Write a summary of the book. Deaf Again is a book written by Mark Drolsbough about his life growing up as a member of the deaf community. He tells stories of the struggles of trying to fit into the hearing world. Drolsbough also details how his hearing family members made him believe as a child that being deaf is bad. He continues on with the story of his life as he finally finds his identity as a Deaf guy, with a capital D. Drolsbough then goes on to fall in love, get married, and help his mother find her proverbial voice in her family.
Mark Drolsbaugh’s Deaf Again is a biography about his life between two dimensions of the Deaf world and the Hearing world as well as the implications he faced throughout his journeys’. Mark Drolsbaugh was born from two deaf parents and was basically forced to adapt to the hearing world even though his parents are deaf. When Drolsbaugh was born he was hearing, however, by first grade his parents and teachers discovered he was losing his hearing. As time went on Mark realized the issues he faced from trying to adapt to the hearing world. Mark Drolsbaugh quotes in his biography, “Deafness is bad.
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 that 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.
I feel bad for them. Imagine not being able to hear the simple things in life we (the hearing community) takes for granted.” The Hearing community will always view the Deaf with the half-empty perspective, unless they personally know someone who is Deaf or have taken a course about Deaf culture. Taking Deaf culture has totally changed my perspective, personally. I now look at the Deaf with the half-full perspective. I admire the Deaf culture, they are so strong and hold such
In the autobiography Deaf Again, Mark Drolsbaugh writes about his life being born hearing, growing up hard of hearing, to eventually becoming deaf. By writing this book, he helps many people view from his perspective on what it is like for someone to struggle trying to fit in the hearing society. Through his early years, his eyes were closed to the deaf world, being only taught how to live in a hearing world. Not only does the book cover his personal involvement, but it covers some important moments in deaf history. It really is eye-opening because instead of just learning about deaf culture and deaf history, someone who lived through it is actually explaining their experiences.
It took him a long time, twenty-three years to realize that the Deaf culture is receiving and it was there for him to embrace the entire time. It would be difficult to be able to hear and then slowly lose your hearing while having to communicate in the world we live in. Both his parents Sherry and Don were Deaf and I enjoyed reading the part where Mark was brought into this world through childbirth and the signing and conversation that was going on inside while the process was taking place. Like the anesthesia machine not working, which had to have been painful. I learned that the many doctors did not or maybe still do not know about Deaf culture.
I’m glad that my parents are deaf because it shows me a different side of the world that no one really knows about. I hope that with the information I presented people might be able to have a better understanding to the difficulties deaf people face every day but also that deafness doesn’t always mean that something is wrong with them, it just means they live a little differently than you but ultimately we are all the
Deaf Culture is often misunderstood because the hearing world thinks of deafness as a handicap. The Deaf are not given enough credit for their disabilities even though they are unable to hear. Being misunderstood is the biggest reason why they are not accepted in the world of hearing. The learning process for them may be slower and more difficult to learn, but they are still very bright individuals. The problem at hand is the controversy of trying to “fix” the Deaf when they may or may not want to be “fixed”.
On many occasions, I have been asked to explain this phenomenon which is known as Deaf Pride. After all, people ask, how could someone possibly be proud of what appears to be nothing more than a disability? On top of that, deafness is a disability which affects communication... it can put an invisible wall between hearing and deaf people. So what's there to be proud of? If you had asked me this question many years ago, I would have been hard-pressed to come up with an answer.
She said it would be interesting to interview him because he has a disability. Max however, is confused by this because he does not have a disability, although he agrees to the interview for his own benefit; not having to explain to everyone he works with how to face him so he could lip read. I think that being hard of hearing is not a disability it is a difference and could, however create some challenges, but it depends person to person. Their are many deaf individuals who do amazing things just like any other person. It really got underneath my skin when the woman Dotty said “disability”.