Drolsbaugh, Mark. (2019). Deaf Again. Hardware Publications Book Report

Drolsbaugh, Mark. (2019). Deaf Again. Hardware Publications Book Report

Drolsbaugh, Mark. (2019). Deaf Again. Hardware Publications

ISBN: 1732609403, 9781732609402

Deaf Again is an autobiography of Mark Drolsbaugh describing his life story to show the readers the perspective of living with deafness and the struggle every day. The book describes the journey of Mark born hearing to how he became deaf how he goes through the loss of the hearing process. He becomes an adult and struggles to live like an average person in society. Mark could hear well when he was young, but he gradually began to lose his hearing ability, and eventually, he became deaf. The book reveals his hospital journey and how the doctors prescribed speech therapy and hearing aids for him because they did not understand the deaf culture despite Mark’s parents being deaf. They thought that mark would conform and hang on to his hearing persona. Throughout the book’s chapters, Mark went through different stages trying to fit in like an average human, but he later learned that deaf is not a disease but just a part of who he is. He describes his two experiences in the hearing world and the deaf world. The characters are Mark, Sherry his mother, Don his father, hearing grandparent and deaf grandparents, Linda and Melanie, and Mark’s wife.

Up to the time he is in kindergarten, Mark thought he was a normal person until he began distorting words and other students laughed when he was corrected. He was in grade one when he realized that something was amiss with his hearing ability. Mark was describing one of his toys in a showroom, and another person from another class wanted to ask him a question, but due to the distance between them, Mark could not comprehend the question. He got confused and did not know what to do, and he could not answer the question he did not hear in the first place. The teacher scolded him and wrote a letter informing his parent of his inappropriate behavior. He went through the hardship of being forced to conform while he had not understood the joy of deaf people and deaf culture until he was twenty years old. The book’s themes are the need for language and deaf people; medical and cultural treatment methods can bridge two worlds.

The story opens with Mark telling about his story and how his mother’s natural birth was traumatic. Her comfort was ignored by nurses and doctors who did not understand her due to the communication barrier. She was saved by her deaf husband, who understood the deaf culture and stopped her from suffocating. However, since both of his parents were deaf, His grandfather took care of everything. Mark’s grandfather tested him until he realized that Mark was reading people’s lips to understand what they were saying. His grandfather’s effort to have his hearing problem fixed in various hospitals accompanied by surgeries did not work for him. Doctors advised his family, including his deaf parents, not to use American Sign Language (ASL) in Mark’s presence. He was forced to sit with people talking in group conversations, pretending to know what they were talking about in the group. His grandparents believed that his hearing problem could be improved by attending school with hearing children prevent him from accepting his deafness.

Mark talks about the struggles he faced while switching schools and how various schools impacted his life. He valued education throughout the story as he focuses a lot on it and the possible interventions to ensure a prosperous future for deaf children. He discovered his deafness at Henry Houston School but later joined Plymouth Meeting Friends to be anxious about his deafness. He learned that the classrooms were small, and the students help him adapt. Germantown Friends school affected him negatively because he could not understand the teacher who scrambled around for assignment after the lecture. He felt ashamed of being deaf, knowing that his grandparent believed that his deafness could be fixed. Due to his deafness, he had a hard time making meaningful social connections, and his grandparents try to preserve his hearing painted a negative image that deafness is terrible.

He expounds on how he used to play baseball with children in his neighborhood to manage stress from school and his family. However, he never knew much about racism until he met his friend Sekou who was African American. He realized that Sekou’s family were proud of their culture and wished his family would feel the same about the deaf culture. Despite the difficulties connecting with other students, he managed to join the baseball team at Germantown Friends School. Although he felt inferior trying to fit into the hearing world, he acknowledged that he needed help and depended on his friends to explained what was happening at parties he attended. Due to the massive number of people in one conversation, he did not bother asking what they were saying, but he realized that he did not belong to the hearing world as they would always see him as different. After graduation, he struggled to make the next move in life until he started working at a supermarket. He felt satisfied until Linda offered him a supervisor job at the dorms Photoshop document, where he began to learn and appreciate the deaf culture and the deaf community.

