Forrest Gump, Raymond Babbit, And Real Life And Characteristics Of Savants

1306 Words3 Pages

Sally Dibbs, Dibbs Sally. 461-0192 ."(Rain Man). This quote shows the remarable talent of a savant being able to remember a person from reading the phone book the night before .. This happens in literature as well as in life for those who live with savant syndrome. Forrest Gump, Raymond Babbit, and real-life savant Kim Peek all deal with the fact they are not the same as everyone else. Though dealt certain mental deficiencies, savants, whether fictional or real, all excel in there own ways. Savants are people who despite serious mental or physical disability have quite remarkable, and sometimes spectacular, talents (Hiles, 2002). Dr. J. London first described the syndrome in 1887, who also had discovered Down Syndrome in years earlier. He found that savants have a highly developed ability to play music or to solve complex math equations at great speeds. Savants usually have an IQ in the moderate mental retardation range. the mental state of a savant can be classified as being autism or mental retarded. These skills exist within a very narrow range of human abilities. ( Hiles, 2002). One in every two -thousand savants occurs in an institutionalized mentally retarded person. One in ten are found in autistic people. Savants usually live with someone else, in some cases they are able to live on the re own. Savants have been divided into two main categories in the ... ... middle of paper ... ...rimitive style to elegant-and-fine art. Alonzo, now in his mid-twenties, lives a home for people with mental retardation in Boulder, Colorado. His loving mother, Evelyn, visits him there very often. "To this day he continues to produce beautiful works of art and proves idiot savants really do exist." (Wisconsin Medical Society 38) With these three examples helped prove that, though dealt certain mental deficiencies, savants whether fictional or real still excel in some aspect of their lives. Being a shrimp boat captain, a Vegas card shark, or a famous artist these three men showed that they were worth more than what others estimated about them. It also proves that no matter what you are given in life there is always a way to achieve more. Mrs. Evelyn Clemons sums it up as she states "God takes, but God gives so much in return". These are truly words to live by.

More about Forrest Gump, Raymond Babbit, And Real Life And Characteristics Of Savants

Open Document