Megan Hamilton
EDU 1400-042
Individual Project 3: Arts
It has always intrigued me how the arts portray people with disabilities, and I was really excited
to see that this week’s assignment was just this, to compare two forms of arts depicting a disability to
one another. The first art I chose was the book Rules by Cynthia Lord, and the second art I chose was
the movie Dear John, which was based off the book by Nicolas Sparks.
These two arts are fairly recent; the book was released in 2007 and won the Newbery Honor
Award and the movie Dear John was released in 2010. These two arts both depict individuals with
autism.
In the book Rules, the main character is twelve year old Catherine whose little seven year old
brother, David, has autism. Catherine is trying to teach David rules for behaving, both at home and in
public. She has her rules to help David act normal because she doesn’t want to explain the real reason
why David acts the way he does, because she is afraid others will make fun of him and think he is
strange. Catherine loves her brother, but she wishes that her brother didn’t have autism and that he
would be normal. She doesn’t like explaining to her friends why there are always toys in the fish tank
and she is always afraid that they will make fun of her brother, and she doesn’t want that.
In the movie Dear John, there is a six year old boy named Alan who has autism. He is being
raised by his single father, Tim, who sometimes doesn’t know what to do. Thankfully for Savannah, their
next door neighbor who is studying disabilities in college, has become a really good friend with Alan and
provides helpful information to Tim. In this movie, Alan is depicted as a boy who doesn’t talk to others
unless he knows them or feels comfortable around them, and stays to himself. His father isn’t afraid to
take his son out or afraid of any outbursts he may have. Alan’s father wants his son to have as close to a
normal life as he possibly can.
In comparison of these two arts, I wanted to start off with how the other characters feel about
the individual with the disability (i.e. autism). In the book, Catherine is embarrassed by her brother and
hates how her parents always make her watch him. Catherine is always trying to teach David how to act,
because she wants him to be normal and act like other little brothers. In the movie, Alan’s father Tim is
not embarrassed by his son at all and does not worry about taking him out to places and wondering how
he will act. If someone asks Tim what is Alan’s diagnosis, he doesn’t get offended and will answer their
questions.
The next comparison is how the individuals with the disability act. In the book, David is wildly
out of control. He is getting into everything and he doesn’t seem to be able to learn right from wrong.
His actions make him seem like a trouble maker. In the movie, Alan is the quite opposite where he stays
to himself and he doesn’t have wild outbursts and he is able to understand society’s rules. Alan is very
quiet whereas David is not.
I think that through both the book and the movie, individuals with autism are being portrayed to
the public as both out of control and completely to themselves. I think that these are both good
accurate portrayals because just like not every individual is alike, neither are two people with autism.
One of the stereotypes that I thought was interesting was in the book. The sister thought her brother
would be judged and made fun of because he was different, but in the movie the boy’s father with
autism wasn’t afraid that anyone would judge his son or make fun of him. I think a major stereotype
with individuals with autism is that people expect them to act out and misbehave like the book showed,
but in the movie that wasn’t the case.
I think that both pieces of art were portrayed in a positive manner and even though the sister in
the book wished that her brother would be normal, she still wanted to protect him just like the father in
the movie wanted to protect his son. Both individuals in the book and movie knew how people with
autism felt when others looked or stared at them, so they wanted to make sure that they gave those
kids with autism a good life and surrounded them with good things and good people.
I believe that as society learns more about autism and other types of disabilities that it will only
make life easier for people with disabilities. I believe that as we continue to learn new information about
all types of disabilities, we will be able to portray any individual with any type of disability in the positive
manner that they deserve.
Reflections
This assignment intrigued me a lot because I didn’t think that the arts (i.e. literature, media)
depicted individuals with disabilities at all. I thought that it was kind of a “hush-hush” sort of topic, so
when I found two different forms of art depicting disabilities, I was very surprised and I couldn’t wait to
read and watch how the author and director were going to portray these individuals.
I especially enjoyed reading the book “Rules” because it showed how the individual with autism
was treated by every person he came into contact with, whereas in the movie the individual with autism
wasn’t shown as much interacting with others so I wasn’t able to see how others interacted with him. In
the book though, I really liked the different perspectives, and the perspective that I loved the most was
from the main character, Catherine’s friend Kristi. Kristi didn’t find out about David’s autism for a while,
but when she did find out she said that just because someone isn’t “normal” doesn’t mean they aren’t
great to get to know. I loved that and it helped me to understand that, yes, some people have disabilities
that they have to live with, but that doesn’t change who they are or their personalities and they are still
great individuals to get to know.
I also loved to be able to watch “Dear John” and to see how” Hollywood” would depict an
individual with disabilities. I really enjoyed this movie and how the characters were very accepting and
kind to the little boy with autism. I thought that the director did a fabulous job and I believe that this
movie made an impact for many individuals, whether they know of someone who has autism or not.
This was really an enjoyable assignment, for I was able to do two of my favorite things which are
to read and watch movies. I learned so much from both of these forms of art, and I am so grateful that
there are individuals who took on the challenge to depict a disability such as autism and put them into an
art that many individuals can learn from and will enjoy.