The small number of students living in dorms prompted the closure making Mark jobless. However, Linda encouraged him to join Gallaudet University for the deaf, where he resided in Washington DC near the university. His life took another direction when he met friends who were part of his deaf culture. He did not have to pretend to fit in the hearing world as he finally met deaf people. He could have meaningful conversations and see him as their equal. Consequently, at Gallaudet, he learned leadership skills, becoming courageous to express his thoughts and participate in schoolwork since his peer knew sign language. Compared to his life in hearing schools where he could not provide input to group discussions because of the language barrier, he felt better with other deaf people.

At Gallaudet, Mark met Melanie, his wife, who graduated together and secured jobs within their community. They have three kids who are all hearing but learned ASL to communicate with their parents. Throughout the book, Mark maintains an argument on the importance of teaching children ASL at this early age because it is implemented to learn with others at this age child’s language development. Mark is a prime example of how the deaf community helps deaf people and that the deaf community helps deaf find compassion in their society. He identified the main challenge as isolation in the journey and the ability to overcome challenges to becoming the deaf he was born to become.

Cultural Comparison of Deaf Culture and Hearing Culture

Culture influences the way of living of people through communication, values, and rules. Mark’s experience with his deaf grandparents is different from his hearing grandparents. The hearing culture’s body language and facials are subconscious, while deaf culture uses body movements and expressions as part of their conscious communication. The hearing grandmother wants Mark to remain with the hearing culture so that he did not lose his hearing while the deaf grandmother understood the language of the deaf. In the hospital, Sherry is saved by Mark’s grandfather, who understands the deaf language, unlike the hearing doctors and nurses. Mark is taught ASL to make meaningful communication with others, deaf culture is sign language combined with facial expressions and body language. Language in the hearing culture is the spoken words and body movements, as seen with the hearing grandparent.

Mark felt denial when he did not fit into the hearing world in his family, schools, and society. The deaf culture exhibit norms and traditions that shape acceptability, while others are considered rude to the deaf community. On the other hand, hearing culture has norms considered as disrespectful to the deaf community due to the presentation of cross-cultural differences that are hurtful. Understanding the expected behavior of the peers enables the hearing community to communicate effectively with each other. It is until Mark found the deaf community that he learned to articulate his thoughts and make meaningful schoolwork contributions. He was able to develop social connectedness and intimacy with Melanie. Sign culture recognizes signs as a communication of one’s ideas instead of subtlety hiding them. In deaf culture, it is mandatory to maintain eye contact while communicating, while it is typical for the hearing culture to ignore eye contact while talking. People in deaf culture concentrate much on pictures than words rampantly used by the hearing cultures.

Reflection

The story of Mark Drolsbaugh provides thoughtful insights into the struggles of deaf culture. Although the book expresses the ideas of deaf culture from a one-person perspective, it can connect with the feelings of many other deaf people and how they react. Mark was born hearing and therefore, everyone around him, the teachers, grandparents, and doctors want him considered normal. However, if he was born deaf, everyone could have accepted him as a deaf person rather than seeing him as sick. The book presents deaf people positively because, despite his deafness, he can show how he grew to accept the condition and learned how to be proud and express himself. People are not inadequate or less because they are different from others. The book recommends that communication is essential, and humans are supposed to be happy with their culture no matter the situation.

The author raises the relationship between hearing families and deaf children because he was born into the deaf culture. From Mark’s reaction in the story, there is no definition of what makes a deaf person since there is infinite diversity among the deaf culture. Starting his life as a hearing toddler, Mark struggles to conquer his challenges; he learned a lot on the way. No doubt, the book is bringing people together to make a difference, given that the hearing president resigned for a deaf president to be elected in the university. The autobiography tells about Mark’s life and makes the reader knowledgeable by expounding every detail. Though he had failed as a hearing person, he wants to be appreciated as himself, and his eyes open on deaf culture, the reader’s mind open.

