Participants: Lily Sportsman (note taker), Daniella Colon-Cosme, Brianna Fridriksson, Arden Jones
Arden- Arthur Radley is portrayed as a hero within the story but his only rule in the story seems to be an advocate for the disabled and to bring this into conversations throughout the town but fades into the background when he is finished
Brianna- I am glad he was not killed off within the story as being a disabled character, it is easy as a reader to develop a “softness” for Arthur such as how one would feel towards Scout as a character (almost like a protagonist), Arthur seems more as a misunderstood character but more so than Scout being misunderstood
Arden- People treat Arthur relatively better than if he was say, black and disabled but is treated more with a certain amount of respect being from what family he belongs to
Brianna- If Tom Robinson was treated like Arthur was the story itself would have taken a whole other route
Arden- If Tom was in the place of Arthur he still would have taken the fall for many of the consequences within the story just because he was a black individual
Brianna- Everyone would have just assumed that Tom was a dangerous character even if he had been playing out the same roles that Arthur was taking on throughout the story
Lily- The fact that Arthur comes from a prominent, well respected and white family of the town gives him an automatic sense of respect even as a misunderstood character who is the unfortunate victim of many horror gossip stories that are created around him
Arden- I’m not entirely sure what disability Bibi had but it sounded maybe like epilepsy? There could be some type of triggers that those around her may not be familiar with
Brianna- I’m in the same boat about not being too sure about what disability she may have but in the first paragraph telling us about what she went through made me a little nervous to find out about what we were about to read
Lily- The fact that exorcisms are still the number one choice for some people, even now in modern times instead of looking into other avenues of help is incredibly eye opening but also incredibly sad that certain forms of disabilities could be viewed as some sort of devil possession
Arden- During the time period of the reading it makes more sense for the exorcism just because of how little information was available about certain disabilities and the skewed beliefs towards certain types of possessions
Brianna- Even within the last two years the amount of knowledge that has been gathered is incredible in terms of understanding certain disabilities, and the strides made towards making disabilities into less of a scary and taboo subject- it’s not something to be ashamed of anymore
Arden- The fact that the reading made it seem like disabilities could be “passed on” or “caught” from someone who has a disability was so aggravating while I was reading it and the lack of information surrounding the topic
Lily- It’s incredibly obvious of the cultural aspects that have influence over Bibi’s experiences and how different the thought processes can be based on which culture you personally come from and those you are most familiar with
