Invisibility Performance Task
By Morgan Begley A1
What does it mean to be invisible? How can you raise awareness about invisible populations?
Introduction
Did you know that there is an invisible population? According to dictionary.com invisible means "not visible; not not perceptible by the eye"(Dictionary.com 1). The term invisible population is not referring to not being able to see them, but they are just overlooked and are never noticed this includes homeless people,illegal immigrants, and even blind people
3 Examples of Invisible Populations
Homeless Population (Newsela Homeless People Article)
There are many different types of homeless populations some of them include:
Being out on the streets:
- As you know many people are living out on the streets and are always asking for money. You probably have seen this before, and most likely you walk away.
- Explanation: This makes the homeless out on the streets feel invisible, even though you know they are there, you don't do anything to help them.
Hidden Homeless:
- "One in 30 of American children has no home, but these kids are not necessarily on the streets. They sleep on friends’ couches, in all-night diners or hop from motel to motel"(Newsela 1)
- Explanation: This shows that there are more homeless than we think, there people who are living in a motel one day, then they go to a friends house another.
Illegal Immigration (The Circuit)
Illegal Immigrants can feel invisible in a few ways. Them being:
Invisible by their parents:
- Many illegal immigrants can feel invisible by their parents. "The next morning I could hardly move.My body ached all over. I felt little control over my arms and legs."(Jimenez 69).
- Explanation: In this part of the short story the main character is exhausted of being overworked in the fields. Yes, you may say that he has to work to to be able to survive, but no one is even recognizing that he was being worked to much or too hard in the fields.
Invisible by the country:
- When there are people who are illegally in the country they cant do anything and can barely survive.
- Explanation:You can say that these people have come illegally, but that isn't fair. They have to hide in order to be able to stay in our country. They also have to work 15 hours a day just to get few dollars.This is how illegal immigrants can feel invisible from their country.
Blind Population (Things not seen)
Many blind people can feel invisible, just like the character Alicia in the book Things Not Seen, By Andrew Clements.
Invisible by other people:
- No one walks near her, no one even looks at her for more than a second(Clements 84).
- Explanation: This shows how the blind population can feel invisible. Even though they cant seen anything you still do something to make them feel even more invisible.
They feel invisible to everyone around them:
- “ Well, well, well... I'm invisible too!”(Clements 88).
- Explanation: In this part of the book Bobby just told Alicia that he is invisible and this is her reaction. Even though this book is fiction it shows that they can feel invisible if no body wants to talk with the blind girl. they can feel invisible.
Works Cited
- Clements, Andrew. Things Not Seen. New York: Puffin, 2004. Print.
- Newsela Staff. "Homeless Children in the U.S." One in 30 Children Is Homeless in the U.S., but the Problem Is Hard to See. N.p., n.d. Web.
- Jiménez, Francisco. The Circuit. New York: Scholastic, 1997. 66-71. Print.