Stevie Wonder Introduction “You can’t base your life on other people’s expectations (Stevie Wonder Quotes, n.d.).” Stevie Wonder was an unstoppable man who didn’t let other people’s expectations determine his fate. Stevie Wonder broke down the barrier for African Americans by showing that they can do whatever whites could do and he earned 19 Grammys, making him one of the most talented musicians of the 20th century. Stevie’s Childhood Sound had a huge impact on Stevie’s music career and interest in music. It all started with him hitting spoons against the furniture and playing with his cardboard drum (Beyer, 2002). Stevie Wonder was introduced to music as a very young child, which helped him create the music that most know today. Stevie liked …show more content…
Stevie was born premature. He was placed in an incubator, received too much oxygen, and went blind. Stevie believes that he was lucky to be alive (Beyer, 2002). Since blind people can’t rely on their vision, they have to rely on their senses like touch and sound. People that are blind can tell how someones feeling just by the tone of their voice. Eventually a blind person is going to realize that sound is going to become the most important sense. Stevie could understand this from a very young age (Beyer, 2002). When he learned that sound was very important, he became more fascinated by music. Stevie had to always make noise because he hated silence. At one point his noise developed into music (Beyer, 2002). Stevie has always known that people are sad about his blindness more than him but the reason he wasn’t sad about it is because he doesn’t really understand what it means to have the gift of sight, so he didn’t have a reason to miss it (Gulla, 2008). As a child, Stevie’s mom brought him to many doctors to see if they could bring his sight back but none were able to do so. Stevie also attended school with other blind students. But even within his group of peers, there were cliques. The problems were made worse when students who were not blind would talk about the students who were blind (Beyer, 2002). Being blind was a struggle throughout his childhood, but as he got older it began to become less of one. He went through other struggles besides being
The book, Deaf Again, written by Mark Drolsbaugh, is an autobiography telling his life story which starts with a young boy growing up who goes through the process of losing his hearing and then, as he gets older, he struggles with trying to fit in as a normal child. When Mark was very young, he could hear fairly well, then gradually he went hard of hearing until he eventually went completely deaf. Even though he had two deaf parents, the doctors advised speech therapy and hearing aids because they did not understand Deaf Culture and they thought that Mark would be a lot happier if he could hang on to his hearing persona. Throughout the rest of the book, Mark goes through a lot of stages of trying to fit in with everyone and eventually does find himself and realizes that being Deaf is not a disease, but just a part of who he is. About the time Mark was in kindergarten, he thought he was a normal child just like everyone else, but he started to distort things he heard in class and was wondering why everyone would be laughing and why he would be getting corrected.
Steven Alper’s life started out completely normal. Steven starts out as your average teenage middle school boy; skinny, wears glasses, has braces, and last but not least, invisible to the hottest girl in 8th grade, Renee Albert. Besides being a complete geek, Steven excels at playing the drums; even making into the All-City Jazz Band. But after troubling times come after attempting to make “moatmeal” for his younger brother Jeffery, Steven’s world gets turned completely upside down; changing and challenging the rest of his 8th grade year.
in folk music. He began playing guitar and writing songs, which he sang at local folk
Michael Jackson, the king; the star; the genius, transformed music into what is known today as pop. He made modern pop music different and unlike anything every heard paving the way for other artists such as Madonna, Usher, and Justin Timberlake. His creativity and perfectionist personality allowed him to make unbelievable songs, dances, and productions. He was a visionary who followed an image thoroughly and carefully to the best of his ability. Michael Jackson is known all around the world for this and impacted the lives of many. Michael Jackson was the ultimate entertainer that impacted the world by his talent, his race, and his creativity.
Many people from the 1900’s contributed to the evolution of the history of rock and roll. However, Jimi Hendrix was the rock legend who changed the way music was made and he raised the bar for the rest of the music industry. Jimi was born in 1942, in Seattle, Washington, he had a difficult childhood, being raised by a young mom who had Jimi at seventeen and a dad who eventually left and started another family, he was often left living with relatives. He only saw his mom a few times before she eventually died in 1958. In many ways music became a sanctuary for Jimi since he grew up not having much. Jimi loved blues and rock and roll and when he was sixteen Jimi got his first acoustic guitar and taught himself how to play. Shortly after he began
With that knowledge the deaf character gained more confidence when communicating and was able to achieve bigger goals in their life then when they had little to no knowledge of how things worked in society. Reading about these characters just gave me a small insight into the deaf community but with the documentary ”Through Deaf Eyes,” has open my mind and eyes that they are people who can thrive in and change the world just as anyone can when they put their mind to
The husband in Raymond Carvers “Cathedral” wasn’t enthusiastic about his wife’s old friend, whom was a blind man coming over to spend the night with them. His wife had kept in touch with the blind man since she worked for him in Seattle years ago. He didn’t know the blind man; he only heard tapes and stories about him. The man being blind bothered him, “My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to. (Carver 137)” The husband doesn’t suspect his ideas of blind people to be anything else. The husband is already judging what the blind man will be like without even getting to actually know him. It seems he has judged too soon as his ideas of the blind man change and he gets a better understanding of not only the blind man, but his self as well.
