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Maggie is a strong caring mother who seems to put up with anything life throws at her. She is a parent/career to two teenage boys, one being special needs. Maggie is heavily pregnant in the start of the film and towards the end has a baby girl. Taking care of Charlie is very challenging thing but Maggie never gives up and helps Charlie. She focuses a lot of time into taking care of Charlie and the reproduction because of this is that her other son Thomas doesn’t get as much attention and struggles a lot more.

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Simon can definitely give punishment but fairly while doing some work and also giving Thomas and Charlie lessons in various thing such as teaching Thomas to drive and teaching Charlie to not knock stuff off of tables like an annoyed cat

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Charlie seems to be happy when he is around Jackie
Charlie get the most sense of achievement when his brother Thomas starts to play with him like when thomas starts to tap the stick on the ground

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Charlie seems to be most happy when he is around his family and especially around Thomas and his mum and Jackie, During the morning charile hangs around the clothesline  and taps a wooden spoon on the concrete, he must like the tapping sensation. Charlie also loves the playing video games.

Charlie feels a sense of achievement when Thomas plays with him or when they play video games with each other

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One symbol that I believe represents difference is the special education bus that only Thomas and the students with a disability go on. You can see how the students are treated differently as you can see the other students not on the bus throwing things and teasing the Kids on the bus. That is the main reason that I believe that the bus itself is a symbol because it is a clear divider of how the students are treated a viewed with the disabled students being cast in a view that they are in need of special treatment and cannot handle tasks such as walking to school, where as the regulars students are shown as self reliant being able to walk themselves.

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Respond to the following film techniques?

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Respond to the following film techniques?

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The specific film techniques used throughout the film were mostly long shots to show the scenery, close ups to show characters emotions and facial expressions, non diegetic sound including music for emotional scenes, loud noises to express frustration and anger. These film techniques enabled us to feel empathy towards the Morrison family because it seemed like the Morrison family were the only family that had struggles and were going through a few hardships with Charlie’s disability and Maggie’s pregnancy.

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How is her love for her sons expressed in the film?

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How is her love for her sons expressed in the film?

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Maggie shows her love for her sons by always having there backs and being thoughtful.

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What demands does caring for Charlie place on maggies health?

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What demands does caring for Charlie place on maggies health?

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Some demands that may affect her health are Charlie needing a bath or making him food as even when she is pregnant she is still doing her regular jobs even when told to rest.

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How are the difficulties of moving to a new school/home shown

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How are the difficulties of moving to a new school/home shown

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Thomas struggles to fit in on the swim team. He doesn’t know how to swim. He doesn’t know anyone at school, which is hard for him. At school he doesn’t want anyone to know they Charlie is his brother, because he thinks everyone will bully/tease him about it, which they did.

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What activities give him pleasure and a sense of achievement?

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What activities give him pleasure and a sense of achievement?

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I think Charlie got a lot of pleasure from tapping his spoon and the sound that it would make, I also think Charlie really liked his monkey hat which also gave him a lot of pleasure.

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Strange but endearing qualities of Simon

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Strange but endearing qualities of Simon

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The biggest and most obvious one is talking to a teddy bear he named Rex that constantly “tells him” to do and not do things as “he” sees fit

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Describe 3 scenes in the film that show Thomas sharing his daily life with Charlie

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Describe 3 scenes in the film that show Thomas sharing his daily life with Charlie

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1. The scene where Thomas has to chase Charlie up and around the neighbourhood represents the difficulties of controlling a child with a disability, it points out how hard Thomas tries to help his family with Charlie to eventually be beaten by his parents for not “locking the door”
2. The scene under the pipe where Jackie and Thomas lay together explaining how their life’s had been suffering with similar challenges, Jackie’s being losing her mum at a young age and Thomas’ being him having to look after Charlie.
3. The scene where Thomas sits out on the grass with Charlie banging a stick and acting like him as he finally accepts Charlie for who he is, no matter how disabled or weird he may be.

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Do you think the parents place too much responsibility on Thomas to look after Charlie?

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Do you think the parents place too much responsibility on Thomas to look after Charlie?

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I think the parents do place too much on Thomas and it holds him back but at the same time it’s his own brother and he should be there to help but not constantly. Thomas is sort of relied on to care for Charlie and take him whenever he goes but sometimes Thomas should be allowed to live his own life and not have to worry about Charlie.

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How would you describe Maggie’s personality ?

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How would you describe Maggie’s personality ?

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Maggie a very strong are caring mother. She takes care of all her family and always makes sure that everyone included. Even when she is struggling she always putting herself out for others.

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Describe how Thomas’s responsibilities make him feel?

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Describe how Thomas’s responsibilities make him feel?

