dis/lit 21

Unlike most youth I was never required to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” in grade school or to analyze it through the looking glass of racism. As an adult, it has been much simpler to see the injustice of the time or that it is set between people of a certain color. However, to look at this novel and all of the other works this semester with the mind of seeing more than just the what is in the center stage has been interesting and enlightening to say the least. We often see things that we identify with, but will undoubtably ignore things that have little to no effect or commonality to our lives. This is true when reading a book and noticing characters. You can without a doubt notice the protagonist, but will disregard the connection of a lower character. We are only interested in these lower characters when the protagonist is.

This is true for Arthur “Boo” Radley. When Scout isn’t thinking of him our thoughts aren’t drawn to him. “Boo” Radley I would even say is different still. In the story the children are the only ones who care to think about this man who is considered to be “different”. How he is different however is never actually stated in the book. Harper Lee has created a fantastic development of a character throughout the novel. This does not allow for “Boo” Radley to be a relatable character with his disability because the disability is never named. But then the character is relatable because the “wrongness” is never pinpointed.

Does having the assumption that something is “wrong” with you by societal norms make you disabled? This was possibly the motive behind this lack of labeling of Harper Lee’s. One of my fellow classmates said it best when she spoke about focusing on naming one “disability”. Too often we tangled in the idea of needed to fit in a box and for everyone around us to fit in said box as well. That we forget that there are many different sized boxes in the world. “Boo” Radley cared for the children that is evident, from leaving them gifts, to covering Scout with a blanket, and finally fighting for them against Bob Ewell.

Disability or not he was still human because all of those acts are out of caring and love, with human emotion. He was unknowingly willing to put his very life on the line for these children who had been afraid of him being “different”. We have to remember that we can have multiple identities or disabilities. But this allows us to look at the world with a different perspective, with different glasses, if you will. What one person sees as a disability, another can see a strength. What “Boo” Radley does might have not been accomplished by someone with all abilities, because they did not see it the same way he did. It is why we use the term “rose colored glasses” or the “grass is greener on the other side.”

Word Count 504

Daniella, David, Karlie, and Nichlas second breakout room added Alaina 

• reminded of Sound of Metal
  • Talking about the system of social models in disabilities and how there is stigmas even around communities like the deaf community and the stigma against being able to slightly hear 
• Alternative exercises were being done by students with the bathroom and measuring tape with a blindfold on and showing stepping into their shoes
  • This brought up architecture and how a lot of places wont help to make them accessible while keeping it historically accurate or how it is historically protected

• We all thought it was funny when Scout called out the teacher (without actually saying it to her) about being hypocritical 
• The excessive nature of how many times Tom was shot was clear that they were looking for an excuse to kill him. 
• Mrs. Tutti and Mrs. Frutti the prank was one that harmless but brought about a big commotion

Karlie, Haley, Faith, David, and Alaina:

To kill a mockingbird:

• Reading or a second time has opened the eyes to the disabilities that are actually throughout
• We had only talked about the race aspects never the disability lens
  • Arthur was seen as weird when it was done through race versus when it was done with disability we see he is way more then that and that his character is interesting
• Reading it for more times and seeing from the different points of view
  • We see the forced otherness of all the characters including Scout and Arthur

The article:

• “Everyone is disabled”
  • Probably not a literal claim but could be a there is no “normal”
  • To make the idea of disabled as a outside thing that’s abnormal
  • Everyone is a part of that otherness and that some are just more so than others
  • Trying to create a sameness instead of otherness
• Severely disabled
  • May be trying to bring the world to a new meaning of “severely disabled”
• Ocd seems to be the reason he is a jerk in the movie
  • It seemed the author had no idea if he liked or hated the movie with his writings
  • It seemed like a very neutral stand point at some points

Brianna, David, Karlie, Shane, Nicholas

• Disability is nothing to push people away because of it is a thing that brings people together into a community
• Fenty and the activism with them having a “little person” ambassador
  • This was a really big thing to see more of the everyday people and less of the unrealistic person
• Unrealistic expectations of nobody wants disabilities and they are curable is such a toxic mindset
  • “The goal is to conform to be normal” not having an uniqueness 
  • Normalizing the “cure” of disabilities to be “normal”
• Feminism is treated as a disability and so is race 
• Being blind is not the end all be all of disabilities but rather being in a society that isn’t accommodating is one of the hardest parts of being blind or deaf

Daniella, Karlie, Nathalie, Lily, Salem:

• Talking about chicken little and how he died young
  • This relates to power dynamics
  • When you have more power you can get away with anything
    • It was disturbing to read
  • Nobody went after him and went to check
    • This seems like an literary choice
    • Its strange no one went after him
• The death of Plum fits into kill or cure 
  • The addiction part was a very sad part where it was just you knew there was no coming back from this
• Hannah’s burning to death scene was one were we saw Sula react and not in the way anyone would expect her too 
  • People would think that Sula would react more violently but rather the fact she was “interested” causes one to ask if it that she has something else going on in the disability spectrum
• Nel is sort of the caretaker for Sula like George and Lennie
  • Sort of like the chicken little scene where Nel is protecting Sula even after she throw him in

