Before watching the movie the “The Hammer” I didn’t know what to expect. I had never seen a deaf movie before and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to understand the movie completely. Watching the movie wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be, and I enjoyed it. The best part about it was that it’s based on the true story about Matthew “The Hammer” Hamill. The movie starts off by introducing a little boy named Matt. We find out that Matt is completely deaf. His grandfather doesn’t take the new lightly and is slightly in denial on the fact that his grandson is deaf. The baby’s mother talks about deaf schools and teaching the boy sign language. The grandfather doesn’t believe in those kind of institutions and believes his grandson would learn how to communicate through Oral education; teaching him how to read lips. The movie fast-forwards into the little boy’s life in elementary school. He’s put into a special-education class, when he’s clearly fine; his only problem is that’s he’s deaf. After watching this scene in the movie, it had me thinking. Not only was this little boy being singled out for one small difference than others, but he was seen as dumber than others because of it. Although this happened years ago, this reminds me of society today. Often time’s people treat others that don’t blend in, differently. People also believe they’re much better than others who have a form of disability, when in fact this is not true. Throughout his childhood he’s often bullied by other kids for being deaf. His grandfather starts to teach him how to talk by making him feel his vocal cords as he speaks. He also encourages him to join the wrestling team. It was difficult for him to adjust to the team because he would hav... ... middle of paper ... ...couple, but it helped him perfect his signing skills. Eventually Matt breaks records at his school while wrestling there. He wins two National Championships for his school, and eventually takes his career to the next level. He eventually moved on to become a Professional wrestler and then an Ultimate fighter. He is well known throughout the Deaf and Wrestling Community. Watching this movies has helped me a lot with understanding a different way of life. It has helped me better understand the Deaf community and better my own signing. The tips his girlfriend gave him in the movie, I have taken into account and they have worked for me. Watching this movie made me realize the potential, human beings have no matter the circumstance and to never give up on your dreams. With hard work and dedication anything is possible and “The Hammer” is a prime example of that.
How did the directors of The Hammer indicate that Matt and other characters were deaf?
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. I am deaf. I need to be fixed. I must be like them, no matter what, because deaf is bad.” However, no matter what his family believed that he
The movie “Audism Unveiled” was a very interesting and powerful movie. I never realized that deaf individuals are discriminated against. This could be partly because I have never been immersed in or educated about the deaf culture until this year. One of the things that struck me the most while watching “Audism Unveiled” was the many heart wrenching stories about children being unable to communicate with their own non-signing hearing families.. The deaf child would have to ask their family members, why everyone was laughing or what’s going on. The family members would just tell them “I’ll tell you later” or “Nevermind. It’s not important”, resulting in the individual feeling isolated. Personally, I agree with people saying that if a parent has a deaf child they should learn how to sign; communication is what brings families together. As a result, the most intriguing thing to me was the stories of family members never learning American Sign Language; leaving their family member isolated.
After reading Deaf Again I learned a lot of new things about Deaf culture and was drawn in by the story of Mark Drolsbaugh. "The hardest fight a man has to fight is to live in a world where every single day someone is trying to make you someone you do not want to be" e.e cummings. I was brought into the book immediately from this quote and realized how difficult it must have been for Mark to find his identity. He was trying to hang on to his hearing in fear of going deaf as if there was something wrong or not proper with being deaf. 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.
The shocking part was his own third grade teacher who makes him very conscious and scrutinizes him all the time. She says things like “you’re up and down like a flea” and “you should take a look in the mirror sometime” (Sedaris 359). This is probably the sort of person who the disabled encounter on a daily basis and who make them conscious of the fact that they are not as normal as the others. Instead of trying to make an effort to help the helpless child, the teacher tries to rub his disability in his face. She does not understand his problem but makes the situation worse by constantly yelling at him and consequently embarrassing him in front of every body. Instead of addressing the issue, she exaggerates the issue and makes things worse for the
When we first began to watch this movie, I was excited to have the opportunity to learn more about Deaf life. It was nice that we were required to watch the movie, because while the movie had been suggested before I had almost forgotten it, even though I had wanted to see it. The film gave an introduction to life on planet “Eyeth,” but in doing
This movie was inspiring and encouraging to anyone who is struggling with something. Overcoming his controversies in life became the main point of the movie. Knowing that this movie was based upon a true story inspires the people even more.
Deaf and hearing impaired individuals are know longer an out cast group. They now have there own deaf community. Deaf individuals do not consider themselves having an impairment, handicap, or any type of disability. They believe that through the use of sign language, other communication skills, and technology that there deafness is the way they are supposed to be. Many people who have perfect hearing can not understand deaf people and why they embrace there deafness instead of trying to receive hearing and get rid of there handicap. However not all deaf people have th...
