Author: Arden Jones

Major Paper/Project Write-Up

            There is this restrictive ideology that those who are disabled, whether physically and/or mentally, are incapable of obtaining an ideal future for themselves. This mentality often robs the disabled community of many opportunities for them to follow and succeed in their aspirations. However, it does not completely prevent the many different communities of those with disabilities from achieving their dreams. For this assignment, I focused on the members of the autistic community. My goal was to create digital art posters depicting people on the autism spectrum who are leading active and successful lives whose contributions have enriched society. I hope to further convey to those who view these caricatures that the neurodiverse community are capable of so much than the limiting predetermined futures of “pain, isolation, and bitterness” that the neurotypical majority predicts (Kafer 2).

All the steps leading up to the final results were integral to the authenticity and significance of getting this message across. The first part of the process required research of famous autists. I expanded the field to throughout history, countries, and occupations. Finding autistics in the past turned out to be a lot harder than anticipated. Autism did not become a term until the early 1900s, so while there were many examples of prominent figures who have done extraordinary things in their lifetimes and that were speculated to be on the spectrum, I could not choose them as a focus on any of the posters since there is no way of officially diagnosing them. Even after the 1900s, where diagnosis of autism and access of information about it became more readily available to the public, I also could not pick those who self-diagnosed themselves. Unless they were officially diagnosed by a credible medical professional, I could not consider them for this project as a viable representation of those with autism “leading an engaging and satisfying life” (Kafer 2). After much research, I decided to illustrate Temple Grandin, Satoshi Tajiri, and Greta Thunberg. Once I had decided on who my muses would be, the next step of the process was to examine various photos of them to give me a few ideas for their sketches. I would then draw a few rough sketches that depicted them, and other props related to their respective professions. When I was satisfied with the concepts, I would then create the final sketches to be used as references for the digital drawings. Each of these individuals featured on the posters come from different places around the world and have unique jobs. Temple Grandin is a “professor of animal science” from Boston, Maryland who has reformed the methods conducted at slaughterhouses to make them more humane to the treatment of cattle (UMSL). Satoshi Tajiri, from Tokyo, Japan, transformed his hobby of bug collecting into the beloved world of Pokémon that continues to evolve and bring joy to all ages. Greta Thunberg, an environmental activist from Sweden, confronted the world leaders at the United Nations about climate change and the dire need for action against it.

            The significance of the final results of this project is that it removes autism from the “medical framework” that disability is often boxed into with this idea that whatever the impairment is must be cured or a “problem” that has “to be eradicated” (Kafer 9). Instead, the posters highlight the autists’ achievements within the frameworks of politics and social involvement. These posters are my counter-argument to those who are neurotypical and think that people on the autism spectrum have nothing but these “grim imagined futures” of being “abandon[ed]” by friends and family, “drug addiction,” and “suicide” (Kafer 1-2). People with autism are more than capable of making a lasting positive impact in society as well as leading their best lives.

Works Cited

Kafer. “Imagined Futures.” pp. 1–24.

Temple Grandin, www.umsl.edu/divisions/artscience/Temple%20Grandin/tempgrandin.html.

Arden’s Response to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden

In works of literature concerning racism, there is sometimes a white character, who is usually male, that does everything in their power to help an individual or a group of people of a different race. This is known as the White Savior archetype. As we have learned through most of the readings, this kind of character is also represented in books that feature one or more disabled characters. As far as I know, there does not seem to be a technical term for this archetype, but they do perpetuate this idea among nondisabled people that those with disabilities are incapable of helping themselves and require their able-bodied peers to save and/or cure them. Failure to do so would result in the disabled person’s suffering and then subsequent death. However, the disabled community has proven time and time again to be able to advocate for themselves and lead fulfilling lives. Through the chapters of XI and XIX of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel, The Secret Garden, the author themselves sets up Mary Lennox and Dickon Sowerby as the nondisabled saviors for Colin Craven, the afflicted victim.

            As young children and friends of Colin, Mary and Dickon only have the best of intentions for him. They believe it would “do him good to go out into a garden” or just outside in general to get some fresh air (Burnett). This is proven to be true by Colin himself when he lies on the floor of his room and “[breathes in] long breaths of fresh air that came through the window, “[making him] strong” as Mary recounts the story of how Dickon came to find a lamb (Burnett). However, whether Colin develops a hunchback like his father and/or has a preexisting disability that affects his immune system that has yet to be diagnose, Frances Hodgson Burnett makes it seem like Mary’s and Dickon’s efforts to get Colin to the secret garden will improve his quality of living by getting rid of what disables him.

             The author even goes as far as to characterizes Colin Craven as a hapless victim to further this idea by having the reader wishing and hoping that he will be cured of what ails him, which in this case is his disability. When Mary, as well as the reader, first meet Colin, “he [is] crying” in a room that is hidden away behind a “tapestry” (Burnett). This scene parallels to a knight finding a damsel in distress lock away in a tower. Colin has become “accustomed to the idea that” he “shall” never “live to grow up” because of what hears from others about his disability (Burnett). With that being his state of mind, Colin does not do much on his own to change his circumstances. It is this complacent attitude that the author has written that allows them to set up Mary and Dickon as the able-bodied heroes that strive to “[make him]” feel “better” (Burnett).

            In conclusion, while the author Frances Hodgson Burnett does represent disability within the chapters of XI-XIX in The Secret Garden, they portray it in a negative way by making it seem that those within the disabled community are in need of being rescued by those who are nondisabled. People with disabilities do required services, therapies, and accommodations to make certain avenues of life easier to navigate. However, having a disability does not deprive one of happiness or their ability to achieve it as well as being something that needs to be rectified quickly.  

Word Count: 580       

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