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I believe Thomas’s responsibilities make him feel overwhelmed and feel like he has no freedom to do what he wants as he is only 16 this causes him to hate Charlie and wish he was normal.

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Demands caring for Charlie has on Maggie’s health

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Demands caring for Charlie has on Maggie’s health

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The most likely demand is having enough patience and calm to try to get Charlie to get into a good habit and not into someone that constantly needs attention 24/7 and to try to control his actions, plus the boat load of stress and paranoia that comes of leaving Charlie around the house by himself

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There are certain Film techniques used in this film to creature a more vivid representation of what living with having a disability is like for Charlie and for the people around Charlie. This helps show how Charlie and everyone around him  feels, and hear with what goes on with him. In this film certain sounds are magnified or played repeatedly to show how Charlie hears thing. Some sounds are played over and over as a repetitive annoying noise to show how people around Charlie feel with the way he makes noises.

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How do you describe Maggie’s personality?

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How do you describe Maggie’s personality?

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Maggie is a stay at home mother who is, in reality holding the whole house together because her husband is either off at work or not doing anything around the house because of his teddy ‘Rex’. She try’s to equally take care of all her kids but Charlie is the who ends up with h most attention because of his disability.

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How would you describe Maggie’s personality?

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How would you describe Maggie’s personality?

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Maggie is a hardworking mum of 2 with another on the way for the majority of the movie. She is strong willed and always wants to help her family and put there needs first even when it puts hers in danger. She is very stressed as she is the main carer for Charlie but she gets through it.

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How would you describe Maggie’s marriage with Simon?

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How would you describe Maggie’s marriage with Simon?

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Maggie’s relationship with Simon is a very strong one even though they have a few arguments here and there but they make sure that there both looking after each other and helping one another by taking turns in cooking or looking after Thomas and Charlie so the other one can relax.

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How are the themes of disability, family and adolescence represented?

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How are the themes of disability, family and adolescence represented?

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Disability is represented as Charlie as he has autism and has trouble fitting in with the other students. Family is represented when all the neighbours are getting annoyed at Charlie for banging his spoon on the floor so Thomas goes outside and annoyed them even more. Adolescence is also described when Thomas falls in love with Jackie and he is looking at a magazine in the grocery store

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How are the difficulties of moving to a new school/home shown?

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How are the difficulties of moving to a new school/home shown?

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Is has shown to be hard at times with settling in and making friends, the neighbours seemed to be quite judgmental of Charlie an his autism, and the kids at Thomas’s school didn’t seem to be very inclusive straightaway they also were judgmental towards Thomas’s family, except for Jackie.

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Do you think the parents place to much responsibility on Thomas to look after Charlie

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Do you think the parents place to much responsibility on Thomas to look after Charlie

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Maggie is heavily pregnant at the start of the film, and it was hard for her to fully take care of Charlie when she was on bed rest, Simon works a full time job in the army to support the family. Although Simon and Maggie are also busy in their live, Thomas should not be taking care of Charlie, he is only 16 and is still in school. It shouldn’t be his responsibility to take care of him all of the time. Simon would always be telling Maggie that she should be in bed when on bed rest, but she still has responsibilities as a mother to take care of Charlie because Thomas should not be doing it all of the time.

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What activities make Charlie happy or he enjoys?

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What activities make Charlie happy or he enjoys?

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Charlie enjoys playing his video game a lot especially when his dad bought him the new console. Charlie also enjoys going outside and hitting a stick on the footpath to the clothes line.

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Describe 3 scenes in the film that showed Thomas sharing his life with Charlie 

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Describe 3 scenes in the film that showed Thomas sharing his life with Charlie 

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first scene is when Charlie and Thomas are in the backyard playing with the spoon and sticks.
The second scene is where Thomas is with Jackie during the storm and he brought Charlie along with them
Third scene is where Thomas and Charlie are on stage being monkeys for the play during the second last scene of the movie

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Describe how Thomas’ responsibilities might make him feel?

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Describe how Thomas’ responsibilities might make him feel?

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Thomas’ responsibilities create barriers for him and he is held back because his responsibilities due to Charlie take over most of his life. This makes Thomas wish he had a “normal” brother and makes him feel like he’s constantly being held back or his life is “ruined” because of Charlie.

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NEW HOME. Thomas finds moving rather difficult as we can see by his school life as in the beginning he spends a lot of time by himself or getting harassed by his classmates by the swimming pool due to him not knowing how to swim. It singles him out, but after he meets Jacki he feels more at home.

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How does Maggie’s show her love to her kids in the film.

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How does Maggie’s show her love to her kids in the film.

