My Left Foot Essay, Research Paper

Often enough, it is very hard to muster up enough courage to begin working on that lab report or thesis paper that is becoming closer to being due. I experienced this feeling when putting my own thoughts together for the writing of this particualr paper. The ambition needed to commence a writing is often very hard to come across for many people, while others find it very easy to become motivated to write that paper. Motivation comes in many forms. For example, motivation to look for a job. Personality, on the other hand, is a persons consistant behavioral traits. Such traits may include: kindness, patience, intelligence, friendly, organization, dedication, and fairness. In the movie, My Left Foot, the mother displays both motivational and unique personality traits.

Starting with motivation, i ask the question, what stimulates motivation? Most anything can stimulate motivation-money, sucess, and recognition are just a few examples. Motivation is defined as “a goal directed behavior”. Incentive is closely related to motivation. Incentive is an outside goal that has the ability to stimulate actions. Laid back and uptight are just two examples of a personality trait. Personality is what makes a person who they are. Personality is defined differently by everyone, everyone has their own unique personality. Personality is the way a person acts, feels and portrays themselves to others. It’s what makes Eddie Murphy funny and Mother Theresa kind. Personality creates the character in movies like My Left Foot.

My Left Foot is an inspirational movie about a young man (Christie) who has cerebral palsy from birth. He seems to be a smart child, but no way to show it. He must deal with childhood and adolecsence with a severe handicap. Life is hard for him. His mother is 100% supportive, as are his siblings, but his father is reluctant to even touch the child. The father calls him “a cripple” and other degrating names. Christie endures life in a neighborhood where all the children seem to shy away from his condition. Little by little, Christie is accepted into the group of friends and begins to feel more accepted. After scraping chalk on the floor to spell “Mother”, Christie now has a method of communication to the outside world. In order to better communicate with his family, Christie takes up painting and writing. Since he has no use in his hands (or a very advanced use of his voice), he must resort to another mode of getting his thoughts and feelings down on canvas and paper.

Christie’s mother plays a big part in his childhood. She is the one to take care of all his needs, because he cannot do most things by himself. She feeds him dinner, clothes him, takes him for walks, and ultimatly waits on him like a servent would. You could say that Christie’s mother is extremely motivated to help Christie grow and develop as a child and then later as an adolecsent. She decided to save money for a wheelchair for Christie and was motivated by his eagerness to move about. Christie’s mother is a loving mother, she helped him whenever he needed to be helped. Any mother would do something like that for her child, but with Christie being helpless, it takes much more dedication. She is a caring mother, not just to Christie, she cares for each child in the family as well as her husband. Sometimes there is a frustrated feel to Christie’s mother. It seems like the full time job of being a caregiver can get tiresome and tedious. Many scenes she is seen carrying Christie up and down the stairs, a very tiresome job as he grows larger. She is willing to be a servent to her family, especially to Christie. She makes all the meals and offers to help out whenever needed. Maybe most of all, she is a great encourager to the family. She encourages Christie to continue with his paintings and his fight to function as normal as possible. When Christie felt that his paintings were no good, she came through and told him that they were beautful pieces of artwork.

My Left Foot is full of examples of motivation from the mother. Her whole mindset towards life seemed to be motivated by the thought that her son could function as a real man would. Her personality shined through and brought sanity to the family. The movie made me see motivation in a whole new view. It shows how motivated a mother can be to help her family when in need. If a woman can use motivation to change her son’s life, think about how easy it must be to use it for everyday things.