The Hearing vs. the Deaf

After watching Sound and Fury, I realized how sheltered I am. I am rarely exposed to people who can't hear, and this movie really woke me up. This, of course, is because of the two main discourses in the film. These discourses were the hearing and the deaf. The movie clearly showed both sides and their arguments through the journey of deciding whether to get cochlear implants.

The people that could hear generally fought for the cochlear implants. Their main argument was based on the idea that hearing people have more opportunities in the future. They claimed that a person with a cochlear implant would have an advantage to the deaf because they could talk, hear, and still even be able to understand sign language. It was even pointed out that a deaf person would not be able to pursue a job such as a surgeon; whereas, if that person got the cochlear important, he/she would have that opportunity. The hearing also argued that because of this, the parents would technically be abusing their children by not giving them the chance. This side of the argument truly believed that getting a cochlear implant would significantly help the children's future.

The deaf people, for the most part, fought against the cochlear implants. They mainly argued that getting a cochlear implant would ruin the deaf culture. They feared that this implant would slowly kill the culture, and they wanted their children to remain part of that culture. They went even further to worry that these children with cochlear implants would be stuck between the hearing and deaf worlds, and they wouldn't have as much of a place in the world. Another worry that they had involved the idea that it wasn't a bullet-proof solution to the hearing problem. They argued, with reason, that cochlear implants didn't always help enough. Some children with cochlear implants were still unable to speak or hear as well as they had expected.

These two discourses definitely have a different view on the issue of cochlear implants. The deaf typically decide against it and consider it outrageous as it may destroy the culture. The hearing usually argue for the implant as they claim that they know what hearing is like and how great the advantage is. Both sides have reasonable arguments, and this makes the question of the implant even more difficult to decide. By exposing viewers to both discourses, the film makes even those who think they know what they think second guess themselves entirely.

Fear of Swallowing Fish Bones

One day when I was little, my dad, brother, sister, and I were eating fish that we had just caught. My dad had cooked it up in some sort of floury batter, and it was delicious. As I was eating, he warned me to make sure that I chew the fish thoroughly. Of course, I had no idea why he would say that, so I just assumed that he was joking. He quickly made it clear that he wasn't joking by telling me that any small fish bones that weren't removed when the fish were filleted could get stuck in my throat. I, then, made the mistake of asking if it was painful.

He admitted that sometimes it could be somewhat painful or at least uncomfortable. This alone worried me, but to make it worse, my brother butted in. He went on to tell me that it had happened to him once. He described how painful it was with, in my eyes, excrutiating details (they probably weren't that great; I was just young and innocent and believed anything--even if he said he had caught the biggest fish ever in the history of everything but let it go). He said that it hurt for days. I then asked him how I was unaware of this. He answered with the big brother response of something like "I hid it from you because I didn't want to scare you." It was too late for that though. Even when he admitted that he made it all up, I still could not forget my new fear.

After I found out that he was joking, I still couldn't shake the fear that someday I would swallow a fish bone, it would get stuck in my throat, and it would hurt like never before. In order to avoid this inevitable future, I have always partaken in the art of careful chewing of fish. Whether it is fresh caught fish or store bought fish, I always chew one bite for what seems like ten hours. I chew it until I'm am absolutely positive that my throat will not suffer as my brother had once pretended his had. Because of my seemingly silly fear, I will always have extreme caution, and hopefully, I will never have to face my fear.