Monday, February 27, 2012

The Sound and Fury: A Review.


This weekend I watched Sound and Fury.

It's a documentary about two brothers.

One brother is hearing and he married a hearing woman and they had twins, one of which is deaf.

The other brother is deaf, married a deaf woman and has three deaf children.

The issue is one of the cochlear implant. The hearing brother doesn't think twice about doing this for his newborn son. The deaf brother and his wife have a lot of issues with it, namely it will take away from their child experiencing deaf culture.

This was so odd to me. I've always assumed that those who can't hear would want to, but now I see that there is a whole culture of people who are connected through this sameness and value their membership in this community.

I encourage you to watch the movie because it is definitely one that will make you think about what it means to be hearing, about being a parent, and about this whole other community of people.

Watch it and come back and tell me what you think.

2 comments:

erin e flynn said...

I haven't seen the movie, but I took ASL in college. The deaf culture is really interesting! I went to a deaf basketball game and it was a blast. Since they can't hear music they bang on these huge drums because they can feel the vibrations.
Also, did you know if deaf culture it's acceptable to comment on things like someone's appearance? For example, you could say, "hey, why have you gotten so fat lately?"
Don't think that would go over well in the hearing community!

Cheryl Birkey said...

Interesting! I want to learn more.