Autism Literature & Language Term Paper Research Coursework (Term Paper Sample)

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Struggle against Social Isolation
There have been many movies and television shows that focus on people with autism but only a few talk about adult autism. Temple Grandin is one of the films that feature the lives of adult autistic characters. Gender and autism are central in the social discrimination in this film. Gender plays an important role in the subordination of women in this film. Temple Grandin film suggests that women are still treated as subordinates to their male counterparts. That is to say, women are often marginalized due to their biological sex. In addition to gender and gender roles, there are other aspects which make persons to be discriminated against. Being different (autistic) from normal people is one of them. Autism is defined as a spectrum of neuropsychiatric conditions marked by atypical social communication, social interaction and repetitive behavior. It is diagnosed in early childhood and the degree of severity varies from one child to another.
Before the medical community began to officially recognize and diagnose autism, people with autism were often relegated to general mental retardation diagnosis. Autism was considered a psychological issue not a neurologic or biological disorder, making a child to ignore the outside world while focusing inward. The medical community believed there is no way the child with autism and the world can be bridged. Institutionalization of children with autism is a confirmation that they are presumed to be mentally retarded to learn in schools meant for normal children. The purpose of this paper is to examine how Temple is socially rejected and the effects of this social rejection in the Temple Grandin Film.
Summary
Temple Grandin chronicles the life and career of an autistic woman named Temple. She overcomes disability through the support of her mother and education to become a successful professional in the animal science field (Montgomery 2). Temple is born to a rich family in 1947 in Boston. In the film, young Temple exhibits classic signs of autism: screams if a person attempts physical touch, resists being touched, never talks until age of four, pays no attention to others, shows wild tantrums and makes no eye contact. She also shows no interest in relating to other children or adults. Her doctor marks her as a brain damaged due to infantile schizophrenia and suggests that she be institutionalized. Temple’s mother is left horrified but determined to support her daughter despite the fact that the daughter rejects to be held by anyone including the mother. The mother disregards the doctor’s advice to send Temple to institutionalized center and instead hires the service of a speech therapist to work with her child. She also commits to teaching her daughter how to read. In high school she takes interest in science and math after being encouraged by her science teacher. She further shows keen interest in horses and cattle after spending summer on the ranch of her aunt in Arizona. In the ranch, Temple observes how livestock are calmed by a squeeze machine. She designs a similar machine to calf herself. She eventually develops methods and designs that improve the conditions of livestock. She also endured harassment and discrimination on the feedlot as the female graduate students working in a purely a male dominated industry.