Tri County Relevance of Fiction Reading on Experience

Excerpts from Service Entries that describe the relationship between our fiction readings and our volunteer work:

Motherless Brooklyn

-Excerpt from Vonna's Journal Entries: When Todd and I were talking about previous places of employment, he mentioned that he used to be an Assistant Produce Manager at a grocery store near his house. This, coupled with his expression that he found his current job mundane helped me see that just like Lionel in Motherless Brooklyn and all people who are disabled, Todd is capable of much more than people without disabilities give him credit for. Many times in Motherless Brooklyn, people treat Lionel like he is less intelligent than someone who doesn’t have a disability, and I got the indication from my second volunteer experience that people like Todd have faced situations like this also.

-Excerpt from Rachel's Journal Entries: In relation to our discussions in class, this experience brought to me a new perspective at how hard Lionel had to work to prove his position as a detective in Motherless Brooklyn. The disabled workers at Tri-County Association for the Blind work extremely hard at what they do in order to prove themselves as competent employees. Like Lionel, every employee has to work extra hard in order to establish rank within the organization. I just thought it was interesting to see the comparison between the real life situation as opposed to the story told on the page.

-Excerpt from Charlotte's Journal Entries: Looking back at this experience, I am reminded of Motherless Brooklyn. As I read the novel, I found it strange that the people Lionel interacted with accepted his Tourettes so readily. I was always distracted by his symptoms and found it hard to understand how the other characters did not seem mind his outbursts. By working with the woman at the Tri-County Association for the Blind, I am beginning to understand that the disability does not define the person. I enjoyed talking with her, as I gradually became more comfortable interacting with her.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

-Excerpt from Caroline's Journal Entries: While working at the Association, the mailman came and Jim asked me to tell him who was at the door. After the mailman left, Jim explained to us that sometimes people come into the building and are disrespectful. They try to take advantage of the fact that the workers are blind. I found this to be horrifying. It is hard to believe that people would actually do this. It led me to think back to our class discussions of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and how Gilbert would lift kids up to the window to make a mockery of his mother. The fact that people come into the building and take advantage of the blind workers is related to this example, because they too are making a mockery of the workers at the Association.

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