Sound and Fury

I really enjoyed watching this film and it really made me realize how little I am exposed to the deaf world. It is kind of sad to think about actually. I am privileged with being slightly more exposed than others because I have a deaf neighbor. He is a great guy and has a great family. His wife and two children can hear so I can imagine the frustration he has at times, but his wife teaches sign language and is exposed to the deaf almost everyday. Their kids are still pretty young and don't understand the whole situation, but they already know more sign language than most of us do. He is a normal guy and should be treated that way. He can easily understand what I am saying by reading my lips and he is very good at speaking; it's not hard to understand at all. Sound and Fury did an excellent job with touching both sides of the story and incorporating both of the discourses. I don't fully understand the difficulty there is with deciding to obtain a cochlear implant, however, based on the film and talking with my neighbor, I can assume it is one of the hardest decisions a person may have to make.

This is why I don't really know whether I support the cochlear implant or whether I think it is a bad decision. My first assumption before even watching the film was to get the implant. I couldn't even understand why someone would not want to get it. Hearing is such a beautiful thing. But once I watched the film, I realized how proud the deaf are of their culture. They have never known of anything different and they are perfectly fine without hearing. However, their is a lot of difficulties they may run into in life that will cause them to struggle more than others. Communicating with family members and friends or getting a decent paying job could be a challenge in some cases. I can understand if the entire family is deaf why you would not support the implant. If a child did decide to get the implant, they would not lose their deaf culture because they still need to communicate with their family , but they would probably have a difficult time learning how to speak due to the fact that their parents are deaf.

I have finally made up my decision and I support the cochlear implant. I think allowing the child to decide on their own could be beneficial or at least not implant a small baby. I also think both the family and the child needs to learn sign language. They are still deaf when the implant is taken out, and they need to be able to communicate and understand the culture. It is important that the family members learn the language as well. The implant does not need to take away their deaf culture if they don't allow it to, and in the end it will probably make their life much easier. They can communicate with the deaf and the hearing and hopefully have to deal with less stress. With being able to hear, they can work in any field and do just as much as any one of us could.

I know the cochlear implant is a very diverse topic and obviously deaf families or family members might have different views. I can see both sides of the story and I really do not know what the better decision would be. But does anyone really?  However, in the long run I really do think that this new technology could change a persons life forever and it should be something parents take into consideration.