The Black Balloon - Essay Example

?The Black Balloon How would you describe Maggie’s personality? Maggie is pregnant and she has a sweet but responsible personality. She has a lot of things to do while she is pregnant but she still keeps a smile on her face. Normally, people would expect someone to get frustrated and angry all the time if they have to go through what Maggie does, day in and day out. Despite the fact that she’s pregnant heavily she still manages to joke with her son who is suffering from autism. She does act sometimes careless, as she is too fun. For instance when her husband gets her back from the doctor, she is supposed to rest and stay in bed otherwise she might risk having a stroke but she ignores the advice and takes Charlie to bathe. The husband seems very concerned but Maggie ignores all his concern and does what she feels like doing. She seems like one of those people who don’t stress too much about tomorrow. Those who live in the present moment and want to make the most of what they have. People like Maggie don’t complain or cry about what life throws at them and gladly laugh and enjoy their time. She is never shown stressed for one time during the whole film. Thomas and his dad stress out and get angry and sometimes break down but she is the one that holds them together and encourages them. Even when she is pregnant with a baby girl, she doesn’t let the trying times take the best of her. When Charlie behaves odd she never flinches and loses her composure. Two incidents in the movie are enough to describe the strength of Maggie as a person. At one time Maggie is pregnant and Charlie makes a mess on the room carpet. She doesn’t curse Charlie and takes the brush and the bucket of water and starts cleaning it. Only when the husband arrives and sees her panting (a sign of her illness), he grabs her and takes her to the hospital otherwise she would have carried on scrubbing the carpet. And the other incident is when Thomas invites his girlfriend over to the dinner. Charlie upsets Jackie, Thomas’ girlfriend, by taking off his shorts and Thomas gets mad at him and starts beating him. That is an intense scene but Maggie stays strong and handles it all like a strong person. Maggie’s family and especially herself has to deal with a lot of stress and tense times but she is still in a nice mood. When she develops pre-eclampsia, she has high blood pressure but she is still strong, that counts for a lot. Simon understands his wife’s strong determination to take care of things and her resolute nature. But he also understands the condition she’s in and gets assertive to help her but sending her to the bed and not letting her do home chores. It is justified to call Maggie a great mother and a wonderful wife. She gets tested through very stressful times but in the end she keeps a smile on her face joking around with her husband, taking care of Charlie’s needs and happiness and also hugging Thomas and giving him a shoulder to cry on. Maggie is a hardworking responsible woman. How is her love for her sons expressed in the film? Maggie has two sons, Thomas and Charlie. Charlie has autism syndrome and requires constant supervision. Thomas is normal and is helpful. Maggie takes care of everything for Charlie. She knows how to take care of a person who has autism plus she shows all the motherly love a mother can for Charlie. She also teaches Thomas to help take care of Charlie but showing her how to give medicine to Charlie. There are many moments in the movie that feel like very testing for Maggie. Charlie constantly messes things up, like throwing eggs down on the floor then jumping on them and while eating he needs assistance which Maggie lovingly provides. There is an incident, which is quite intense. Thomas gets frustrated at his brother and gets into a fight with him physically by breaking his video game that their father brought. After the whole incident, Thomas breaks down and cries in the bathroom. Maggie understands what Thomas is going through and sits with her son on the bathroom floor and hugs him while he cries on his mom’s shoulder. Although the protagonist of the movie is not Charlie or his mother, but Maggie is the one who suffers the most with a smile on her face. Charlie is the challenge and she accepts this challenge with open arms. Patient of autism don’t always respond to usual methods of discipline (Fuentes, 2007, pp. 25-26) and Charlie behaves and reacts unusually. Maggie also has to cope with Charlie’s ADD, the attention deficit disorder which is the disorder of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsiveness (Oelke, 2005, pp. 5-6). Charlie throws away things that he dislikes and sometimes just smudges the floor with eggs and steps on them to have fun. She doesn’t get angry even at that but firmly teaches Charlie that