I AM SAM A REACTION PAPER

I AM SAM tells the story of Sam Dawson who is mentally-challenged raising his
daughter, Lucy (named after the Beatles Song), with the help of his friends with
mental retardation including Annie. As Lucy turns seven she begins to surpass the
intellectual ability of his father. Other children tease Lucy for having a retarded
father, and as a result, she became embarrassed to accept that she is more
intellectually advanced than her father. The authorities take Lucy away, and Sam
approaches a high-priced lawyer, Rita Harrison, into taking his case Pro Bono (free).
In the end, the foster family who planned to adopt Lucy decided to return her to
Sam, with an arrangement that Randy, the foster mother, will help him raise her.

II. Personal Reaction

I AM SAM is a story between a retarded father and a loving daughter. The story is
one of the touching movies that I have seen. Compared to other movies, the story
of Sam is very unique because he is a retarded father who has raised his child with
love and patience despite of his disabilities. It is a powerful, emotional film about
love, parenthood and the bonds of family. For me, it is an award-winning movie
because of the twists and turns that entertained and taught the viewers a valuable
lesson.
The film is good. The characters are great in interpreting their roles specially the
actor who potrayed Sams character. This movie shows that mental incapacity is not
a hindrance to raise a child. It presents the importance of the love of a parent in
order to raise a child well.
"disability doesn't in any way diminish his individuality or his humanity"

Haay.. this film is really good.. really heart-warming.. really amazing how a mentally
disabled father loves her daughter a lot.. yeah, its only the mind that is affected..
its not the heart.. I Am Sam is a film about a retarded man with the IQ level of a
seven year old child who fathers a perfectly normal and adorable girl named, Lucy,
through a chance encounter with a woman who was just looking for a place to stay.
Sam clearly loves his daughter, but he finds himself ill-equipped to care for her as
she grows older. The condition of Sam being a retard or an autistic one has been
discussed last week during our lecture. It can be observed in the film his acts such
as being obsessive-compulsive through organizing or sorting out everything like the
scene on fixing the cups and the sachets of salts and pepper. Also, he has a poor
eye contact, poor communication and poor perception. There is also this scene
when he is repeating words (echolalia).
Having observed these things, it is obvious that Sam is mentally disabled. Relating
this to other individuals like Sam, what can we do about them?

There are many myths about mental disability. Perhaps because there are so many
pieces of the puzzle, so many areas of the brain that are affected and are still being
studied, that it leaves room for too much assumption. As a result, we take the view
that people with this kind of disorder, and their behaviors, are a mystery to us. Like
aliens or foreigners, we watch their behavior with bewilderment, and sometimes
fear. The condition affects communication, socialization, perception and movement.
Its symptoms can be mild or severe. People like them dont like being judged for
who they are and what they can do, and not some behavioral standards developed
by so-called normal people. Whats wrong with being one? Why are they
considered to be so disastrous? Why are they such a mystery? I think we should
allow them to be who they are. For sure, they want people to understand that its
not easy having abnormalities in a normal world. People should recognize that the
entire burden should not be on them to be like normal ones, but rather to
acknowledge how hard it is being like that. Mental disability is not really a mystery.
At the core, people with autism are like all of us they need to be accepted for who
they are, to be happy, to have fulfilling work and to be loved.
We believe that the film of I am Sam teaches us that we must open our eyes to the
world of people with autism or mental retardation. It is helping us expand our
knowledge and transcend our beliefs about their perceived limitationsSam may
only be one of the persons with that condition, but we have no way of knowing that
other people like him do not experience a similar degree of emotional connection
and simply lack the talents to express it.
By knowing the situation of people with mental disability, we must then consider
how every disabled person in the world may have a vibrant inner life. It can be a
painful thought, as we who are abled find it difficult to consider a body without
movement to be anything other than a silent being. The rest of us have not
experienced the awesome malleability of the human brain and spirit -- the human
ability to adapt to the environment no matter what area of functioning may be
impaired. We know that registration of intense emotions may make eye contact
difficult for people with autism or mental disorder. Sad to say, that when we dont
see affect from some mentally disabled people, the inference is that they dont have
emotions. I hope we are now convinced that this is nonsense. What friends and
family can do is to speak to them with respect, directly as if he or she is listening,
with emotion towards them because they are human and they need us. The goal of
treating autism or mental retardation is not to totally cure them, but rather to
understand their world, for them to learn how to communicate their thoughts and
desires, to self-advocate and self-actualize and in essence, to feel fulfilled. Their
condition may sometimes be beyond words, but the voices, both false and real,
continue to fill my head. May the collective voices of their community become loud
enough for us to hear what it means to be human so we can build a more tolerant
society.

