Sound and Fury

After watching Sound and Fury, I was left with a completely new viewpoint about deaf people. Before the film, I had always thought that being deaf was a handicap and a curse; however, Sound and Fury brought many original ideas to me such as the awareness of “deaf culture”. It is this idea that is the driving force behind not implanting a cochlear implant into a deaf person. On the other hand, there are also many strong arguments for why a child would benefit from having a cochlear implant such as the idea of “living in both worlds”.

With this in mind, I decided to take a deeper look into the backbone of these arguments and how the film expresses them. The main reasoning behind a child not receiving a cochlear is the fear of that child losing their “deaf culture” or the way of life for a deaf person. For example in Sound and Fury, Peter and Nita worry that if they give their daughter Heather an implant, she will forget that she is deaf. Heather will mold to the hearing world and try to distance herself from the deaf world. The movie does an excellent job of portraying Peter and Nita’s feelings about this, allowing the viewer to understand them without being deaf. Another argument the film brings to the table is the idea of the implant not working well. While success rates are generally high in younger children, Peter and Nita feared that if something were to go wrong, Heather would be shunned from both worlds putting her in a separate “cochlear world”. I believe that these arguments are quite effective as they personally allowed me to sympathize with them and at least understand their reasoning behind not implanting their daughter, even if I don’t agree.

Switching gears to the other side of things, there are also many strong arguments that support having a cochlear implant. The main one shared in the video was the idea of being able to have all the doors open for the child, not being limited by their deafness. This is the main drive behind Chris and Mari’s decision to implant their son. They don’t want him to be held back by his deafness and later resent his parents for not giving him a cochlear implant. An example supporting this is when the movie shadows Peter for his normal work day. He constantly needs help from a translator in order to work, thus stopping him from moving and further up in his company. Another argument that was brought into the film was that deaf schools were not as suitable as hearing schools. Sound and Fury talks about how some deaf children graduate high school with a fourth grade reading level. It was because of these reasons that Chris Mari chose to implant their son. In my opinion, it was the right choice. Unlike Peter and Nita, deaf culture isn’t as big of a factor since both of them can hear. With this in mind, it seems that the positives of the cochlear would outweigh the negatives for a hearing family, while for a deaf family it is really just a personal choice that has to be made.

After having said all of this, on the whole I thought the movie did an excellent job of showing both sides of the story and not letting bias become a factor. It simply provides all the facts and all the opinions, so that the viewer can make an informed decision for themselves. I believe that Sound and Fury is an eye-opening film that makes the viewer re-consider all they know about deaf people and their culture.