94

taking advantage of their inability to hear

• TheoldmaninHemingway’s“A Clean Well- Lighted Place,” who is a suicidal deaf drunk wanting to close himself off from the world

• Salinger’sHoldenCaulfieldinThe Catcher in the Rye, who dreams of being deaf so that he can further cut himself off from the world and envisions a world of deafness that is not at all like the one our deaf stu-dents are familiar with

Deaf Readers’ Reactions to Depictions of Deaf Characters

How do deaf readers feel when the deaf characters they encounter in literature evoke pity, or represent weakness or deficiency? Or when the characters are isolated and even envied for their inability to interact with the world around them?

Although deaf students might be expected to feel angry about negative portrayals of deafness, we have found that our students tend not to identify with these charac-ters at all. Our students believe that authentic deaf characters should resemble them: capable, communicative, social, and intel-ligent. Deaf characters in litera-ture rarely embody these traits,

At the 2014 NCTE Annual Con-vention in Washington, DC, I had the pleasure of attending a panel on the topic of deaf characters in literature, presented by Dynnelle Fields, Kelly Kim, and Casey Spencer. I was so impressed with their panel that I asked them if they would consider sharing their research in this column. They gra-ciously agreed.

Inauthentic Deaf Characters in Traditional LiteratureDynnelle Fields The Learning Center for the Deaf Framingham, Massachusettsdynnelle_fields@tlcdeaf.org

Kelly KimThe Learning Center for the Deaf Framingham, Massachusettskelly_kim@tlcdeaf.org

Casey SpencerThe Learning Center for the Deaf Framingham, Massachusettscasey_spencer@tlcdeaf.org

Deaf characters commonly appear in both canonical and contempo-rary literature. Some well- loved and often taught novels and short stories include references to them. Frequently, the characters are nei-ther memorable nor likeable, how-ever, and the negatively designed deaf characters often leave readers

with inaccurate portrayals of deaf people. Consequently, the deaf students we work with do not feel that these characters represent them well.

Examples of deafness in some literature taught in second-ary English classes include the following:

• TheWifeofBathinChaucer’sThe Canterbury Tales, an unpleasant woman who becomes deaf in a fight with her husband

• QuasimodoinHugo’sThe Hunchback of Notre Dame, who is a deformed, unattractive deaf man, rejected by society

• Jim’sdaughterinTwain’sThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, whose deafness caused by scar-letfeverisdiscoveredbyJim,andcausesJimgreatdistress

• TheKingandtheDukeinthesame novel, who cause the nar-rator to feel disgust when they try to con the Wilkes family by pretending to be brothers, one of whom is deaf, and they use fake sign language to com-municate with each other

• MissesTuttiandFruttiinLee’sTo Kill a Mockingbird, who live in a world of silence while one of them uses a huge ear trum-pet to try to hear and the other refuses to admit she is deaf at all, and who have jokes played upon them by local children

English Journal 105.4 (2016): 94–97

Disabling Assumptions

Patricia A. Dunn, Column Editor

EJ_Mar_2016_C.indd 94 3/2/16 7:29 PM

95English Journal

Disabling Assumptions

CL also reacted to Twain’s novel. When the con artists, the Duke and King, pretend to be a deaf man and his brother by using hand gestures that do not resem-ble real sign language, CL says that it shows how in the past, “ASL was looked down on and seen as animal- like or low class.” While CL feels offended by this, he is also pleased by Twain’s use of Huck to express dismay at the con artists’ behavior. CL points out that Twain was ahead of his time in acknowledging a differ-ence between unintelligible signs and actual sign language, adding, “Twain was clearly against [a nega-tive] perspective of deaf people. . . . I thought it was really cool and rare to see criticism of that kind of behavior against deaf people in that time.”

Pairing Texts to Counter Misrepresented Deaf Characters in Classic Texts

Since we cannot (and should not) abandon classic texts with misrep-resented deaf characters, we must consider how to address them more appropriately. We suggest taking a 21st- century approach framed by an understanding of the effects of inauthentic texts. To us this means pairing these classic, inauthentic texts with texts that contain authentic deaf individu-als. Our preference is to find pair-ings (see Figure 1) from the same time period as the traditional text so the two texts can be viewed through lenses shaped by time and perspective. We have chosen a mix of fiction, nonfiction, poetic, and artistic materials that stu-dents can use to provide context and contrast.

