Examining Disability in “Almonds”: Challenging Perceptions and Stereotypes

We will examine the perception of disabled people in 『Almonds』, a well-known children’s novel about disability, and read this novel from the perspective of disability.

The novel “Almond” is the story of a boy who is born with alexithymia due to a congenitally small amygdala.

Alexithymia is called “Alexithymia”, but it is a difficult and unknown name. What is different from a psychopath is not the main topic of this article, so I will skip it.

almond. ©pixabay.com

Are disabled people monsters?

On protagonist Yunjae’s sixteenth birthday, Christmas Eve, an unrealistic and unusual accident causes his mother to fall into a brain-dead state and his grandmother to die.

The introduction to the book says, “Once you are left alone, you are branded a monster by the prejudices of the world,” but in reality, before she was left alone, his grandmother also called her grandson a monster.

“My nephew is a monster, the most adorable monster in the world.”

Of course, he was purified and portrayed as a lovable monster, but the author’s view of the disabled person as a monster is revealed if he is different from others. How would you feel if I described a physically disabled person as a “cute monster”? It’s not an expression of love, it feels like teasing and it’s a strange expression no matter how you feel about it. The grandmother says she calls the protagonist that because she loves him, but it is uncomfortable to accept it.

The clear evidence that the author sees disabled people as monsters is because the speaker’s thoughts are expressed in the word monster even in the prologue.

“This story is about me, a monster, meeting another monster.”

The term “monster” is a distorted expression for people with disabilities, so it should not be used.

Almond topping. ©NamuWiki

Should disabled people remain silent?

The teaching method that a mother teaches her child who cannot express his emotions is to stay silent and not be noticed. This type of education is a chronic educational method of Koreans. It is a typical educational method that kills geniuses who are different from others or socially disadvantaged disabled people, and it is the method taught in military regimes and industrialized societies.

Why is the mother so obsessed with survival?

This may be due to the current state of our society, where survival is important, but it is also due to the lack of deep awareness towards people with disabilities. The obsession with being equal and the inability to tolerate even the slightest difference from others leads to prejudice and discrimination against people with disabilities.

What if the speaker’s mother’s upbringing had been a little different?

For example, consider the inability to feel emotions as a gift from God and find a job suitable for this. Personally I think there are more jobs like this than you might think. For example, professions such as butcher and undertaker.

The mother determines the correct response to the emotion and informs the child. Human emotions are unique and precious, but we try to control and adapt to them. They seem to say it’s better to live a normal life.

This type of education is dangerous as it teaches the correct response even to the subtle emotions that are the reason for the survival of a unique entity. Because this is coercive education from the perspective of nondisabled people rather than the perspective of disabled people, the actual violence inflicted on the speaker is significant. Objectively speaking, forcibly teaching emotions because the speaker doesn’t feel them is a very dangerous teaching method.

“If you are silent when you should be angry you are patient, if you are silent when you should laugh you are serious, if you are silent when you should cry you are strong.”

I don’t understand why an emotionless speaker would get angry and smile, but it’s bittersweet because he seems to be praising a human being whose silence is golden and whose patience becomes a virtue only when he endures it.

One thing that worries me is what will happen if the speaker becomes a child who resists even if his emotions return to some degree.

“’Thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry’ were something I had to say as a habit, and those two words were the magic words that got me out of a difficult situation.”

A different interpretation of this is that disabled people should be people for whom we should be unconditionally grateful and sorry. The author’s distorted view of disabled people is expressed through the mother’s mouth.

common sense questions

It is said that this novel was written based on facts but with the addition of the author’s imagination, but I had a common sense question.

* Can a speaker be interested in a TV cartoon about defeating a villain when he can’t feel emotions?

*Not being afraid of cars seems to be a cognitive problem, but I don’t know if it’s an amygdala problem because I haven’t done extensive research, but I think it’s closer to an animal instinct. Just like dogs avoid cars when they pass by.

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