Barry: (Whimpering.) No, Dad. Please Dad. Don't hit me. . . Please. . .
Mr. Klepmer: (Paralyzed.) It was. . . It was an accident, Barry. I didn't mean to. I just. . . you know. . . lost control. I'm sorry. Jesus. . .
This scene wrecked my world as I read it. I am a psychology major so reading this play I see the dysfunction in each of the boy's lives and I see their psychological problems and how it affects their world. I have interacted with parents that had children with disabilities like this and they are exhausted a lot of the times because of how much work it really is to care for a child that has disabilities like these boys have. There are many statistics that talk about how parents get frustrated, not with their children, but more so the situation of having a child with a mental handicap. There are support groups that have been started to help parents get through these times when they feel helpless to their children and like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. I can only imagine how a parent feels when they discover that their baby is going to be mentally handicap and what it's going to take to raise that child. There have been many situations, basically all of them, where the parents fear what will happen with their child after they, themselves, pass. Who will take care of them? Will they adjust to me being gone? Will they even understand it?! It's scary being a parent of a child like this.
In high school I was in a program where I had a buddy that I hung out with and just invested time into to brighten their world a little. The little boy I got paired up with was named Jarrett and he had just turned eight years old. He had cerebral palsy and was in a wheel chair. His eyes could not fully read a page because one eye would read half the book and the other would wonder the rest of the book. He was at about a second or third grade level where he was actually supposed to be in fourth grade. He didn't talk that well but at the same time he had a vibrant personality. His mother told me that even despite his physical handicaps and his mental handicaps he was sharp in other areas. If she took him shopping and she read her list to him in the beginning, he would remember everything that she needed. At the end she would make sure they got everything and if they forgot anything Jarrett knew exactly what they forgot. But at the same time as I listened to her tell me the story of how they got to this place, my heart ached for her because they had been through so much. She had to give him all his baths and feed him all his meals. And you could hear the fear for the future underneath it all. This must have been how Barry's dad felt. He feared the future and possibly he felt as though he had failed his son. This may have been where his anger was coming from and he was just placing it in the wrong place. Its heart wrenching to hear stories like this but it is the reality of having a mentally handicap person in your family. They teach you a lot about life but there are so many other worries as well...
That scene was alarming to me to. When I think about our discussion I think about when Preofessor Corrigan popped in a introduced a new piece of information that I myself had not considered. The boy's father was probably mentally challenged to a degree as well. The fear of having a child who has such challenges can be mentally amd emotionally debilitating. It can create hostility that people never knew they could have. It's dishearteneing to know that things like this unfold everyday.
ReplyDeleteThis scene was so sad. One can't help but sympathize for Barry and at the same time wonder what kind of person would hit a mentally handicapped person. I agree with Freda, it was definitely eye opening when Corrigan introduced that the father himself might not have been mentally stable.
ReplyDeleteI agree that particular scene kind of threw me back. I like how you expanded on that. great thoughts and blog !
ReplyDeleteThough this scene saddened me, it didn't really surprise me.The summary of the play described Barry's father as "brutal," so when Barry's father came to visit him I was expecting something like that to happen.
ReplyDeleteThe scene made me cry. I know that we all hate Barry's father. Why he didn't he have enough patience for his son? But I hope that we can look through both perspectives. Barry's father is all alone and has no one and struggles to communicate correctly with Barry. I know it's not right the way he treated his son, but I also his intentions weren't purely evil.
ReplyDeleteI did not know you were a psychology major, that was interesting to find out. I learned a lot about your post, especially the part when you talked about how parents don't really get frustrated with their child but more at the situation.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't really thought about the dad being angry at himself and taking it out in the wrong manner. Good perspective!
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