Rhetorical Analysis Of 'The Deaf Body In Public Space'

823 Words2 Pages

The Deaf Body in Public Space In this article, “The Deaf Body in Public Space,” Rachel Kolb explains how interacting with people who do not understand sign language could be difficult. With her hearing disability she struggled to communicate with her peers. Kolb further explains the different situations she has encountered with people and comments that are made with first intercommunications. Going further she also mentions how she struggles with two languages and two modes of communication. First, starting with Kolb’s childhood she explains how being the only deaf student in her elementary school made her stumble across a few challenges. For instance, as 6 or 7-year-old in the cafeteria, one of her friends said it was rude to point even …show more content…

Kolb soon felt like she was a bother to people when she simply was using her way of communication. But, looking back decades later she realizes how her childhood friend had stared at her with a sort of wonder. Sign language had challenged her friend’s rules of social conduct and it made Kolb seem ignorant in a way or rebellious. But, pointing was a way for her to express what her grown-up scholarly self would call relationality. The definition of relationality is being in the world relation to …show more content…

To explain a few empathy is when the reader understands closely what the character is feeling. For instance, Kolb has kept a mental list of comments that are made when she first interacts with people. It states, “I don’t know what to do with my hands. It’s like I’ve just discovered I have them, Are you sure it’s O.K. to point? At him?, I am trying to be more expressive. My face just feels like it can’t, That feels weird, How do your eyes take in so much information, so fast?, I feel self-conscious. I feel like you are looking at me” (The Deaf Body in Public Space). If anyone ever said these comments to me I would be highly upset because her only way communicating is through sign and they have to take the time to understand what she goes through every day. Every time Kolb meets someone for the first time she encounters comments like these. Argumentation is aimed at convincing a reasonable critic of the acceptability of a standpoint by putting forward a constellation of one or more propositions to justify this standpoint (What is Argumentation?). In the beginning of the article one of Kolb’s friends said it was rude to point. Kolb had to justify that her mom said she can do it since it was her only way of communication. In response she said that she was signing and it wasn’t

More about Rhetorical Analysis Of 'The Deaf Body In Public Space'

Open Document