What is deafness? Depending on your Discourse, the term "deaf" can mean vastly different things. Both the Deaf community and the hearing community showed that they have very strong views on deafness and what it means to be deaf in the movie Sound and Fury. I found the incredibly strong views on either side of the issue to be fascinating.
On one side of the issue was the Deaf Community, represented by Peter and Nita, and also by Mari's parents. To Peter, "deafness is peaceful... if someone gave me a pill to make me hear, I'd throw it up." Deaf people are very proud of being deaf, and they feel that the cochlear implant surgery is scary and invasive. As Peter mentioned, "English is just moving lips; signing is motion." He feels that signing has more meaning than speaking, and that people can connect more through signing. It was interesting to see their side of the argument about the cochlear implant. They feel that it is almost a betrayal of their Deaf culture to give baby Peter or Heather an implant. They want the children to stay a part of "their world," and not move over to the hearing world. In my eyes, they are almost being discriminating towards hearing people. They claim that the hearing discriminate towards them, but I see it clearly as a two-way street. They don't want their kids to be a part of the hearing world; they don't mind if they interact with hearing people, as long as it is through sign language. The Deaf community is very concerned with personal identity--whether or not someone with an implant will identify as deaf, hearing, both, or somewhere in between. Many of them don't want Heather or baby Peter to identify with the hearing world because they fear that they will lose touch with the deaf world.
The other side of the debate encompasses the hearing: Chris and Mari and Chris and Peter's parents. To them, deafness is a disability, and they can't see why it shouldn't be fixed with a cochlear implant. To Mari, "the implant surgery is a miracle." They see hearing as being normal and deafness as being abnormal. To the Deaf community, this is very offensive. The hearing also cannot see why parents of a baby who is born deaf would not immediately consider implant surgery. They see it as helping the child be more "normal," and they think it will help them fit in. They worry about the child growing up and being ridiculed or excluded because they are deaf, and about the child having trouble having a career in the hearing world. Being a hearing person, I can definitely see this side of the issue. It would definitely be hard trying to be a professional and trying to communicate with the hearing while being deaf. However, this goes both ways. It is difficult for hearing to communicate with the deaf as well. Both have to make concessions and change the way they normally communicate.
Overall, thinking about this argument, it is very hard for me to say which side is "right." I have virtually no experience with the Deaf community or culture. However, I do think that everybody in this situation should've had a more open mind to the whole situation.
