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The Big Little Person

Name: The Big Little Person
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Released: 1919
Duration: 60 min

Representation Score

4.4/10

Fair

1919

Passed

Director

Robert Z. Leonard

Runtime

60 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

New Showbiz Analysis

The film presents a detailed exploration of sensory disability and female professional empowerment. Arathea is characterized by her innovative ideas and her progression into a corporate role, offering a refreshing contrast to the era's typical portrayal of women as frail. However, the film remains confined by the social norms of 1919. It lacks racial diversity and LGBTQ+ representation, staying within a homogeneous, straight-centered framework. The narrative emphasizes individual resilience and traditional romantic fulfillment rather than challenging broader social structures. Overall, while the portrayal of disability avoids harmful stereotypes, the film's diversity is limited by its adherence to traditional romantic and cultural norms.

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Category Breakdown

Does The Big Little Person have LGBTQ+ representation?

Limited

The film does not include any LGBTQ+ characters or narratives that question the assumption that everyone is straight. The main romance between Arathea and Gerald follows a traditional heterosexual storyline.

How does The Big Little Person portray gender?

Fair

Arathea evolves from a passive patient to an active professional. She demonstrates significant control over her life through her intellect, but the story's resolution depends on conventional romantic courtship.

How racially and ethnically diverse is The Big Little Person?

Minimal

The story focuses on a uniform social structure with no indication of non-Anglo-Saxon characters or racial mixing.

How does The Big Little Person represent religion and culture?

Limited

The plot adheres to early 20th-century moral standards, emphasizing individual achievement and technological advancement without critiquing Western institutions or religion.

Does The Big Little Person include disability representation?

Good

The film centers on Arathea's experience with hearing loss, portraying her as intellectually capable and having control over her life rather than mocking her impairment.

Present on Screen

Offers meaningful representation of sensory disability through Arathea's experiences.
Shows female empowerment by transforming the protagonist from a patient to a professional.
Avoids mocking physical impairments.

Limited or Absent

Needs more racial and ethnic diversity among the characters.
Does not include LGBTQ+ identities or non-assuming gender matches what was assigned at birth characters.
Relies on conventional romantic dynamics for the resolution.

Official Synopsis

After Arathea Manning loses her hearing during an epidemic of scarlet fever among the children she teaches, her fiancé Arthur Endicott, who is involved with another woman, complains of always having to shout to make himself heard. An inventor, Gerald Staples, gives Arathea an auriphone, a device to restore her hearing, but one of her problem pupils, in a fit of rage, breaks it. Gerald asks Arathea, whom he calls "The Big Little Person -- small in size, but big in ideas," to be the secretary of his new company marketing the invention. He falls in love with her and plays the piano for her even though she hears only rumblings.

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