it is something bad and he’s not supposed to repeat such behaviour. How would you describe her marriage to Simon? Maggie’s marriage to Simon is almost perfect. They have their moments. Maggie acts stubborn the way wives usually do but Simon loves her and cares for her immensely. She constantly pushes her to take care of her health and take rest. Both the husband and wife take care of the home chores. The movie starts when the whole family is moving to a new place, and Simon is doing the ‘major work around the house’. He looks calm and relaxed and enjoys what he does. Even when he’s drilling holes in the wood, he’s still cheerful; Maggie throws something at him and instead of getting angry or saying ‘let me work’ or ‘knock it off’, he playfully throws back that piece of cloth at Maggie and they both laugh. The most important parts of the happy looking couple is the fact that Simon is not only a loving husband but a very caring father, and given Charlie’s condition, he has tons of extra work to take care of. For instance, he needs to put locks on cabinets and shelves so that Charlie won’t put something harmful in his mouth. Simon is in military but he’s shown vacuuming and doing the dishes wearing an apron. He also helps with the laundry and takes care of his wife. When she is in the hospital, he is always by her side and takes care of her needs. What the husband and wife have to go through while taking care of Charlie can be extremely testing for any couple. But they are both patient and loving towards their children. Simon sometimes has to be stern as is necessary in times like these but still he is very patient. For instance, when Thomas and Charlie go into a fight, Simon pulls them apart. And when he is running late for work, he sternly tells Thomas that he can take the bus with Charlie, the bus for abnormal children. To this Thomas objects but Simon tells him straight away that he will go by that bus and that was final. He does get angry when Charlie makes a scene while paying at the counter of the shopping mall and drags him out of that place. Overall the husband and wife need each other. The kind of family they have, without either of them they will not be able to pull that off. If Maggie is doing the laundry, Simon is mowing the lawn. When Maggie is at the breakfast table feeding medicine to Charlie, Simon is cleaning the floor with a vacuum cleaner. It is a perfect combination of yin and yang. It is not a debate of who is better; it seems as if they are imperfectly perfect for each other and for the family. Despite of all the chaos Maggie and Simon go through they still adore each other and apparently they have a very intimate life. Simon continually jokes with Maggie about that ‘special attention’ and even after taking care of Charlie, he is still in a jolly mood. He doesn’t seem depressed or worries about Charlie’s condition, he derives pleasure in knowing that Charlie is his own and that’s that. Maggie needs a supporting husband like Simon, which is why it works so well between the two. Simon is also protective of his family and Maggie is satisfied leaving Thomas and especially Charlie with him. They don’t have very friendly neighbours and constantly complain about Charlie’s ‘mischiefs’. Simon braves all the odds and takes it like a man. He courageously stands between his family and trouble. Maggie and Simon work well together. Simon is a loving caring and brave husband, a military man but never overly authoritative. He is the one who keeps the romance alive even after years of living under one roof. What particular demands might there be while caring for an 18-year old disabled son place on her time and energy? The 18 year old Charlie has autism and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). He is very demanding and definitely puts Maggie to the most exhausting test. Charlie requires constant supervision and, Maggie is pregnant. There are medicines that Charlies needs to be fed on time and the motherly love that nourishes his soul, Maggie is never withholding in either the department of love and care. Maggie is not a young woman; she doesn’t have the energy a person has in his/her 20s or 30s. She needs to take rest from the life she is living under Charlie’s demands. She loses her composure once when Charlie makes a mess on the room carpet; she gets angry and sternly tells Charlie that it was bad what he did. But no one can blame her, she is heavily pregnant and she is not supposed to leave the bed but she has to get up and take care of Charlie. The whole scenario becomes extremely difficult when pregnancy is added to Maggie’s problems. It is simply not a matter of her putting up with the demands of an 18 year old autistic child, she is pregnant and that is itself a very stressful time for a female. Moreover she develops pre-eclampsia