Film Analysis: Sweet Nothing in My Ear

Deaf Again is an autobiography written by Mark Drolsbaugh. In this book he begins at his birth, goes on to explain what it was like to lose his hearing, and details how this impacted and affected his life. Around the time Mark was in first grade, he began to realize that he was losing his hearing when he began having difficulty hearing some of his fellow students. His hearing continued to deteriorate until he was left completely deaf. This was very tough for Mark, because even though his parents were both deaf, they encouraged him to do his best to continue to be a hearing person. His parents believed that he would be happiest if he could fit in with all the hearing people, but didn’t understand that he could not truly be himself if he was

Audism by it's very definition is a negative or oppressive attitude towards deaf people by either deaf or hearing people and organizations, and a failure to accommodate them. This documentary really opened my eyes as to what deaf people have gone through since the beginning of time. They have been treated with prejudice and oppression. They have been looked down upon- as if they are some sort of “subhuman” not worthy of being classified as a normal person because of the fact that they cannot hear. Audism goes under the same category as racism, sexism, discrimination, etc.

Could you picture yourself growing up as in a world where everyone treated you differently or thought that you were stupid just because you are unable to hear? Well Mark Drolsbaugh experienced that first hand. He explains his story of how he dealt with his hearing loss in his novel Deaf Again. The book begins with a small child who could hear just fine, but as the story progresses he becomes hard of hearing and eventually deaf. All this happens with in a couple of years. Mark realized that he had a hearing problem in the first grade when he was presenting a toy for show and tell. Another student asked him a question about his item, but he was so far away Mark was unable to hear him. Mark's respond was a blank stare at the boy. The

Audism is the idea that a hearing person is innately better than someone who can not hear. Unfortunately, in the modern world, this claim seems to prove somewhat

The first lense or category in the “Deaf Studies Template” that is talked about is Only in the Deaf World. This category is about the unique events and experiences associated with life in the Deaf World. Deaf children are mostly born to hearing parents, which is similar how wizard parents have muggle children and muggle parents have wizard children in the world of Harry Potter. DCHP may not know anything about the Deaf World once they grow up due to parental ignorance or other reasons. Harry Potter also experiences this with the Wizard World as his aunt and uncle keep it a secret from him. They were ashamed of him and want to make him “normal”. Hearing parents of deaf children also commonly do this as they give

“Deaf in America” book mainly focused on Deaf culture of today and comparing it to the culture of the past. The stories in the book describes what kind of struggles deaf people had to go through in order to get to where they are today. The book, “Deaf in America”, were written by two authors, Carol Padden and Tom Humphries, both in which are deaf. Padden and Humphries were able to collect factors, stories, and experiences of other deaf people within America and compiled them into one book describing their perspective of the world of the hearing. Padden and Humphries wanted to show how deaf culture was different from hearing culture. The reader of the book gets a chance to travel through the history to those who have experienced the deaf world first handed. The book also presented a positive impact to the readers by letting the readers know in the introduction that the authors writing the book were deaf and would indicate that the experience were real and true. Padden and Humphries

One of the most crucial facts that hearing people must know about the Deaf community is that you don’t have to be deaf to be a part of the deaf community. “The Deaf Community is comprised of individuals, both deaf and hearing, who to varying degrees embrace particular community goals that come from Deaf cultural influences”. ("On Being Deaf — A Cultural View") Hearing people may receive little to no interaction with the Deaf community in their life. This can lead them to asking questions that may seem ridiculous to some people such as “can deaf people drive?” In fact deaf people have been allowed to legally drive in every state since the 1930’s. (Moore 220) And many acts and societies have been created to give deaf people the same opportunities and rights as all of the hearing people.

The book, Deaf Again, written by Mark Drolsbaugh, is an autobiography telling his life story which starts with a young boy growing up who goes through the process of losing his hearing and then, as he gets older, he struggles with trying to fit in as a normal child. When Mark was very young, he could hear fairly well then gradually he went hard of hearing until he eventually went completely deaf. Even though he had two deaf parents, the doctors advised speech therapy and hearing aids because they did not understand Deaf Culture and they thought that Mark would be a lot happier if he could hang on to his hearing persona. Throughout the rest of the book, Mark goes through a lot of stages of trying to fit in

The Deaf community and their culture is a part of the oppressed population group. There are many limitations of being deaf in a hearing world. The Deaf community has been victims of isolation and oppression for many years. Historically the hearing culture has put Deaf individuals in social categories such as “disable” and “outsiders” (Pinquart, Pfeiffer, 2014). However, many years of being deaf has been viewed as having an undesirable condition.

It is easy to see why Deaf culture is so critical of those who assimilate with hearing culture because the Deaf have had a history of struggle and discrimination. Hearing culture has been critical of what Deaf people are able to do and have denied their existence. In the past American deaf people have been denied the right to vote, to marry, and to raise children (Halpern). Deaf children often were denied education, grew up illiterate, or grew up with no real language because at one point in time sign language was not allowed (Halpern).

In most instances, the communication process between hearing and deaf is difficult and a continuous struggle. For example, a joke is told, everyone laughs, and the deaf person misses it. Now the hearing person has to re-tell the joke, which does not have the same response as is it was first told. As a result, the deaf person will feel frustrated and in some cases loneliness and isolated (Mindess, 1999). Communication issues such as this can impact someone’s identity because they’re missing information and feels left out (Mindess, 1999). That’s enough to make them think about who they are and where they “fit in”

Alice Ann Darrow is writing to the audience of music educators. She’s trying to get across that it may not be as hard as they think to teach music education to students with hearing disabilities. I believe she was very successful appealing to music educators because she not only explains

This book count as our first book in this area. We read a small section, but it was really interesting after reading just the first section. We can say that if a person was born deaf or he/she become deaf for some reason, their life is going to be totally different. Deaf people build their own community. They feel more comfortable together. They sign and try to use their voice comfortably around each other. We think that hearing people can be judgmental and this might be the reason why some deaf people are trying so hard to read lips and not using sign language in front of a hearing person or a group of people. Trying to talk or reading lips might look easy to us but it is really hard for deaf people. They feel like they are pretending or

“Mother Father Deaf: Living Between Sound and Silence” by Paul Preston, portrays interviews with over 150 individuals, who are all hearing children of deaf parents. Being that Preston is a child of deaf parents, himself, it made it a lot easier for the informants to fully open up to him. He understands where they are coming from and is relatable for them. One of their biggest frustrations is having to explain deafness- in terms of their parents, as well as themselves, to people who don’t understand the culture. One interviewee even mentioned, “I wasn’t going to do the interview because I always get asked so many dumb questions. It’s a lot better knowing that you understand, that I don’t have to explain everything” (Preston, 46). The common bond between Preston and them helped gained a sense of trust between each other.

Equality is an important value to most, no one wants to feel like the minority or discriminated against. The Deaf are the minority, there are about 250,000 to 500,000 ASL users in the US and Canada (Mitchell, 2004). The Deaf community values equality, all they want is to feel like an equal, not an outsider (Drayton, 2016). The Deaf don’t have equal opportunities like the hearing, captions are no longer required at movie theaters. The hearing value equality, but tend to focus on amendments, like right to bear arms (Second Amendment) or the freedom of speech (First Amendment). The hearing are equal because they are hearing and because they are the majority. The Deaf are cast out because they are Deaf, the hearing sees them as “disabled.” Both value equality, but the difference is that the Deaf don’t quite have it.