My Favorite Other-Abled Characters

By Linda Lovely

I've listened sympathetically to friends discuss the difficulties in dealing with autistic family members. However, my ability to relate to the challenges of grandparents, parents, and teachers who interact daily with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) sufferers is limited by my lack of personal experience. It's hard to understand what we haven't encountered in our own narrow lives.

Providing insights into the minds and hearts of people we may not meet in our day-to-day existence is one of the great gifts of literature and movies. In my case, a 1988 classic movie, Rain Man, and a 2013 novel, Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, have helped me better fathom the triumphs and fears and joys and frustrations of both autistic individuals and the people who love and care for them.

What is ASD? The term groups together a wide range of development disorders. Symptoms typically include difficulty communicating and interacting with others and a compulsion to repetitive actions. According to my limited internet research, Asperger's Syndrome, the diagnosis assigned to Max, the little boy in author Matthew Dicks' Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, is now considered a part of the ASD spectrum.    

I loved Dicks' novel because it helped me imagine what it would be like to BE autistic and "different" from other children. Budo, Max's imaginary friend, tells the story. Budo loves Max with all his heart and tries to protect him from the raft of dangers that can befall an eight-year-old who attracts the attention of class bullies.  

I might never have picked up this novel if it weren’t for my book club, which (thank you) forces me out of my mystery and romantic suspense comfort zone. However, I heartily recommend this adventure for its lively point-of-view, intriguing characters, and solid plot.

If you haven’t seen Rain Man, I urge you to track it down on one of the services that catalog older movie treasures like this one. This film’s ASD sufferer is a grown man, Raymond Babbitt, played flawlessly by Dustin Hoffman. Tom Cruise plays Ray’s materialistic younger brother Charlie, who didn’t know he even had a brother until the senior Babbitt dies.

Both the book and the movie show us love’s many guises and the value of relationships that can be as difficult as they are rewarding. Humor is the added ingredient in both works of art.

If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, do you agree with my five-star ratings?

My Favorite Other-abled Character by Lynn Lovegreen

The sad thing is, I had to think hard to come up with some favorite other-abled characters. I haven’t seen many books, movies or shows with other-abled characters that don’t turn them into  object lessons for main characters or PSAs to say “look, they’re people too.” But as I gave it more thought, I realized Charles Dickens, of all people, has several other-abled characters that are three-dimensional, not just clichés.

Victorian writers weren’t often politically correct, and Dickens made his mistakes. His Tiny Tim is stereotyped as a saint who helps to bring Scrooge to his redemption, and in Bleak House, Grandfather Smallweed’s disability is almost comic relief with his “Shake me up, Judy!” episodes. But Phil Squod, also in Bleak House, is a well-rounded character, with his mobility disability simply one of his many quirks, and we admire his devotion and service to his boss.

My favorite other-abled character is Miss Jenny Wren in Our Mutual Friend. Miss Jenny Wren is a poor doll’s dressmaker, whose "back is bad and her legs are queer.” But she is the “person of the house,” and not to be trifled with. She berates her ne’er-do-well father as a “bad child” and makes him turn out his pockets so he won’t spend all their money on drink. She pokes people with her sewing pins and can win an argument with anyone. Her friendship with Lizzie allows us to see inside her good heart and wish we had a friend like her.

The ALA (American Library Association) created the Schneider Family Book Award to celebrate the children’s and young adult book of the year “that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.” Learn more and find some great books for yourself and your kids at http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/schneider-family-book-award.

Lynn Lovegreen grew up in Alaska, and still lives there. She taught for twenty years before retiring to make more time for writing. She enjoys her friends and family, reading, and volunteering at her local library. Her young adult/new adult historical romances are set in the Alaska Gold Rush, a great time for drama, romance, and independent characters. See her website at www.lynnlovegreen.com. You can also find her on Facebook, Goodreads, and Pinterest.