Disadvantages Of Genie

From the beginning, Genie was at a far greater disadvantage than Helen Keller. Genie endured a decade of severe abuse, neglect and social isolation. While their situations are both similar, their life experiences are what made their paths to discovering language very different. Genie had to learn how to trust and form relationships before she could embark on her journey. She would have to overcome her life experiences to progress forward. After Genie was found and went through the process of learning language with therapists, psychologists and etc., she was put in foster care a few times. At one point she was disciplined for throwing up. This caused her to not want to open her mouth, in fear of throwing up and getting in trouble. This is an example of a life experience she would have to overcome. After she is able to get past them, then is she able to fully understand …show more content…
She was able to function and was an actual person. Her inability to communicate and think properly is where she runs off the road. With regards to Walker Percy and his conception that language is vitally important to becoming human, then no, Genie was not entirely human. No one will ever no if she was born mentally retarded and was inhibited in learning language; or if her decade long endurance of severe abuse, neglect and social isolation was something greater than first thought. Her severe battles with abuse, neglect and social isolation could have been something she had to overcome before she could learn language. Maybe, though, the only way she could have overcome those experiences was to learn language and then contextualize them. People with PTSD need to face those traumatic experiences if they want to successfully move forward. This could seem true in Genie’s case as well. We will never know right way to embark upon cases like Genie, but we do know that language is an important facet in becoming a