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The producer of the film made Maggie show her love in different ways then a normal family would, like when Charlie would listen to her and be a good boy she would let him know that he was good and would give him a gold star. Then with Thomas when he got into the big fight with Charlie and there at the hospital and Thomas is worried about Charlie and is sitting in the bathroom crying and she walks in and knows that his worried about what he did so she reassures him and sits down hugging him and making sure his ok.

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How would You describe Maggie’s marriage with Simon?

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How would You describe Maggie’s marriage with Simon?

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There marriage is quite a strong relation ship due to Charlie’s disability which requires them to work together to look after him even though Simon is always working he’s always helping with what he can.

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In a singular word: serious as she regularly has to deal with Simon joking around and Simon trying to get her to chill out and relax to both try and show her that he’s capable of doing house work and trying to get her to rest when she’s pregnant

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Respond to the following questions-Maggie and Simon.

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Respond to the following questions-Maggie and Simon.

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Maggie’s personality is a very caring and sweet personality she is a really happy person.

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How would you like to describe her marriage to Simon?

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How would you like to describe her marriage to Simon?

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It is a loving and caring relationship but it does come with it’s troubles, not only with Charlie but with Simon and the traumas that he might have experienced in the army that lead him to think that a stuffed bear was actually talking to him and making him do things, this must have been hard for Maggie to have an autistic son, a troubled husband, a teenager and her being pregnant. That is a-lot of stress for one person.

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How are the themes of disability, family and adolescence represented?

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How are the themes of disability, family and adolescence represented?

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The following themes are represented multiple different ways in this move. Disability is represented by Charlie who is disabled. This movie shows some of the struggles related to disability and how it affects everyone in the house hold not just Charlie but his teenage brother, there parents, school kids, their neighbours etc.

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Thomas might feel overwhelmed with all the jobs he has to do with his brother to keep his safe. He also feel like that if people saw that Charlie is his brother then he might get bullied which would make Thomas feel sad

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1 of the 3 senesce shown in the movie when Thomas is caring about Charlie is when Thomas and Jackie are under a log. The second scenes is when Thomas is in the bath tub with his brother. The third scene is where Thomas dances with Charlie at the play.

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It is shown in the movie that when you move to a new school you get bullied if you new which is shown in the movie. Another way that it gets shown is when the next door neighbours start immediately calling Charlie a spastic and then they write a noise complaint.

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What symbols on the movie indicate difference and disability?

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What symbols on the movie indicate difference and disability?

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Right at the very start of the movie a bunch of red balloons are shown flying up shortly after they disappear a black balloon goes up. This symbolises people with disability’s are always left out or treated differently to everyone else.

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Her love for her son’s is shown by having her be extremely serious while having her talk to Simon about their sons and will even try to help out when she isn’t supposed to and still helping while heavily pregnant

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How are the themes, disability, family and adolescent represented?

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How are the themes, disability, family and adolescent represented?

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Disability is Represented through Charlie’s Ortism and his Disability school . Family is Represented through the strength there family has especially when Thomas starts to accept and Love Thomas.

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As soon as Thomas entered his new home with his family, the next door neighbours bombaterd thomas with questions asking why Charlie is a spastic.
Thomas was bullied at school for having a austistic brother and the bullies made fun of him and his brother throughout the film.

The 3 scences that show Thomas sharing is life with Charlie
1. Hiding under the shed while it’s raining with Jackie
2. Both Charlie and Thomas dance along with each other when performing a show
3. At the end of the movie both Thomas and Charlie are having a bath together

Thomas would/ could feel a bit ripped of because of the fact that Thomas has all of the response abilities of the house while Charlie does nothing cause of his disability

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Describe 3 scenes in the film that show Thomas sharing his life with Charlie?

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Describe 3 scenes in the film that show Thomas sharing his life with Charlie?

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First scene was when Thomas, Charlie and Jackie went out together. Second scene was when Thomas joined in with Charlie by hitting a stick on the ground. Third scene was at the end where they are both dancing on the stage.

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Thomas’ difficulties with moving to a new school/ home are shown when he gets bullied at school and the “popular” group doesn’t accept him. It also shows throughout the movie his struggles at home/ outside of school trying to look after Charlie while also trying to spend time with Jackie and live a “normal” teenage life.
In the movie there are a lot of scenes where Thomas is sharing his life with Charlie, like when Thomas and Jackie snuck into the a shooting range and spent the day together, Charlie was also there or when they walked home from school together, they walked with Charlie too.

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How are the difficulties of moving to a new school/home shown?

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How are the difficulties of moving to a new school/home shown?

