Olive Juice Tastes Great to Everyone

This essay is about whether or not the mentally challenged can lead and live full happy lives. It is based on the movie, The Other Sister(Marshall, 1999 USA). It focuses on the role of Carla Tate and Daniel McMann. It also gives references to personal knowlegde, experiences and beliefs about the happiness of a mentally challenged person.

Olive Juice Tastes Great to Everyone

Have you ever seen the movie The Other Sister (Marshall, 1999 USA)? It is a romantic drama that focuses on the struggle of a mentally handicapped woman, Carla Tate. Carla Tate, played by Juliette Lewis, desperately seeks to claim her independence as a young responsible adult after being brought up in a Special Ed school for the majority of her life. Her two sisters, Carol and Heather, along with their father, fruitfully support Carla her in her efforts to achieve the status she longs for. Unfortunately, her mother is not quite ready to let her go into a world in which she believes will take advantage of her daughter and hurt her forever.

English: Genetics cause of mental retardation. fro...

Carla Abellana

Joshua Lederberg with Abe Ribicoff and Wendell Sta...

However, when Carla falls in love with an almost equally handicapped Daniel McMann, nothing, not even her overbearingly protective mother can stop Carla from venturing out into a world unknown to her until now.

Throughout the movie there were several major issues, the first one being the sexuality of Carla's Sister, Heather. Their mother, a prestigious and wealthy woman, could not deal with or except the fact that her eldest daughter was a lesbian. She was well known in the community and chose to pretend as if her daughter was going through a phase. The mother was in denial. Being in denial is one of Mrs. Tate's problems. She likes to evade the issue at hand. Second there are the conflicts between Carla...