Ok, first of all, Love the reference to Elie Wiesel there Mucha! He is such an inspiration and his memoir, Night is so sad that it makes me wonder how survivors like him ever managed to make it through such dark times. In another Question Dr. D has for us in this module about children, I attempted to answer that exact question.
Regarding these questions, I find it insulting that people see Noah in this novel as abnormal. To use "not normal" is to say "abnormal", or "non-human", or "alien", or "outsider". People with autism are different in the same ways we all differ from one group or another. Some of us are social butterflies, while some of us are shy or reserved. Some of as are fat, while others are skinny (as Elie Wisel mentions). That doesn't make us abnormal. Some of us poor, rich, black, white, Jewish, Islamic, Christian, conservative, liberal, left-handed, right-handed, sick with a disease, or completely healthy, cisgender, transgender, non-binary, gay, straight, able to play sports or very uncoordinated, able to do mental or can't add to save their own life. I think that any person can be classified into a group if we choose to put them into one. Most people belong to more than one group and experience intersectionality. I do not think people with disabilities should be considered "abnormal" because there is no such thing as abnormal. There is no normal. Everyone has different attributes that complete the puzzle of who they are as a person and no one attribute should define them. To see people with autism as "less human" is exactly how the world goes into war and genocide. It is a dangerous thing to do. Speaking as the sister of a brother with autism, I get really offended by these comments (as well as the R-word). My brother has been bullied, has had rocks thrown at him in parks, has been taken advantage of, and has been doubted time and time again for his abilities to do simple things such as cook, or clean. To think of someone as abnormal because they are on the spectrum tells me that people need social skills to be considered normal and that isn't the case since half of us cannot get up and speak on a stage, talk to large crowds, interact with strangers at a party, etc. We get nervous too. Social skills are always something that we as humans need to work on, and same with communication. People in relationships and marriages have a hard time doing it, children have a hard time doing it with their parents and teachers, friends and coworkers have a hard time communicating with one another. That doesn't make us abnormal, because it is quite common. So Ellie saying that Noah is not normal because "she needs to take care of him" and he cant communicate well is insulting personally, and I would not forgive her. I have split away from a former best friend who used the R word commonly because they thought it was acceptable since their whole lives, they grew up hearing it used in conversation. Ellie is belittling all people on the spectrum, all people stuck in hospitals unable to take care of themselves, or in mental facilities who need workers to help them. That's all I will say on that because I could rant all day on that one.
The term "Illegals" is completely derogatory and rude and belittling to all refugees needing to escape bad situations or people from their homes, or for people who have worked hard all their lives and still couldn't meet the requirements to move to a new State. A human being cannot be illegal. We treat our own prisoners better than we do undocumented citizens because we acknowledge that prisoners broke the law and their actions were illegal, not them as a person. (As touched on by Mucha's explanation of illegal driving versus calling someone an illegal driver.) Also as Mucha mentioned, there are better words to use rather than "illegals" because in my opinion, I think calling a person illegal, as mentioned previously with the word abnormal, places them as sub citizen of a particular State, and therefore, they are seen as non-human because humans follow the rules of society and "belong" to their society. It is dangerous, and leads to racism, brings harm, and even death to people who are not documented.