Robert DeMayo is a Deaf actor, educator and ASL consultant. He was born in Connecticut but currently lives in Philadelphia. DeMayo grew up in a hearing family. It was hard for him growing up in a hearing family. He often felt like he was being left out by his family, who never bothered to learn ASL so that they could better communicate with him. This being the case DeMayo decided to leave his home since his family seemed like they did not care about how he felt being Deaf when the rest of his family could hear. DeMayo often struggles to make ends meat. Being a Deaf actor makes it even harder to find work while trying to pursue his dream. According to DeMayo there are not many jobs for Deaf actors that have flexible enough hours for him to also be an actor. He often had to take short term jobs like translating for other actors or musicians as they sang and performed. These jobs did not provide enough income and because he could not make enough money to support himself he eventually became homeless until one of his friends let him stay with them until he got back on his feet. These are just a few of the struggles DeMayo faced being a Deaf actor, TL Forsberg also faced many struggles as a hard of hearing singer.
One of the movies that we watched in class was Children Of a Lesser God, which was a monumental film for the Deaf community because, not only was American Sign Language one of the major topics of the film, but more importantly a Deaf actress played the female main character. The film was a hit in both the Deaf and hearing communities, as it was a quality
In the United States today, approximately 4500 children are born deaf each year, and numerous other individuals suffer injuries or illnesses that can cause partial or total loss of hearing, making them the largest “disability” segment in the country. Although, those in the medical field focus solely on the medical aspects of hearing loss and deafness, members of the deaf community find this unwarranted focus limiting and restrictive; because of its failure to adequately delineate the sociological aspects and implications of the deaf and their culture. Present day members of deaf culture reject classifications such as “deaf mute” or “deaf and dumb”, as marginalizing them because of their allusions to a presumed disability. (Edwards, 2012, p. 26-30)
The deaf community does not see their hearing impairment as a disability but as a culture which includes a history of discrimination, racial prejudice, and segregation. According to an online transcript,“Through Deaf Eyes” (Weta and Florentine films/Hott productions Inc., 2007) there are thirty-five million Americans that are hard of hearing. Out of the thirty-five million an estimated 300,000 people are completely deaf. There are ninety percent of deaf people who have hearing parents (Halpern, C., 1996). Also, most deaf parents have hearing children. With this being the exemplification, deaf people communicate on a more intimate and significant level with hearing people all their lives. “Deaf people can be found in every ethnic group, every region, and every economic class” (Weta and Florentine films/Hott productions Inc., 2007). The deaf culture and hard of hearing have plenty of arguments and divisions with living in a hearing world without sound however, that absence will be a starting point of an identity within their culture as well as the hearing culture (Weta and Florentine films/Hott productions Inc., 2007).
Tanner, D.C. (2003). Chapter 6: Hearing Loss and Deafness. In Exploring communication disorders: A 21st century introduction through literature and media (2nd ed., p. 189). Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.
Two centuries ago, the Deaf community arose in American society as a linguistic minority. Members of this community share a particular human condition, hearing impairment. However, the use of American Sign Language, as their main means of communicating, and attendance to a residential school for people with deafness also determine their entry to this micro-culture. Despite the fact that Deaf activists argue that their community is essentially an ethnic group, Deaf culture is certainly different from any other cultures in the United States. Deaf-Americans cannot trace their ancestry back to a specific country, nor do Deaf neighborhoods exist predominantly throughout the nation. Additionally, more than ninety percent of deaf persons are born from hearing parents (Singleton and Tittle 222). Consequently, they often feel isolated from their families, as they do not even share the same language. Non-hearing children born into hearing families are more likely to attend a regular public school with typical peers, causing them to have little contact with other members from the Deaf community. Therefore, this community embraces a diverse group of individuals, who are surprisingly different from the rest of the members of their own families. This situation causes a cross-cultural conflict, which others believe needs fixing. Nevertheless, society should not perceive the Deaf community as a disability group but as a discrete linguistic minority, rich in history, values, and traditions.
In mainstream American society, we tend to approach deafness as a defect. Helen Keller is alleged to have said, "Blindness cuts people off from things; deafness cuts people off from people." (rnib.org) This seems a very accurate description of what Keller's world must have been. We as hearing people tend to pity deaf people, or, if they succeed in the hearing world, admire them for overcoming a severe handicap. We tend to look at signing as an inferior substitute for "real" communication. We assume that all deaf people will try to lip-read and we applaud deaf people who use their voices to show us how far they have come from the grips of their disability. Given this climate, many hearing people are surprised, as I was at first, to learn of the existence of Deaf culture. To me deafness is not a defect but a source of connection. Imagine yourself deaf, growing up with a beautiful language, visual literature, humor, and theater. Imagine taking pride in your identity without any desire to become a member of the majority culture. For many deaf people, their community is a comforting relief from the isolation and condescension of the hearing world. However the Deaf community is far more than a support group for people who share a physical characteristic. Members of the Deaf community may have hearing levels that range from profoundly deaf to slightly hard-of-hearing. But no members of the Deaf community are "hearing impaired." Inside this community, deaf people become Deaf, proudly capitalizing their culture. Hearing people suddenly find that they are handicapped: "Deaf-impaired."