Ligaya A.

Delos Santos
BS Architecture
General Psychology

Philadelphia

Discrimination has been and always will be a major problem in society. There
are many different types of discrimination; some examples are racial, sexuality,
gender, religion, health, and social status. An individual cannot get through
difficult times without family support, and being able to openly talk about things.

In this film, Tom Hank’s character Andrew Becket was faced with a
difficult situation. He was diagnosed with a very infectious disease known as HIV
or AIDS. Andy worked in a very successful law company, and did not want the
disease to cause him to be discriminated against by customers, or other people
in his office. The thought of losing his job was very scary for Andy, so he kept
the information about his health private. Eventually people within the company
started to notice things about Andy change. Things that they saw change were
his personality, weight, motivation, and the quality of his work. They were also
noticing marks on his body that were over time increasing in number. Not too
long after he was fired from the law firm. The reason’s his boss’s gave for being
fired did not make since to Andy. Andy was faced with a difficult situation, would
he fight for his rights against his old company, or would he let it go. He decided
to speak up and defend himself and other people faced with a similar situation.
In the beginning while trying to get the case started Andy was again faced with
discrimination. He went to a friend, Joe Miller, who was also a lawyer and asked
him to represent him. After telling him why he was fired Joe did not want to have
any contact with him either. As soon as Andy found out about his disease his
partner and family were with him, supporting him.

Having a support system is important when dealing with serious illness or

disease. As discussed in the book there are two main categories of social
support. The first category is action-facilitating, this is performing tasks and
favors for the sick in order to make it easier for them. The second is nurturing
support; this builds the patients self-esteem and allows them to talk about their
illness. It allows them to express their emotions and lets them know you are
aware that they are dealing with something. There are several ways to support
an individual with a disease, talking to them, allowing them to vent, support them
in treatments, and talk about the bigger picture with them. The worst thing
someone dealing with a serious illness is to be alone, constant support is
important.

In the film, Andy did not know how to approach his employers about his
illness. This was discussed in one of the articles for our small group discussions.
In this article one of the women had a disease that was only affecting her inner
self. She had trouble dealing with this, because she did not want to be
discriminated against by colleagues or even her students. People in the public
were discriminating her against. She was using a handicap sticker; to other
people she looked perfectly healthy. In this situation her family was not
supporting her, but a woman she works with told her about a support group.
These support groups allowed her to hear of other situations people are dealing
with, with their health and how to deal with her own.

Being discriminated against for diseases and other things is very

emotionally draining for most people. One cannot get through a difficult situation
without emotional support. Being able to understand your own situation and
understand how to tell others is difficult. Talking to other people with a similar
disease or illness might be the only way to fully understand their own situation