Little People Essay Research Paper Imagine walking

Little People Essay, Research Paper

Imagine walking down the street to your best friends house. As you are walking down the sidewalk, you notice a man and woman walking towards you. As the couple gets closer, you notice that they are laughing at something. You just walk by and put your head down. Next you come to a small tree hovering over the sidewalk, no need to duck. As you come to your friend s house, you reach up to ring the doorbell. Your friend comes to the door and looks through the peephole, but sees no one. You grab the rock that is next to the door and stand on it. You ring the bell once more. This time your friend sees you and lets you in. When you walk by him, he pats you on the head. You walk towards the kitchen while having a conversation, and because your not paying attention you boink your head on the corner of the kitchen table cutting it severely. Your friend tries to hide his snickering, and tells you that there are band-aids in the bathroom; while, your forehead is bleeding profusely. You run to the bathroom to find the band-aids, but when you notice that they are on the top shelf, just out of your reach. Could you imagine living with this problem everyday of your life? I couldn t. I couldn t imagine being a midget.

I looked at the Random House College dictionary to define the word midget. It said, an extremely small person.

Now, I know what you are probably thinking, what is the difference between a dwarf and a midget. And while using the same dictionary, I noticed a pretty big difference. It defined it as, a person who is considerably smaller than the average in stature or size, one who is not normally proportioned. A dwarf is one who is stunted in growth. They usually have a large head or are in some way not normally formed. However, a midget is one perfect in form and normal function, but like a tiny replica of the ordinary species. Today, whether you are a midget or a dwarf, neither one want to be called by those names. Billy Barty says, Most of us who are with a form of dwarfism prefer to be described as “Little People,” and please put the emphasis on the word “People.” We did not spring from the pages of a storybook or emerge from an enchanted forest. We are not magical beings, and we are not monsters. We are parents and sons and daughters. We are doctors and lawyers and realtors and teachers. We dream, cry, laugh, shout, fall in love, and make mistakes. We are no different from you.

There are many causes of short stature; such as, growth hormone secretion, chromomsomal abnormalities, malnutrition, thyroid deficiency, and disorders of bone formation are all examples of things that could cause someone to have this problem.

Now like everything in life, there are positive and negatives to being a little person. I would like to discuss these. First, I would like to talk about the negatives. As I said earlier, some people might give dirty looks, or make little jokes at ones expense. This could hurt someone s feelings after it has been done to them so many times. Also, I would think it would be tough for little people to get certain jobs. Some businesses that are in sales might not want them selling their product because they might believe that they will scare away customers. I think it would be hard for companies to give little people executive positions because they might think it would be hard for people to respect someone half their size. Another negative would be not being able to use certain stuff in your home. I saw a program on the Learning Channel, where one little person built his own house so that it would be accessible for him. He had the stairs made short for his tiny legs. He also had the light switches and other stuff moved down so that he could use them easier. It would be very expensive to build a house like this, and maybe not every little person could afford it. The last thing that I ll mention will be that I would think it would be tough for little people to go out to eat. Unless the restaurants are prepared and have a type of booster chair, I think it would be hard for them to reach their food.

Now, I would like talk about the positives of being a little person. I think the best thing about being a little person would be the fact that you would have instant friends. No one can hate a midget, you will probably get teased, but I think it would be worth it. I asked one Akron University student, Dustin Kodger, why he likes little people. He replied, Because they are small and cute. Now, I stated earlier that it is sometimes hard to find certain jobs. But in the entertainment industry, there are sometimes jobs that they can perform. There have been quite a few little people working in movie and television shows. In my opinion, the biggest star has been out for only about a year. His name is Verne J. Troyer, which of course is Minnie Me from Austin Powers 2. Verne played Mike Myers sidekick in this movie, which was a really big role. It is my opinion that Minnie Me was one of the better ideas of the movie, and also I don t think that a sidekick would have been as funny if he was of regular size. I recently found an article about

Verne from Entertainment Weekly where he told the magnazine the point in his career when he almost gave up, During the year-and-a-half dry spell he hit after 1994’s “Baby’s Day Out . Doing stunt work has to be fun,” he says, “but there aren’t too many roles that call for babies who need stunt doubles. He finally landed a role as a panda bear in “The Amazing Panda Adventure.”

The last couple positives that I want to talk are that they are able to fit in small places, and they can are in a low place easier than a person of the average size. I recently traveled in a corvette for a three hour trip. There were three of us in the car, so I had to sit in the back seat. And if you have seen a corvette, then I don t have to tell you that it would have been a lot easier if my legs were shorter. Now over the course of the semester, you have probably noticed that I am a pretty tall kid. And after a hard day work, I sometimes find it a pain to bend over to get an object. It would be easier sometimes if the object was at eye level.

By writing this paper, I hope I made you think about this subject. I hope if you ever see a little person that you will think about what they have to go through, the good and the bad. And remember to talk to them, as they are a person just like you and me.

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