Genie: Social Isolation

This was one of the most interesting cases in my opinion, which we have so far learned about. It was amazing to me first of all how a person could go undetected in those conditions for that amount of time. It was also extremely mind boggling how people could treat their own child like that, which really made me wonder the type of morals and views that those parents were brought up with. It made me extremely sad to realize all of the wonders of life that Genie was deprived of. She had been locked in that room for over ten years, which means she was practically nonexistent to the world, and had never experienced things we all take for granted every day. I truly do not know how she survived in that type of torturous confinement for ten years. However, it was encouraging to see the efforts of all the people who truly became wrapped up in Genie's case, and the hope that she would have a learning capacity. It was amazing to me to know that she was really a fourteen year old girl, yet to hear her speak she sounded like a toddler. I found it interesting to see her progress from knowing no English words, to being fascinated by the labeling with words of all the new objects around her. It seemed to me as if she knew a language existed for everything, but was frustrated because she could not realize her goal and put words to objects quickly enough. I found it interesting to see Genie pick up the patterns of language recognition, but not commonly as it happens in children, however, it seemed as though you were teaching an old dog new tricks. I was disappointed at the ending of the film, because for me there was no good conclusion, or happy fairy tale ending that I expected. I assumed that Genie could possibly learn how to act as a normal human being, but at the conclusion I did not see signs of that happening. All in all, I was just utterly shocked at the severity of this isolation case. I never imagined people having the capacity to tie their own child to a potty chair and keeping her locked in a room that way for an entire decade.