What Does Everyone Think of Adam?

[Jack1000]

Guys,

He didn't do anything for me. I mean great teacher and motivator to help teach Mary to cope with her blindness and work toward acheiving and maintaining her independence. But, personality-wise, he was just so.....bland. Does anyone else feel that way?

I mean he could get angry if his buttons were pushed. (I liked the scene where he stands up to his father.) According to Adam, his father couldn't stand to look at him and Adam made the parent of a boy that he was teaching tell the truth about why he sent the boy to the blind school. (It turned out that the boy's father couldn't stand to look at him either.)

But, do you think that his charactor could have shown just a little more emotion and sensitivity? He was just a little too calm! Even in "May We Make Them Proud" (the fire) He comes in and says to Mary, as if it is a passing thought...."Ummmm...Mary....Ummm there's a fire." Given the circumstances he could have been a little more dramatic here!

I need help also on this topic about Adam. There is an episode where he talkes about how he lost his sight. (This is when Mary, he, and Hester-Sue and the others are transporting the kids to the new school) Remember that Charles is on the trip to help make the move, and they come to a stream and Adam freezes up. He tells Mary why he is afraid of the water and how he lost his sight. However, he talks so quietly in the scene that I could never make out the incident!!!! Obviously Adam had some sort of accident involving water as a boy. Can someone post the details of how Adam lost his site? This is such an important part of this charactors life in the series, but once again, the guy talks barley above a whisper in such an important scene!!

It's too bad that this charactor was a fabrication in the real life of the Ingall's family. Maybe Adam's ok...but a little more assertiveness would have enhanced his charactor.

Jack

[PracTz]

I thought he started out OK but by the time he left the show, I found myself heartily disliking him! During that episode when Mary thinks she's regaining her sight, he gets all weepy with Ma about not worrying about becoming a budren to Mary. ..yet when Adam doesregain his sight, he gloats about all the things he can see- totally oblivious to Mary then hobnobs with all these newfound 'friends' at this picnic and makes no effort to do more to barely introduce her before ignoring her like she was invisible and not caring that these 'friends' are doing the same while he's chatting up a storm. Then, when poor Mary starts to try to tell Ma that she's feeling neglected, Ma cuts her off with 'Adam loves you!' instead of making a beeline to the hypocritical Adam and telling him that he's doing the exact thing he was worried about Mary doing to him! Oh, and now that he has his sight, he's suddenly too good and talented to waste his time teaching blind children- so he decides he has to become a lawyer s, bingo, the school's closed and with barely a thought given to them, the blind (and often parentless) children are dumped somewhere else. Despite the fact that when he was blind, he'd considered them family! And,despite her experience and qualifications, Hester Sue is inexplicably reduced to being Mrs. Oleson's 'help'!
Oh, but it gets worse! He studies for the bar exam but after nearly getting killed by thugs and missing out on this exam, he gets very sorry for himself that he's somehow not good enough for the bar. Mary argues with the prof to have him take the exam and he passes but I don't recall him so much as saying thank-you for her efforts! In no time flat, he becomes a lawyer but how does he repay Walnut Grove (that supplied him with two houses and sponsored the blind school)? By taking the case of this con artist who'd scammed his friends and neighbors- giving a mawkish defense that the con was only cheating everyone because he was dying and wanted to provide for his family- let's forget how he hurt all the other families in town!
Lastly, he decides Walnut Grove is too stifling of his enormous legal talents so he takes away Mary from all her friends and family and uproots her to New York City so he can be a hotshot lawyer. Oh, but he does let her be his secretary- and only brings her back to visit her family a single time for Christmas! I'm sorry but I REELY disliked him by the series end!

In answer to your 'creek query', Adam mentioned to Mary that the sound of rushing water reminded him of getting pulled in the water while fishing with his father- and he lost his sight after his head struck the rocks!

[Cashodeen]

Originally posted by Jack1000
It's too bad that this charactor was a fabrication in the real life of the Ingall's family. Maybe Adam's ok...but a little more assertiveness would have enhanced his charactor.

Yes, a little more assertiveness would have enhanced his character when he was blind, and a little less self-centerness would have improved his character when he regained his sight. I too, noticed his demenor change when he could see again. Sure, recovering that sense would change anyone, but Adam became quite selfish and unsympathetic afterward. I stopped finding that marriage believable when he regained his sight, and I liked the relationship before (although I do agree he could be pretty bland. May We Make Them Proud showed that.) You know the wacky theory some have that by the end of the show, fictional characters (exlcluding characters that were based on real people) were killed off to remain true to the real life Ingalls? I discussed the theory here before. I don't believe in it, but heck, to make the theory MORE believable, throw out Adam. I wouldn't have wanted to see another death, but Mary really should have left him. Of course seeing a divorce would be weird. But I would have liked that better than them staying together. Poor Mary had to quit teaching, uproot herself, and stay supportive of Adam's new career, when he didn't seem to care about her at all.