christy brown

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Recommended: Human with disabilities in life essay

Since most of the movies I have seen focusing on people with disabilities have been created in recent years, I was surprised that this one came to be 25 years ago. I was also surprised and excited that it was a movie about an adult. It seems to me that society stops caring about those with disabilities once they reach an age where they are no longer ‘cute.’ When they are little and cuddly, people want to play with them and help them, but the older they get the less society wants to do with them.
At the very beginning of the movie we are introduced to Christy Brown, a man living with cerebral palsy. It was unclear to me for a large portion of the movie what was going on, but I eventually came to realize that in present day his nurse was reading the autobiography he wrote and we as viewers were living through the scenes as she read them.
When Christy is born, the movie shows that his father goes to a bar because he is asked if they’re going to put Christy into a home because of his disabilities. His father makes a comment about how he won’t be having any more kids after this messed up one and gets into a fight at the bar. He is very obviously upset by the condition of his son.
As Christy gets a little older, he watches his siblings learn and takes information in, though those around him are not aware. At one point a piece of chalk falls off the table and Christy picks it up with his foot, attempting to draw with it. His family doesn’t think anything of it and moves along with their life, to his obvious disappointment. A little later on he gets to another piece of chalk and draws what at first seems to be a triangle. His family starts to guess, so he erases part of it and turns it into an A. When they realize that he wrote the l...

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...d. As his nurse at the benefit, she is responsible for watching over him and then bringing him out when it is his turn. She reads his book and talks with him while they wait, and he challenges her to think about how she feels about the man she is dating. When the time comes for her shift to end and her to leave for her date, my heart began to hurt again for him since he put himself out there again. However, she doesn’t end up leaving and comes back to him, eventually marrying him.
There were so many parts of this movie that were interesting to me that wouldn’t fit in this short paper. While I didn’t love it, I did enjoy it and seeing the life of an adult with disabilities from their perspective. The oldest person with CP I have worked directly with is 19 and significantly more functional than Christy, so I enjoyed seeing how he overcame the obstacles in his life.

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