Fight with Handicapism in the Movie I Am Sam

I watched the movie, ‘I am Sam’ (Nelson, 2001), which is about a developmentally disabled man called Sam. He works at Starbucks coffee shop while still raising his daughter Lucy who was abandoned by her mum immediately she made her first breath in this world. Sam has raises his daughter while still struggling until she reaches the age of 7, when Sam’s mental capability is shown to be that of a 7 year old.

Sam starts having more problems as Lucy attends school since he doesn’t understand anything about school. He starts developing inferiority complex with his own child. Lucy, in the eyes of people, tries to show that she is smarter and mature than the dad considering he is developmentally disabled. When people notice this, the authorities take away his daughter for adoption and Sam tries to win her back by paying a highly priced lawyer Rita to fight for him.

As I watched the movie, I was touched by the fact that although Sam has a mental disability; he still has the zeal and willingness to fight for his daughter. Though he demonstrates good fatherhood, the sad part is that the disability is shown not to be fit for Lucy as she grows to a young woman. Despite this, Sam shows courage as he stands and answers for the custody of her daughter in court. However, the society around him treats him differently because of his mental condition as well as his friends who exhibit disabilities related to Sam’s. Through his condition, the authorities try to prove that he cannot raise a child in a normal way. From Sam’s condition we can identify different symptoms of Handicapism shown in different stages of the movie.

Treating of People with Disabilities as Children

This symptom stems its root from the belief that an individual’s mental age or the intellectual capability is more essential than his or her chronological age. Some of the examples related to this include referring mentally disabled persons talk like babies, using childlike nicknames that are not relevant to the age, referring a person by his or her mental age or physical affection that is not equivalent to the age of that person (University of British Columbia, 2019). Many are the times that the society overlooks people with intellectual disabilities as possessing uncommon qualities of forgiveness, innocence and goodness by referring them as babies.

From the movie, ‘I am Sam,’ Lucy is taken away by authorities from the social services department because they consider Sam a well suited father for a 7 year old baby due to his intellectual disability. The fact that Sam’s IQ score level is low and equivalent only for a 7 year old, the society and authorities view Sam as unable to bring up her only daughter Lucy. Their view is that to Lucy, he is a child since as she has outgrown him. Sam is believed not to reason at the same level as his daughter since he has also not attended school and his mental capacity is questionable. Social services take Lucy away since they believe that her father is abnormal and incapable thus she will not be in good hands.

Another extract of this symptom in the movie is where Sam, always reads the same book to her daughter that is the book by ‘Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham’. The reason for Sam reading that book is because it is the only one he is capable of reading without struggling. As Lucy grows up, she brings more books from her teacher but Sam cannot comprehend them. He struggles to read, leading Lucy to feel sorry for him. Thus, the depictions of Sam as a child is clearly seen in this scenario as his IQ level is depicted as low and that is why he cannot adapt to more complex readings, an aspect that is used to show that he is unable to accommodate his daughter as she grows older.

A Place with Mentality

This is a symptom of the belief that people with intellectual disabilities are better off with their own kind. This can be shown in many ways and one of them is through segregation from other people in society. For instance, people with disabilities engage in segregated sport activities such as Olympics, recreational activities and non-supported employment placements that alienate them from the community (University of British Columbia, 2019).

In the movie, Sam has his own circle of friends who are also mentally disabled. At one scene, Sam takes Lucy for shoe shopping taking alongside his friends. Unfortunately, Sam is low on cash but his friends come to his rescue and pay the bill for the shoes. Despite his disability, Sam is courageous even at the workplace, beating the odds by being highly organized. Although labeled ‘slow and uneducated,’ he shows determination to fight and demonstrate that he is a good father. The symptom clearly shows profiling of mentally disabled persons in belief that they should be segregated in society and cannot perform to their very best compared to abled people.

The Charity or Pity Mentality

This is the symptom based on the notion that people with disabilities are to be pitied and their lives are dependent on the charity and kindness of the society. This symptom is also closely related to presumption of suffering and tragedy of mentally disabled persons (University of British Columbia, 2019). Sam’s character was in some instances misguided. The first thinking of people of mentally or handicapped retarded persons is that they deserve pity. Rita, despite representing Sam in court, feels sorry and pity for Sam.

At one point, she tells him ‘I just don’t know what to call you’. This is because she feels sorry for Sam since as a lawyer, she understands the tedious process of child custody cases. Sam’s character in the scenes involving his neighbor Annie shows that she feel sorry for him and suspects that he is unable to raise his child. This is despite his courage and willingness to raise Lucy in the best way possible. This symptoms of pity and sympathy clearly show that profiling of mentally disabled people in society is prevalent.

Negative Assumptions Related to Atypical Communication

Intellectual disability people are said to have problems in communication. Sometimes they don’t understand what is being said or don’t have anything to say to other parties (University of British Columbia, 2019). Sam at 40 had delayed issues using some areas of language. The movie portrays Sam in different scenes as unintelligible and not able to communicate effectively. Sam takes a longer time to expressing his thoughts and once he does, the thoughts are somehow unclear to the other party. Sometimes, he is unable to use phrases or words correctly.

For example, in one instance he is asked who is smarter between him and Lucy and he replies, “I kind of think we are the same smart” (Nelson, 2001). Sam also has problems of understanding word content. For example at one point in the court room, Rita asks ‘‘a motion to recess’’ and Sam responds, “I don’t exactly like recess very much” (Nelson, 2001). These examples clearly show that mentally disabled persons have a communication barrier at one point or another, they are don’t communicate effectively with colleagues.

In summary, Sam showed a strong character of fighting his intellectual disability. He proved that his disability was not a hindrance to fighting for success and leaving like normal people. Nonetheless, the symptoms of handicapism are portrayed in the movie, which reveals that society continues to subject people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to negative stereotypes.