and then takes care of Charlie. The stress is not only mental, it’s hormonal; it simply cannot be ignored or considered trivial. During pregnancy lymphocytes are released by the humoural immune systems that decrease their response to proinflammatory cytokines. Stress interferes with this process and cortisol decreases lymphocytes, which is a source of protein and the end result is high levels of proinflammatory cytokines (Chambers, 2007, pp. 16-17), so the stress is real and is very demanding for Maggie. On top of this, she puts up with the demands of Charlie who by growing up, becomes more difficult to control. Thomas invites Jackie to his birthday and while sitting at the table she asks if Charlie will ever be able to speak. To this Thomas says “yes”, while Maggie very realistically says “probably not”. Charlie could have started speaking or had shown signs of improvements when he enter adolescent but he never showed any improvement. His body, his muscles and his messes are getting bigger but not his cognitive development. Sometimes even taking away ‘stars’ from his performance chart don’t work, and Maggie has to constantly come up with different ways to make Charlie do things. So there are times that she scolds him, sometimes she lovingly and affectionately pleads him and sometimes she entices him with a treat or something that interests him. And she has to do all of this with pre-eclampsia, which is enigmatic in its nature (Cooper & Roberts, 2001). It is not clear in the movie weather Maggie genetically conceives this disease (pre-eclampsia), as pre-eclampsia is an extreme end of a scale, which common in all pregnancies that has multiple contributing factors (Redman & Sargent, 2003), yet it does affect her severally. She gets frustrated as her blood pressure shoots up and she gets upset at her husband for being too protective of her. Moreover, Charlie represents a classic case of ADD where he exhibits what the experts call “difficult temperament” (Frates, 2001, pp. 22-23), and can really tire the caretaker, which in this case is Maggie. Other members do join in to help her but no one can replace the love of a mother. This is expressed when Thomas and Simon take Charlie to shopping and he creates a scene by crying and kicking on the floor. Simon loses his temper and drags him out of there while spanking him, only to prove that Maggie would handle him differently. Is she able to successfully juggle the demands of her family with her own needs for time and rest? She is very successful in juggling her family needs and her own time and rest. She is simply a wonderful mom. Other women might probably crack under the stress and the tremendous pressure that Maggie has to face. She is always there when her family needs her. She takes care of every need of her family. However, there are times when Thomas feels isolated because his mom is always doting upon Charlie who definitely needs more attention. Maggie does her best but that’s all a human can do. In fact she is a wise woman and faces reality with heart. Thomas is always wishing that his brother would get normal again but Maggie knows that it will not happen. She even knows this for fact that Charlie won’t even be able to talk again. Maggie is always willing to pay more attention and time to Charlie and home chores, neglecting her own rest and leisure. If it were not for her husband, she would tire and exhaust herself out. So as far as the question of juggling two things; her own life and her family life, is concerned, she doesn’t juggle, she simply devotes her life to her family. She takes very little time for herself, even after she develops pre-eclampsia, a condition during pregnancy that can be fatal. Almost 13% of the women that die during pregnancy die due to pre-eclampsia in Australia (aihw.gov.au). A disease is absence of health (White, 2009, pp.17-18). Autism, ADD and pre-eclampsia are all diseases that Maggie is coping with, both directly and indirectly. It is not at all easy what she is going through. She has a high blood pressure and pants when she’s doing laborious work. But still, no one can find any lacking in her motherly or wifely duties. Maggie gets more than full points for taking care of her family needs. It is not anyone’s fault because everyone is doing their best to support the family. Although Thomas feels a little rejected by his mother as she needs to not only watch but supervise an adult (Charlie) yet he is always there for Charlie even when he hates it. He fully understands Maggie’s condition as pre-eclampsia is a major cause of maternal mortality (Sibai, Dekker & Kupferminc, 2005) and many other complications. There are certain emotional complications that are attached with pregnancy and Maggie seems to show some of them. For instance she compulsively washes the dishes while her