Life, love, and hope; three very powerful words that describe most humans. No matter how bad ones situation in life is, the want to live is still very strong. Wanting to live is a very funny concept. Why would one want to live in a horrible situation? The beauty of living is life itself. Death, which is fear of the unknown, is extremely frightening because one has no idea what will be when he/she is dead. The idea of knowing that as long as you are alive and able to somewhat plan what life you want to live is very comforting. But, as for many of us, this doesn’t happen for every aspect in our life. Christine Collins, and in fact any mother, would have never dreamt of her child going missing. After working a long day at work, Christine went home to find her son, Walter, had gone missing. A few months after Walter’s disappearance, the police department informs Christine that her son had been found alive. When Christine went to see Walter, she realized that this is not her son despite the fact that “Walter” claims he is. After a physical examination given by Walter’s doctor, the doctor realizes that he is shorter than before his disappearance but explains he has shrunk due to trauma. Being frustrated, Christine asked his dentist to take note. Sure enough from dental records, Walter’s dentist was able to say with certain that he is not her son. Christine informs the press of her story, and since “Walter” is saying other wise, Christine is assumed to have problems and was put in a psychopathic ward.
Christine is an unusually strong woman with tremendous hope and determination. After being put in the ward for being “psychotic”, she is not going to give up and is very hopeful that she will be reunited with her real son. Being surrounded by people who actually are psychotic, regardless if it was brought on because of being in the ward for so long, is not easy in it self. After being warned by another woman in the ward that if she looks either too happy or too sad the officers and the doctor will become suspicious and make her stay longer. Christine becomes very aware of her surroundings with great discomfort. After being questioned by the doctor, who tries to twist around Christine’s words to make it seem like she is inconsistent with her story, Christine still sticks with the same story in which “Walter” is not her son. Under such pressure, it is unbelievably brave of her to stand up to the doctor even though she is telling the truth. As seen before
