Essay by messybun41894College, UndergraduateB+, November 2012

download word file, 3 pages 0.0


The underlying concept of the movie Rainman was autism. The main character, Charlie Babbittt, does not have austism; His brother, Raymond does. Autism is defined as a mental condition, seen from early childhood, which there is difficulty communicating and forming relationships with people and using language and abstract concepts. (Ciccarelli, 204) People who are autistic may also fail to learn to speak. They normally do not like to be touched. Today, Autism is placed in a category called pervasive developmental disorders. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders, autism is not so much about the intelligence level, but the cognitive skills are usually always uneven (Zager, 4).

In the movie, Raymond is constantly around "normal" people when his brother removes him from the mental institution. He has autistic episodes frequently, which is when his normal balance is changed. During his episodes, he screams very loudly and starts hitting himself repetitively.

In return, people often look at him weirdly or insult him. For example, he was wandering alone and going through a crosswalk. When he started going across the street, the sign said, "walk" but, halfway through him crossing, the sign switched to, "don't walk". When Raymond saw this, he didn't continue to walk but stood in the middle of the street. A truck honked at him, then yelled out the window calling him an idiot, but the driver didn't realize he had autism. This situation seems very sad to me because Raymond didn't understand that he should of continued to cross the street even though the sign said, "don't walk".

This movie gave a very realistic portrayal of the psychological concept. The actor who played Raymond executed the role perfectly. The movie gave the sense that you could really feel the hardship between his...