husband tells her not to lift even a finger. This happens as it gets difficult for pregnant women to observe their own behaviour and communicate their emotional complications to their partners (Misri, 2002, pp. 3-4). What Maggie exhibits is probably an overdrive of taking care of her duties that compel her to take care of the house without caring for her pregnancy. After mental relaxation, emotional relaxation is the second hardest form of relaxation to learn for a pregnant woman (Weiss, pp. 218-219), and it clearly shows in the behaviour of Maggie. If it wasn’t for caring on Simon’s part, Maggie would have probably done something harmful to her health. The only thing that relaxes her was the wellbeing of her family and that is why she was driven by her hormones, ignoring her own health. What slightly unusual significance does ‘bath time’ have in this family? Charlie has a condition and he is scared of water. He can’t stand rain and gets frightened. He can only take bath when her mom gives it to him, like a mom gives to her baby. Charlie feels at ease when his mother talks to him in a soothing motherly voice. He trusts her and doesn’t want to take anything even medicine from anyone else. The first time he takes medicine from Thomas is when his mom tells him that it’s alright. The next time Thomas has to wrestle him down to put the medicine in his mouth. Charlie cannot take care of himself. He can’t even eat food without assistance and has a habit of putting unhygienic and inappropriate things in his mouth, taking bath is beyond him. This all is happening during Charlie’s emerging adulthood, the phase where there is a transition from adolescent to adulthood (Arnett & Tanner, 2006). Charlie is almost an adult and giving an autistic big boy a bath is not easy, but Maggie is always there for this task. The whole family doesn’t have an issue with the bath time, it is Charlie and he has an issue with bathing. Children with autism have a difficult time communicating but this doesn’t mean they don’t have a thought process going on in their head. In fact their thoughts very literal and concrete (Dodd, 2004, pp. 58-59), and to cope with this Maggie develops a review schedule, a program for Charlie to keep him in check. Maggie puts a chart with the title of Charlie right on the fridge door. This chart has boxes for sticking stars. The stars are given to Charlie for obeying or not misbehaving. So when Maggie wants Charlie to obey (like taking bath, eating food or taking medicine etc.) she tells him that she will give her a star and that is a very effective performance check for Charlie. Bath time can also turn dangerous if Charlie swallows anything dangerous. Charlie is the type three of ADD, which is the hyperactive-impulsive type (Silver, 2004, pp. 20-21), and that requires strict supervision. So to protect Charlie from harming or injuring himself, he needs to be supervised while taking a bath. And towards the end of the movie, Thomas accompanies him in bathing when he finally accepts Charlie for he is, rather than wishing that he was normal. Works Cited Arnett, JJ & Tanner, JL 2006, The new life stage between adolescent and young adulthood. Routledge. London. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. N.d. Maternal perinatal and infant conditions. viewed 14 Oct 2012, http://www.aihw.gov.au/search/?q=pre-eclampsia Barkway, P 2009, Psychology for health professionals, Elsevier, Chatswood. Chambers, AS 2007, Relaxation during pregnancy to reduce stress and anxiety and their associated complications. ProQuest. Ann Arbor. Cooper DW & Roberts JM 2001, Pathogenesis and genetics of pre-eclampsia, The Lancet, vol. 357, no. 9249, January, pp. 53-56 Frates, EF 2001, Attention deficit disorders: A neurological diagnostic perspective. Dissertation Library. USA. Dodd, S 2004, Understanding autism. Elsevier. Marrickville. Fuentes, C 2007, Autism. Lulu publishers. Misri, S 2002, Shouldn’t I be happy? Emotional problems of pregnant and postpartum women. The Free Press. New York. Oelke, J 2005, Natural choices for attention deficit disorder: For adults and children who want to achieve mental clarity. Natural Choices Inc. Benton Harbor. Redman, CWG & Sargent, IL 2003, Pre-eclampsia, the Placenta and the Maternal Systemic Inflammatory Response—A Review, Placenta, vol. 24, supplement. A, April, pp. 21-27 Sibai, B, Dekker, G & Kupferminc, M 2005, Pre-eclampsia, The Lancet, vol. 365, no. 9461, March, pp. 785-799 Silver, LB 2004, Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A clinical guide to diagnosis and treatment for health and mental health professionals. American Psychiatric Publishing. Arlington. Weiss, ER 2004, The everything pregnancy fitness. Adams Media. Avon. White, K 2009, An introduction to the sociology of health & illness, SAGE Publications. London. Read More