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Hearing The Sweetest Songs Summary

Decent Essays

The article Hearing the Sweetest Songs is very insightful. There are many events that take place, however I will try to focus the events that try to get the author Nicolette Toussaint to accept that she is disabled. The author is living with a hearing impairment that occurred when she was a baby. Nicolette learned from her parents how she lost her hearing from getting pneumonia. She realizes that she can not hear when she gets a hearing aid at thirty years old. The hearing aid took away her peace. The hearing aid made her be able to hear every noise around her and it usually startled her. Nicolette’s coworkers thought she was rude at meetings because she would answer the wrong questions. Her coworkers thought she was daydreaming and they …show more content…

Even though Nicolette tries to remain strong and continue to not label herself disabled, however there are times she can not help but admit she has a hearing problem. Nicolette states, “When I lived alone, I felt helpless because I couldn’t hear alarm clocks, vulnerable because I couldn’t hear the front door open and frightened because I wouldn’t hear a burglar until it was too late.” She did not want to be labeled disabled because she was more than just a person with a hearing problem. Another quote that displayed self doubt is when Nicolette explains, “For the first time, I felt unequal, disadvantaged and disabled[...] I knew that I had lost something: not just my hearing, but my independence and my sense of wholeness.” In addition, Nicolette also struggles with her identity. Not hearing should not change how people perceive you. nicolette states, “If I tell people may see only my disability. Once someone is labeled “deaf,” “crippled,’ “mute” or “aged,” that’s too often all they are. Im a writer, a painter, a slapdash housekeeper, a gardener who grows wondrous roses; my hearing is just part of my whole.” Nicolette wants to be treated like any other person without a hearing

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