Children Of A Lesser God: Film Analysis

In the Academy Award winning film, Children of a Lesser God, the director, Randa Haines characterizes Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin) as a rambunctious, angry deaf woman without a purpose, trying to find a place to fit into society. Sarah bottles up the anger she deals with in regard to the way people treat her throughout her life. However, in order for Sarah to fit in, she uses her beauty and sexuality with men that she meets so they would like and accept her and overlook her hearing disability. Sarah experiences Audism, low self-esteem, and finally realizes that she can love and be loved as well. In fact, Marlee Matlin is a deaf actress who can speak, and she plays the character of Sarah as not having an ability to speak. Sarah personifies that a person with a disability can only succeed as a janitor or nail technician. Subsequently, she wants to go back to school to earn a higher degree but fails to do so. For example, in the scene at her friend’s party, she watches a …show more content…
Kim Peek is a man who has an impeccable memory with books and music; yet, he has difficulty with normal daily tasks, and is the savant-like character depicted in the film Rain Man. The director, Barry Levinson depicts Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) quite differently than the actual Kim Peek. Raymond has the ability to count cards and his bother Charlie (Tom Cruise) decides to exploit his brother who has autism. In my opinion, the story and plot depict how people may take advantage of others with disabilities. Even though Charlie later realizes that he cares about Raymond, he still took advantage of a person who has a disability. In my viewpoint, viewers who do not know about autism or special needs may be under the impression that it is okay to take advantage of people with disabilities, and this film may depict how people may scheme to do so, for their own personal