Work Cited

Drolsbaugh, Mark. (2019). Deaf Again. Hardware Publications

Drolsbaugh, Mark. (2019). Deaf Again. Hardware Publications

ISBN: 1732609403, 9781732609402

Deaf Again is an autobiography of Mark Drolsbaugh describing his life story to show the readers the perspective of living with deafness and the struggle every day. The book describes the journey of Mark born hearing to how he became deaf how he goes through the loss of the hearing process. He becomes an adult and struggles to live like an average person in society. Mark could hear well when he was young, but he gradually began to lose his hearing ability, and eventually, he became deaf. The book reveals his hospital journey and how the doctors prescribed speech therapy and hearing aids for him because they did not understand the deaf culture despite Mark’s parents being deaf. They thought that mark would conform and hang on to his hearing persona. Throughout the book’s chapters, Mark went through different stages trying to fit in like an average human, but he later learned that deaf is not a disease but just a part of who he is. He describes his two experiences in the hearing world and the deaf world. The characters are Mark, Sherry his mother, Don his father, hearing grandparent and deaf grandparents, Linda and Melanie, and Mark’s wife.

Up to the time he is in kindergarten, Mark thought he was a normal person until he began distorting words and other students laughed when he was corrected. He was in grade one when he realized that something was amiss with his hearing ability. Mark was describing one of his toys in a showroom, and another person from another class wanted to ask him a question, but due to the distance between them, Mark could not comprehend the question. He got confused and did not know what to do, and he could not answer the question he did not hear in the first place. The teacher scolded him and wrote a letter informing his parent of his inappropriate behavior. He went through the hardship of being forced to conform while he had not understood the joy of deaf people and deaf culture until he was twenty years old. The book’s themes are the need for language and deaf people; medical and cultural treatment methods can bridge two worlds.

The story opens with Mark telling about his story and how his mother’s natural birth was traumatic. Her comfort was ignored by nurses and doctors who did not understand her due to the communication barrier. She was saved by her deaf husband, who understood the deaf culture and stopped her from suffocating. However, since both of his parents were deaf, His grandfather took care of everything. Mark’s grandfather tested him until he realized that Mark was reading people’s lips to understand what they were saying. His grandfather’s effort to have his hearing problem fixed in various hospitals accompanied by surgeries did not work for him. Doctors advised his family, including his deaf parents, not to use American Sign Language (ASL) in Mark’s presence. He was forced to sit with people talking in group conversations, pretending to know what they were talking about in the group. His grandparents believed that his hearing problem could be improved by attending school with hearing children prevent him from accepting his deafness.

Mark talks about the struggles he faced while switching schools and how various schools impacted his life. He valued education throughout the story as he focuses a lot on it and the possible interventions to ensure a prosperous future for deaf children. He discovered his deafness at Henry Houston School but later joined Plymouth Meeting Friends to be anxious about his deafness. He learned that the classrooms were small, and the students help him adapt. Germantown Friends school affected him negatively because he could not understand the teacher who scrambled around for assignment after the lecture. He felt ashamed of being deaf, knowing that his grandparent believed that his deafness could be fixed. Due to his deafness, he had a hard time making meaningful social connections, and his grandparents try to preserve his hearing painted a negative image that deafness is terrible.

He expounds on how he used to play baseball with children in his neighborhood to manage stress from school and his family. However, he never knew much about racism until he met his friend Sekou who was African American. He realized that Sekou’s family were proud of their culture and wished his family would feel the same about the deaf culture. Despite the difficulties connecting with other students, he managed to join the baseball team at Germantown Friends School. Although he felt inferior trying to fit into the hearing world, he acknowledged that he needed help and depended on his friends to explained what was happening at parties he attended. Due to the massive number of people in one conversation, he did not bother asking what they were saying, but he realized that he did not belong to the hearing world as they would always see him as different. After graduation, he struggled to make the next move in life until he started working at a supermarket. He felt satisfied until Linda offered him a supervisor job at the dorms Photoshop document, where he began to learn and appreciate the deaf culture and the deaf community.

