When I read the title, I thought it looked familiar. As I was read more, I then remembered that I read this for my Comp class at my last college. Reading it this time around though, helped to bring more understanding to the text. Maybe it's just me because we have been talking about the mentally disabled, but I felt that this story was closely related to that topic: the weak.
I don't really understand why the author wrote this story the way he did, it's really kinda weird. But nonetheless, I think he got his point accross about the annoyance we feel with the dependent people in the world. I think it is interesting that he chose to describe the character the way he did. First of all he was old and sick. He couldn't fly. He was an angel. I interpreted this as a very dependent being, who couldn't live without help, but yet was very valuable. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like the family he was with saw his value. The only reason they took care of him was because they felt obligated to incase his presence had anything to with their sick child.
The family took what they could get out of him. They put him on display so they could make money off of him. They didn't once think about how he felt about living in a chicken coop and being put on display to be stared at and harmed by strangers.
Does any of this sound familiar? I think in some ways, and not for every circumstance but with some, this is how the mentally challenged, elderly, or physically handicapped can be treated. I'm not talking about putting them on display, but more about them not being valued. Their value is stripped because they aren't fully "human" in our eyes.
The first time I read this story a couple years ago I didn't understand it or even care what it may have meant. It was just a weird story that I read for class. Well now this story is still weird, but I tried to find the meaning behind it. I think the other stuff we have been reading just kinda helped to open my eyes to this story. I'm glad I ended up reading this again!
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I wondered why the author wrote the story also... but I guess that idea was covered in our class lecture and discussions.
ReplyDeleteI agree about how society tends to strip the value of mentally handicapped people. Perhaps we should look at our own imperfections and see how different even seemly "normal" people are from one another.
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