Somebody's Nasal Say It By Neal Bortz

This book highlights the lack of progressive education in in the American school system, and specifically how ineffectual the administration was when dealing with harmful situations when it involved a non-normative persons. This resonates with me because it shows the general public intolerance of non-normative practices in the United States, and how the current political situation could have a further negative effect on youth populations.

In Mark Drolsbaugh’s book, Deaf Again, he is able to bring the reader through his life struggles and triumphs as a member of the Deaf community. There were three major themes that reoccurred throughout his life. These themes consist of communication barriers, a negative image on deafness, and limitations on social experiences. An example of communication barriers starts in the beginning with his birth. From the beginning, he talked about how his parents struggled to communicate with the doctors when the epidural was not administered properly or when the anesthesia machine was not working. This communication barrier caused his mother to go through a natural birth and almost lose her life because she could not tell the doctors that something was wrong. Under the circumstances that Drolsbaugh’s grandparents did whatever they could to preserve his hearing this left him with feelings that deafness is bad. This notion fostered a negative self-image. Due to Drolsbaugh’s loss of hearing he had a hard time making meaningful social connections. This affected him greatly in his dating life. As he talked about in the book he dated a girl who was hearing but could sign for three years until they broke up. He said how he tried to hold onto that relationship because he knew that there are not many girls that he knew at the time that could sign and be able to communicate with him fully. This affected him socially with friends as well.

I held it out to her. I didn’t know what to say, and it probably wouldn’t have helped anyway. She picked it up, turned it all around, and then set it back down in my palm. ‘I don’t want your charity.’

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

something wrong, but do not know what. I imagine she was going through this pleading with

The wide traditional school policies that are harsh, cruel and rigid and the ever increasing responsibility of implementation of regulations in institutions of learning have led to the emergence of School-to-Prison Pipeline in which

Large round tears welled up in the girl's eyes, and slid down her freckled nose. Shocked, I gazed at her, searching her tear-filled eyes for a sign of compassion or remorse. Had I

After reading Deaf Again I learned a lot of new things about Deaf culture and was drawn in by the story of Mark Drolsbaugh. "The hardest fight a man has to fight is to live in a world where every single day someone is trying to make you someone you do not want to be" e.e cummings. I was brought into the book immediately from this quote and realized how difficult it must have been for Mark to find his identity. He was trying to hang on to his hearing in fear of going deaf as if there was something wrong or not proper with being deaf. It took him a long time, twenty-three years to realize that the Deaf culture is receiving and it was there for him to embrace the entire time. It would be difficult to be able to hear and then slowly

well respected bass player in the Jazz circles of Virginia. He converted to the electric bass

There is no outward display of affection. She “was not a mother/woman.” The children take care of themselves with some help from a nurse.

was awake and had asked “What did you find” prior to Patsy hanging up the phone

people are willing to embrace the monster or freak label, even in order to humanize

run by school officials, that it could be controlled by them, "so long as their

In the personal essay “My Mothers Tongue” (1990), Amy Tan, widely known author explains her insights on language and culture identity using details and memories from her own life experiences. Tan conceals that the language in which her mother used with her “was the language that helped shape the way [she] saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world” (1208) and in the process it made her who she is today as an author. Tan illuminates the euro centricity of the Master Narrative by retelling stories of her mother being treated poorly because of her “broken” or “limited” English. She recalls many past experiences where her mother suffered from bad service and treatment from restaurants, stockbrokers, and even hospitals. Using examples from her personal life Tan gets her point across about language and culture characteristics in order to show how Chinese culture is affected by the master narrative and also encourages others to include a variety of cultures in order to overcome bias opinions. Tan’s apparent audience can be ranged from the child of an immigrant to a doctor and offers an authentic and rich portrayal of Chinese history through her conflicting experience of her Chinese and American cultures.

incident she still gives and encourages others to give, whether is it a donation, or