The small number of students living in dorms prompted the closure making Mark jobless. However, Linda encouraged him to join Gallaudet University for the deaf, where he resided in Washington DC near the university. His life took another direction when he met friends who were part of his deaf culture. He did not have to pretend to fit in the hearing world as he finally met deaf people. He could have meaningful conversations and see him as their equal. Consequently, at Gallaudet, he learned leadership skills, becoming courageous to express his thoughts and participate in schoolwork since his peer knew sign language. Compared to his life in hearing schools where he could not provide input to group discussions because of the language barrier, he felt better with other deaf people.

At Gallaudet, Mark met Melanie, his wife, who graduated together and secured jobs within their community. They have three kids who are all hearing but learned ASL to communicate with their parents. Throughout the book, Mark maintains an argument on the importance of teaching children ASL at this early age because it is implemented to learn with others at this age child’s language development. Mark is a prime example of how the deaf community helps deaf people and that the deaf community helps deaf find compassion in their society. He identified the main challenge as isolation in the journey and the ability to overcome challenges to becoming the deaf he was born to become.

Cultural Comparison of Deaf Culture and Hearing Culture

Culture influences the way of living of people through communication, values, and rules. Mark’s experience with his deaf grandparents is different from his hearing grandparents. The hearing culture’s body language and facials are subconscious, while deaf culture uses body movements and expressions as part of their conscious communication. The hearing grandmother wants Mark to remain with the hearing culture so that he did not lose his hearing while the deaf grandmother understood the language of the deaf. In the hospital, Sherry is saved by Mark’s grandfather, who understands the deaf language, unlike the hearing doctors and nurses. Mark is taught ASL to make meaningful communication with others, deaf culture is sign language combined with facial expressions and body language. Language in the hearing culture is the spoken words and body movements, as seen with the hearing grandparent.

Mark felt denial when he did not fit into the hearing world in his family, schools, and society. The deaf culture exhibit norms and traditions that shape acceptability, while others are considered rude to the deaf community. On the other hand, hearing culture has norms considered as disrespectful to the deaf community due to the presentation of cross-cultural differences that are hurtful. Understanding the expected behavior of the peers enables the hearing community to communicate effectively with each other. It is until Mark found the deaf community that he learned to articulate his thoughts and make meaningful schoolwork contributions. He was able to develop social connectedness and intimacy with Melanie. Sign culture recognizes signs as a communication of one’s ideas instead of subtlety hiding them. In deaf culture, it is mandatory to maintain eye contact while communicating, while it is typical for the hearing culture to ignore eye contact while talking. People in deaf culture concentrate much on pictures than words rampantly used by the hearing cultures.

Reflection

The story of Mark Drolsbaugh provides thoughtful insights into the struggles of deaf culture. Although the book expresses the ideas of deaf culture from a one-person perspective, it can connect with the feelings of many other deaf people and how they react. Mark was born hearing and therefore, everyone around him, the teachers, grandparents, and doctors want him considered normal. However, if he was born deaf, everyone could have accepted him as a deaf person rather than seeing him as sick. The book presents deaf people positively because, despite his deafness, he can show how he grew to accept the condition and learned how to be proud and express himself. People are not inadequate or less because they are different from others. The book recommends that communication is essential, and humans are supposed to be happy with their culture no matter the situation.

The author raises the relationship between hearing families and deaf children because he was born into the deaf culture. From Mark’s reaction in the story, there is no definition of what makes a deaf person since there is infinite diversity among the deaf culture. Starting his life as a hearing toddler, Mark struggles to conquer his challenges; he learned a lot on the way. No doubt, the book is bringing people together to make a difference, given that the hearing president resigned for a deaf president to be elected in the university. The autobiography tells about Mark’s life and makes the reader knowledgeable by expounding every detail. Though he had failed as a hearing person, he wants to be appreciated as himself, and his eyes open on deaf culture, the reader’s mind open.

Work Cited

Drolsbaugh, Mark. (2019). Deaf Again. Hardware Publications