In the movie, there is a comparison between a normal parent and an autistic parent.
Im talking about Sam Dawson and Rita Harrison. Sam is an autistic man, who
happens to have a child named Lucy. Sams spouse abandoned him and her
daughter, thats why Sam have to do the parenting task all by himself despite the
fact that he is mentally challenged. And he did it, he raise Lucy correctly. But, on
Lucys 7th birthday an incident happen, it changed the flow of the smooth sailing
life of Sam and Lucy. Sams mental incapacity became an issue if he can manage to
raise Lucy. Then there was a court other detaining Lucy in the care of the
government then eventually will be turned over to a Foster parent. Sam was so
alarmed on this situation, thats why he opt to hire a Lawyer to give him legal
assistance. Thats where the character of Rita Harrison comes in. At first, it seems
that Rita is just giving Sam false hope on the case of Lucy, but in the end Rita made
a big help to Sam to regain the rights on cuddling Lucy. Sam, did his best legally in
collaboration with Rita, Ms. Cassel, and his fellow mental incapacitated, they exert a
great effort just take back Lucy on Sams custody. Sam, though always given
pessimistic ideas about the case, continued to persevere just to have his daughter
back. This goes to show that though Sam is mentally incapacitated, his heart still
has the passion and love for her daughter.
On the other side is Rita, the lawyer of Sam. She has a son named Billy. Rita seemed
so ideal and a better child raiser than Sam. Rita has a good degree and a very
promising profession. But on the contrary, Rita has a doomed family. She is too
much busy on her work that she has no time for her son and husband. As a result,
his husband is seeing someone else while his son Billy seems rebellious on her.
If we take a closure look, it seems that Billy deserves a poster parent than Lucy.
Billys family is more complex and needs assistance of the court than Lucys. It is
very evident that, though Sam seems incapable of taking care of Lucy, I turned out
that Rita, a more educated and more mentally capable parent was overwhelmed by
Sam in terms of parenting.
This movie provides an appeal to the unjust and unfair treatment of the society and
always questioning the capability of the mentally challenged people specially in
terms of parenting skills. The mental state doesn't always reflect a persons
capacity to be a parent. Just like in my comparison above, an autistic versus an
established Lawyer in terms of family management, the autistic guy winning it over
the normal and bright attorney.
Remember that in the bible, great characters like David, Paul, Peter, etc. where just
simple people before they were called by God. David, started as a pastor in a flock
of sheep, but he was called by God to be a King. Paul, a prosecutor of Christian
evangelist, later on became a full pledge evangelist of the Christian gospel. Peter, a
simple fisherman and has a reputation of a denial apostle turned into a major
apostle and draw thousands of men to God to have salvation. See, your state today
doesn'tt speak for your future. What you are today is not that important, the most
important is the desire of your heart to be much better than the present.

Just like what is stated in the first line, someones intellectual capacity has no
bearing on his ability to love. Being mentally doomed cannot hinder someones
passion to love and care. For in loving, we dont actually use our mind, we let our
heart dictate.
REACTION:
Mental disorder can be a hindrance in so many ways but this movie proved it wrong. . mentally challenged people
need not be condenned nor scrutinized. They need to be understood, accepted and loved.Often times, we, normal
people are much worser than they are because people like them are tring to live simple whereas we, tend to be
judgmental and isolate them from our world. yes, this not a fair world. It is up to us all to keep balance. to maintain an
equilibrium for those normal and those who are not.People cannot see purity in things if they will not look at it through
the eyes of an innocent child (take Lucy as an example).Lecture aside, there is one important thing i learned though,
that nothing can ever replace the love between a parent and a child.Nothing...Not ever...
OBSERVATIONS:
-sam is ritualistic and consistent in arranging cups and condiments in the coffee shop.
-one of sam's friend is an autistic savant who knows lots og things about movies and music
-sam makes incomprehensible sound/words.
-sam is ritualistic as to where to at and what to eat. It seems as if everything has its own schedule.
-sam got confused when his routine was altered when lucy asked him to eat some place else instead of the place
they usually go to.
-sam often displayed echolalia "The customer is always right"
-sam shared detailed story of his preparations for Lucy's bday party.
-One of sam's friend manifested paranoia as if everyone or evrything meant harm against him.
-One of sam's friend exhibited looseness of association.
-Sam was able to recall the words his lawyer said exactly nd as detailed as she said it.
-sam can not focus well and can't keep an eye contact.