one with only students with disabilities. “Educating Peter,” was a film made in 1992 following Peter’s journey being the first child with a severe mental disability, to be included in a general classroom at his elementary school. Elementary school was a challenge for Peter, his parents and his teachers. However, as Peter continues to get older, the film “Graduating Peter,” showcases the story of Peter’s academic accomplishments and struggles as he prepares to graduate from high school. A particular part of the video that stood out to me was when Peter’s mother talked about the loss of control she
The Without Pity movie and the disability awareness activity were extremely eye opening to the hardships of living daily that many people face. The movie, although more than a decade old, was still completely relevant to the obstacles that people with disabilities and their families go through on a daily basis. The movie showed that life can throw all kinds of difficulties to people and they will still rise above and conquer them. The awareness activity was a bit more light hearted than the movie, but still completely relevant. I had to wrap my dominant arm, to prevent it from being used, and complete what seemed like trivial simple tasks such as eating lunch and writing. Coming from a person who never had to endure a brief disability, it
It was warm that day. I walked to the bus with my hands shaking and eyes wide. I knew this was going to be a big day for me but I had no idea that Saturday would be the first day of the rest of my life. At first glance, this may seem like a big statement but my first day of volunteering with Camp A.N.C.H.O.R. (Assisting the Needs of Citizens with Handicaps through Organized Recreation) sent me on a journey with social justice that I am still taking. At 16 years old I thought I was going to go in and change lives but, the individuals I met ended up changing mine. I didn’t know what I was doing or much about the populations I was dealing with. However, I did know the individuals I was working with were incredibly funny, smart, talented, and had so much going for them except for one thing, their disability. I realized that these individuals were being portrayed as incompetent, unintelligent, and incapable because of one small aspect of their life. After speaking to some of their parents over the course of two years, I realized the immense difficulties these families go through. My initial reaction was anger, and then it dawned on me. If I want people to treat me like an individual and give me full human rights, have access to a public education, not receive discrimination during job interviews, they should have the exact same rights. This is not something they choose to take on each day. It is a part of their life that they deal with everyday as so many of us do with other
In reviewing the required videos and reading on low incidence, there were a large range of how it affected individuals are processed by individuals without disabilities, these videos demonstrates what it is like to try to be normal with a disability. The first video called, Autistic Basketball Player,” presented an enlighten outcome, that people should not assume that individual with disability are not able to contribute to a job or sport. Jason Mcelwain’s a young man with Autism that id given to chase an individual with a disability self-worth is just as valuable as the rest of the team when it come to sport. The second video called, “Breaking Barriers of Autism: The power of Kindness and friendship present how individuals with disabilities are able to leap bounties id one person will acknowledge them. In his lecture he was able to present insight on how lonely it is on another side of the disability spectrum.