Sound and Fury is a documentary that displays and explores Deaf Culture, and how it lives in life as a large-scale reality. The creator effectively used several personal perspectives and discourses to portray how crucially a coclear implant, a device used to neurologically aid the hearing for the deaf, effects the people in the Deaf Culture.
The Father of the little girl named Heather was opposed to his daughter having the colear implant, because he hails from a discourse where his entire family is deaf, and to make an exception for one family member would go against his belief that "signing [sign language] is visual, with emotion". The father was very consistent with that, and reinforcing the idea that giving his daughter an opportunity to hear would only take Heather out of the Deaf Culture and rid her of who she really is, because she would in time forget her individuality in being deaf.
With that in mind, the little girl, Heather, shows her desire to hear. In the beginning, she tells her parents that she wants to be able to speak and hear because there are so many important things that go with the ability to hear, like "hearing smoke detectors" and other vital factors. Throughout the documentary, Heather is swayed by her parents' dislike of the idea of her being able to hear when they take her to experience how being deaf is natural and okay to live with.
The grandparents on the father's side of the family disagreed ith the parent's decision to not have their daughter implanted, because they experienced the sadnesses and hardships of having to raise deaf children. They saw the implant as an opportunity for Heather to be able to live life more fully, rather than the implant being an escape from her true self. The grandmother played a large role in reinforcing her belief that "the world is changing" and Deaf Culture was becoming less important in the world. Therefore, she saw her granddaughter's desire to hear as a signal that she should be able to. The grandparents believed that Heather's parents were not thinking about Heather's benefit, but rather focusing on their own beliefs and forcing them upon her.
The brother to the father had a deaf child, but the brother himself could hear. He and his wife wanted their infant son to be implanted, because the mother claimed that when she learned her son was deaf "a part of her died". Therefore, they proceeded in getting the surgery, and believed that what Heather's parents were doing was "abuse" because they were withholding her from the beautiful opportunity to live as a hearing person.
The differing discourses gave a lot of content to the documentary on Deaf Culture, and how a simple surgical procedure could profoundly affect the people within it.
It is rather unlikely that, if Heather got the implant, that she would get far from the deaf culture. It is, in nature, all around her. She would inevitably be part of both worlds, and what would be the detriment of that? She could communicate with both Discourses.
ReplyDeleteI think that when Heather's parents considered their options, they did not think about what would happen in their family versus other families. It seems quite obvious that a deaf child who had an implant and is part of a hearing family would not know sign language. This is not because she had an implant, but instead because her family was not a part of deaf culture to begin with, so how would the child be exposed to it?
I think that the issue of a cochlear implant is very subjective and personal, and should be since it affects one's culture so intensely.