had its place. He was deemed “A white man that can sing like a black
What I found most interesting about Jarashow’s presentation were the two opposing views: Deaf culture versus medical professionals. Within the Deaf culture, they want to preserve their language and identity. The Deaf community wants to flourish and grow and do not view being deaf as a disability or being wrong. Jarashow stated that the medical field labels Deaf people as having a handicap or being disabled because they cannot hear. Those who are Deaf feel as though medical professionals are trying to eliminate them and relate it to eugenics. It is perceived that those in that field are trying to fix those who are Deaf and eliminate them by making them conform to a hearing world. Those within the Deaf community seem to be unhappy with devices such
...e to communicate with the people that have supported her throughout the whole process and others that she will meet in years to come. She is happy, intelligent, and is open to new foods and learning new things at an accelerating rate. Nicholas used to be antisocial and quiet around the other kids at his daycare. However, now has the confidence to make friends at daycare, interact with them, play with them and have the courage ride his new tricycle. His parents describe him as a “speed demon.” Music has helped him improve on skills he was lagging and has essentially built up his self-esteem. He has improved overall and completely changed. Music is extremely beneficial since it has helped expand therapeutic purposes for autistic patients like Ashley and Nicholas, but others that have been through severe trauma, a heart attack and patients suffering from cancer too.
Lane, H. (1984). When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf. [Kindle]. Retrieved from http://www.randomhouse.com
TL Forsberg was born hard of hearing, she was the only person in her family, so she started to use hearing aid to help her communicate to her family. TL learned both American Sign language and oralism while she was growing up. Being able to do both talk and sign TL felt like she had no place, she didn’t realty fit in the deaf world because her signing was not strong enough and neither in the hearing world because it was extremely hard to always have to lip read. This instantly reminded me of straight beak from the book birds of a different feature. TL and the main character “straight beak” struggle to find their identity and figure out where they belong. So with not knowing about the deaf world, she never discovered herself, find her identity. I do not believe TL ever experienced audism, just like any other aspiring performer TL had to work non-stop around the clock to get recognized but, for TL it paid off when she got a record deal. She worked hard, put in months of work on the CD but, it didn’t wok out because they both had different views on the music. Through the time she was recording TL was becoming deafer, she was almost full deaf. She wanted to get back in the deaf community, therefore she started to sing more and even sign her music for others to see. TL stated to sign more and found her identity within the deaf
In literature, blindness serves a general significant meaning of the absence of knowledge and insight. In life, physical blindness usually represents an inability or handicap, and those people afflicted with it are pitied. The act of being blind can set limitations on the human mind, thus causing their perception of reality to dramatically change in ways that can cause fear, personal insecurities, and eternal isolation. However, “Cathedral” utilizes blindness as an opportunity to expand outside those limits and exceed boundaries that can produce a compelling, internal change within an individual’s life. Those who have the ability of sight are able to examine and interpret their surroundings differently than those who are physically unable to see. Carver suggests an idea that sight and blindness offer two different perceptions of reality that can challenge and ultimately teach an individual to appreciate the powerful significance of truly seeing without seeing. Therefore, Raymond Carver passionately emphasizes a message that introduces blindness as not a setback, but a valuable gift that can offer a lesson of appreciation and acceptance toward viewing the world in a more open-minded perspective.
Helen Keller’s life dramatically changed in 1882 when her mother noticed something was wrong with her. What everybody thought was scarlet fever ended up being worse. Helen was blind and deaf. Helen Keller, being both blind and deaf, had many disadvantages compared to people who are not blind and deaf. One of these disadvantages is that she could not attend school. Another disadvantage of Helen being blind and deaf was that she didn’t have many friends, mainly caused by the fact that she could not attend school. At, a young age, Helen realized that she was different from everybody else around her (“The Life of Helen Keller”). She couldn’t talk to anybody, nobody would play with her because of her disability also known as her “sixth sense”.
Schalkwijk, Frans W. Book Music and People with Developmental Disabilities: Music Therapy, Remedial Music Making and Musical Activities. London and Bristol, PA: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1994.