Nathalie, David, Faith, Karlie, and Arden

• BLM and Disability movement was an unlikely pair
  • We had never heard about the people involved before
• We see a lot of movements about race, sex, and gender
  • It isn’t really intersectional or there is a lot of people who don’t talk about disability
  • A lot of police brutality is against disabled people
• The movements were separated but also together and that was confusing
  • It was a separate movement but they were intertwined with the end game
  • One or the other part will get lost in the movements
• Some thought it was a bad idea to intertwine the movements because they may all be in a person they all are different levels 
  • One person is not the focal point but rather a general population
• ADA movement is all done with different disabilities but the common goal was more equality with people for disabilities
• Things need to be separate in movements but there is a grey area that needs to come through to create the right movement 
• Maiming isn’t being put into statistics its only about killing 
  • It feels like they are put on a back burner 
  • Societies don’t make thing easier for them it really is to each their own

Nathalie Luciano, Karlie Jahn, David Claeson, Lily Mae

• The amount of student debt and how disabled students have to deal with so much more in the way of debts at an almost 60% higher rate
• Disabled students have a long and more difficult time getting through to their graduate degree
  • This causes a lesser want to go to college 
• A lot of things are very inaccessible 
• Dorms are not all wheelchair accessible and this causes a lot of problems 
• Colleges will say they are accessible but the arch doesn’t allow for students that can’t use them

Karlie Jahn, Arden Jones, Salem Smith, David Claeson, Nathalie L

• Over compensation is awful 
• Using terms that make you feel better isn’t how you should go about it 
• Disability versus person first shouldn’t be so over done
• People who are marginalized understand but those that don’t face opposition don’t understand how they put those into separate categories and “othering” them
• Special education and putting into separate rooms makes the children feel different and more ostracized 
• Things that are normalized shouldn’t be and are making things worse for those that might not be able to communicate 
• A lot of times people talk over those that are disabled when in reality they should be able to talk 
• Reclaiming words seems to sometimes be ignored because people feel uncomfortable
• Some reclaiming is super positive but you have to be careful 
• Words are only reclaimed for those that they relate to 
• Not every slur is being taken and reclaimed 
• Some words are only slightly reclaimed and trying to see what is seems as a slur vs a reclaimed word
• Disabled is not the same for everyone

 Karlie Jahn, Salem Smith, Alaina Taylor, Daniella Colon-Cosme

• Disability is seen as a unspoken topic
• Sickness and disability is seen as unnatural- makes it feel not human
• Docs the negative represintation of them
• Can be truly empowering with those that are well known and how they were made known by the things that came from their disabilities 
• Disability is seen as a double edged sword that can empower or dehumanize
• The depictions of historical and religious figures in Christian works are seen as perfect and unobtainable which is just untrue 
• That disabilities are shown as grotesque and disgusting when depicted 
• Tv and medias are now warming up to the idea of disabilities being positive ie. powerpuff girls and not having to take a gender norm job due to their lack of fingers

Something we have talked about a lot in class was the abundance of authors writing in disabled characters. Although unfortunately not for the usage of having a diverse collection of characters, but rather so the main characters had something to use as a scapegoat or a means to an end. The idea of authors setting up disabled characters as less than human in the eyes of the reader and in the eyes of the other characters. We see instances like this in multiple stories we have read this semester. Everything from the Monster in Frankenstein, Lennie in Of Mice and Men and how he is related to a dog on multiple encounters, and how Boo Radley is seen as a sort of animal in a cage for children to look at in To Kill a Mockingbird. 

The Monster in Frankenstein is seen as this horrible monster that’s only purpose in life was to be seen as an outcast. In all the renditions of this story it is always the towns people turning against the Monster because of how horrible he looked. He was put off as a less than human monstrosity, when in every story all he wanted was love. Love which is a very human want, but due to the way the people looked at him was unattainable. Lennie from Of Mice and Men laid out very plainly for the readers to see that Lennie was to be seen as nothing more than a dog. From multiple characters saying as much when talking about him, to the way Lennie was killed. He was “put down” in the very same fashion as Candy’s dog was put down when he was too old to continue. Basically telling the readers that it’s better to be dead than to have to live the way Lennie was. 

The characterization of Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird is set up in a way to make him seem less than human. The best way it has ever been described to me was as if he is the town’s cryptid. Nothing more than a story to scare children into acting right, the only problem is he is a real person in this town. He is obviously caring in how he treated Scout when she was out in the cold, or how he stitched up Jem’s pants when they tore on the fence. Boo Radley is more than just the name in the town. Although the way the Finch children have gone from frightened by his name alone to an almost fondness does not bode well for Boo Radley. It feels like the Finch children almost now treat him like an animal in a cage they can “Oh” and “Ah” over. He is simplified to nothing more than an animal they fawn over. 

While all of these stories are seen as classics in the eyes of literature, it feels wrong to see these stories come to life in the eyes of disability literature. They were once held at high esteem for a lot of people, but due to the nature of the characters the authors have so easily dehumanized, it now feels wrong. Seeing that some of the most well known characters are those that are disabled, but widely made fun of in the books is upsetting. There needs to be a greater shift to disabled literature where the main character is disabled and just as human as those without the disabilities in the book. A story that is just as popular, if not more than those that have pushed disabled characters to be comic relief or the bad guy like Frankenstien, Of Mice and Men, or To Kill a Mockingbird.

Word Count: 614