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This is shown when Thomas was arriving at a new school and having to get used to the people around him, as straight away it’s shown that the “Popular Kids” begin to jump onto his case by bullying him for having to wear the Swimming Trunks that only “weirdos” wear. (This is only one of the things he has to adapt to) we can also see how Thomas had to adapt to this new school seeing how the students treat the kids riding the “Special ED” bus, calling them “Spastics, Retards, Idiots” and other slurs” this is something society itself has adapted to treating people with disabilities in this way whilst presenting it in a dramatic way. Because of this we can see that this is a way the movie is proving its “Realism” to the viewer by re-in acting something you see from your day to day life.

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What demands does caring for Charlie place on her own health

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What demands does caring for Charlie place on her own health

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When she was pregnant and she was put on bed rest, she would still be taking care of him, which wasn’t good for her because she was on bed rest. She would always have to fight with him to take his medication, especially when she was pregnant

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How are the themes of disability, family, and adolescence represented

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How are the themes of disability, family, and adolescence represented

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The themes of disability in the movie are extremely represented by Charlie and the special requirements he needs to live like for him to have his medicine and for him to be walked to the special Ed bus everyday

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How would you describe Maggie’s personality 

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How would you describe Maggie’s personality 

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Maggie is hard-working and loud, a bit stressed but still loving to her family

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What are the difficulties of moving to a new school/home.

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What are the difficulties of moving to a new school/home.

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Some difficulties to moving regularly are having to make new friends at the schools and having to deal with Charlie adapting to his surroundings and people having to get used to Charlie.

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Charlie’s disability is viewed in the movie as a hinderance to his brother and one of the reasons his mother is so hard working and stressed out throughout her pregnancy. His condition effects the whole household and the people in the Naiborhood as we lean from his mother “Charlie you can’t keep running into peoples  houses and useing there toilet” from this statement we can tell that this has been a repeated issue. Tho later on in the movie Thomas comes to except the fact that his brother is stuck with this condition and that there was nothing Much he could do but support and monitor his brother with the help of Jackie. The theam of disability is consistent throughout the whole movie though it starts as a negative and ends on a positive.

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Do you think the parents place too much responsibility on Thomas to look after Charlie?

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Do you think the parents place too much responsibility on Thomas to look after Charlie?

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I think they do, Thomas is a kid himself an should not have to be depended on to look after Charlie, although he should help with Charlie and be a brother to him but he shouldn’t have to parent him. This must cause Thomas a lot of stress as a kid to be depended on to look after someone with as much troubles as Charlie.

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Themes of disability, family and adolescence

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Themes of disability, family and adolescence

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These themes are explored through the eyes of a high school student who lives with a mentally disabled brother and their parents. The disability part is mostly represented by Thomas’ brother Charlie and peoples reactions to him as well such as some people mocking him while others try to understand and help him, the family part is mostly with his parents and his brother who all try to work and understand each other (some more than others) and exploring the hardships they had while adolescence is about Thomas himself and the high schoolers around him, being embarrassed about actions and also dating Jackie for a good portion of the movie.

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Describe 3 scenes in the film that show Thomas sharing his life with Charlie 

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Describe 3 scenes in the film that show Thomas sharing his life with Charlie 

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When Thomas would be going out with Jackie, Charlie would go with them. In the end scene where they were in the bath together. Thomas is looking after Charlie and taking care of him all the time

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What demands does caring for Charlie have on her own health?

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What demands does caring for Charlie have on her own health?

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Maggie has no social life or friends because she’s too busy looking after Charlie. This can have an affect on her mental health.

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How are the themes of disability, family and adolescence represented?

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How are the themes of disability, family and adolescence represented?

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In the movie The Black Balloon it shows societies reaction towards disability and the barriers disability creates. It also shows the theme of adolescence with bullying, peer pressure, high school crushes and rumours and young love. The theme of family is also a big part in the movie and it shows some of the struggles they have with Charlie and that family is more than a home.

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How are the themes of disability, family, and adolescence represented?

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How are the themes of disability, family, and adolescence represented?

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Disability is heavily represented by Charlie and how in the start of nearly every school scene the Special Education bus was there.
Family was represented by the fact that majority of the movie was with Thomas and his family, also the fact that he finally accepts his family and Charlie at end of the movie knowing that he is never going to be normal again and that he is better the way he is now.
Adolescence was represented by Thomas taking a liking toward Jackie and the two dating toward the latter half of the movie.

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How do you describe Maggie’s personality?

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How do you describe Maggie’s personality?

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She is very caring, she knows how to calm Charlie and she is always on top of everything and never has a chance to sit down, The household is very dependent on her.

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How would u describe Maggie’s personality?

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How would u describe Maggie’s personality?

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Maggie is a very hard working mum that takes care of Charlie very well but also makes time for Thomas and does most of the chores around the house.

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Maggie is a hard working, loud, independent women