english ISP
By definition, an outcast is "one who is cast out or expelled; rejected as useless"(Webster's Dictionary).The term "outcast" can be used to describe many of the characters in the novels Black L:ike Me, My Left Foot, and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. These characters were expelled by society because of their physical and mental disabilities. The reader is presented the stories from the outcasts' point of view. It is this outlook that creates a sense of compassion for the characters as it is made clear that every person is useful. My Left Foot tells the life story of a man named Christy Brown who is suffering with Cerebral Palsy. Christy struggles to lead a normal life. He is able to go out and play like the other kids when he had his "chariot", but after it breaks Christy realizes the severity of his handicap. He is forced to stay home. Although Christy is aware of his disability and the restrictions it places on him he still makes an effort to perform tasks which most would think impossible. This is clearly shown when Christy wants to try and swim.
He later goes on favouring the Acutes over the Chronics by asking for the music to be turned down QUOTE PG 102 because it would be better for the Acutes. He is made aware that even the Chronics have opinions and deserve the same and equal rights and that in the long run they too can help serve a purpose. QUOTE PG 125-126 This is a turning point for Mc Murphy. Unlike My Left Foot and Black Like Me the separation of the Chronics and the Acutes is much more subtle. In this novel "blackness"(16) is portrayed as disease which makes the black man not even good enough to look at, share a seat with or even use the same bathroom as a white man. QUOTE This is one time when Christy was able to overcome his disability and prove that he was a capable person. It is this physical attribute of being black which made John Howard Griffin and all of the other black Americans outcasts in the 1950!'s. There is no disability that prevents him from living a life that is similar to the "white man" (36), it is only the color of his skin. He becomes an outcast for physical reasons as well. Sympathy and heartache are felt by the reader as they examine rejection of a human's worth and absolute despise for one's own kind that is accurately depicted in this novel. Physical afflictions also lead to the Chronics in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest begining treated as outcasts by the other patients. No, the reflection led back to Africa, back to the shanty and the ghetto, back to the fruitless struggles against the mark of blackness" (16). This point is o!nly proven again when Chief Broom (a Chronic) signs up to join the fishing trip in order to give the Acutes enough people to go. When Griffin first becomes a black man he too cna only see the color of the skin he states" I looked into the mirror and saw reflected nothing for the white John Griffin's past.
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Acceptance Essays