of Notre Dame, JMM and JL,remarked that they found Qua-simodo not only inauthentic but alsooffensive.JMMnotedthatthedeafness and deformity of Qua-simodo emphasizes how, “In the past, society viewed deafness on a par with mental retardation and other unwanted disabilities. Peo-ple pitied them. . . . The old view is outdated and inaccurate.” Sim-ilarly, JL noted that Quasimodowasn’t recognized for serving his community, but is rather seen as aburdentoit.JLcommented,“Itmakes me uncomfortable when people see the deaf as a burden rather than as contributors to soci-ety. Is this the message I want to send to the hearing community? Definitely not!” Inauthentic char-acters such asQuasimodo causedthese readers from the Deaf com-munity to feel poorly represented and concerned that readers unfa-miliar with their community would get the wrong impression of deafness.Another student, JP, reacted

to the deafness portrayed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. WhenJPreadthesectioninwhichJim negatively reacts to his dis-covery of his daughter’s deafness, it evoked the memory of her par-ents’ discovery that she was deaf. Her parents initially grieved as Twain’sJimdid,buttheylearnedto cope with her deafness by learn-ing sign language to communi-cate with her. As JP remarked,“My parents learned that being deaf is not a bad thing— it is iden-tifying with a culture— which is a good thing, not a negative thing. It is not something to pity.” The portrayal in the novel, however, gives the impression that deafness is nothing more than a tragedy.

however. As a result, these charac-ters seem so unlike them and their idea of deafness that they seem irrelevant, serving as pointless symbols in a literary text.

To learn about our former stu-dents’ reactions to deaf characters in literature, we sent out a request for reactions to some excerpts from texts they had read in the past. A typical reaction came from Dynnelle’s former student, JYM,who, despite having read several texts with deaf characters in class, responded: “I confess I have read very few texts with deaf charac-ters, and I’m not sure I can think of one off the top of my head. Per-haps, you can refresh my mem-ory?” Similarly, SJ sent a videoof her ASL response. Its English translation begins: “When Dyn-nelle contacted me . . . I wondered if I had ever read anything that had deaf characters in it. . . . I felt no connection to them at all.” She explained that the deaf charac-ters had been depicted as strange, stupid, or crazy because of their deafness, while she grew up in a family that was fluent in ASL, attended a school for the deaf, and was a member of the Deaf com-munity. In contrast to the literary characters, her deafness had never been treated as an abnormality or as a disability.

Two students who responded to the excerpts from The Hunchback

Our students believe that

authentic deaf characters

should resemble them: capable,

communicative, social, and

intelligent. Deaf characters in

literature rarely embody these

traits, however.

EJ_Mar_2016_C.indd 95 3/2/16 7:29 PM

96 March 2016

Inauthentic Deaf Characters in Traditional Literature

take advantage of these texts and ensure that the characters we present to our students are authentic. If they are not, we need to show them what the authentic version of such a character looks like and to discuss the differences. We hope that by using our paired readings, teachers will be able to present more authentic illustra-tions of deafness, portrayals that both hearing and deaf students can understand and relate to.

Works Cited

Abbott, Rob. “Reflections of a Late Deafened Adult.” Web log com-ment. ASL University. ASL Univer-sity, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.

Batson, Trent, and Eugene Bergman. Angels and Outcasts: An Anthology of Deaf Characters in Literature. Wash-ington: Gallaudet UP, 1985. Project MUSE. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

Deliglio, Guie Leo. “Miss Hester of Sunset Valley.” The Silent Worker. Oct. 1922, Volume 35 ed., No. 1 sec.: 2– 5. Gallaudet University Archives. Gallaudet Univ. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.

Desloges, Pierre. “Observations of a Deaf Mute on an Elementary Course of Education for Deaf Mutes.” 1779. The Deaf Experience: Classics in Language and Education. Ed. Har-lan L. Lane. Trans. Franklin Philip. Washington: Gallaudet UP, 1984.

Durr, Patricia. Website Curator. “Chuck Baird.” RIT | NTID | International Archive of Deaf Art/Deaf Artists. RIT/NTID, n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2014.

Jordan,I.King,PhD.“DeafPresidentNow (DPN): The Protest Heard Around the World in 1988 Con-tinues to Change the World.”www.gallaudet.edu. Gallaudet University, n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.

Lane, Harlan, ed. The Deaf Experience: Classics in Language and Education. Trans. Franklin Philip. Washington: Gallaudet UP, 2006. Print.

Miles, Dorothy. “To a Deaf Child.” The Heart of Deaf Culture. RIT, n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.

“OutFront with Erin Burnett.” Out-Front with Erin Burnett. CNN. New York City, New York, 11 Dec. 2013. Television. Transcript.

2013. Williams writes, “OK, so the interpreter was a fake, / But you have to admit it’s pretty funny, right? / Hilarious.” The poem then goes on to remind us that the funeral was meant to be all- inclusive to honor a man who fought exclusion, but that the fake interpreter turned the event into a farce. The poem demonstrates the absurdity and the belittling of a language and culture that follows. The poet’s reaction to the situa-tion continues for many stanzas and provides an excellent resource for comparing Twain’s situation with a recent event.

For characters to juxtapose with Miss Tutti and Frutti in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, we look to “Miss Hester of Sun-set Valley” by Guie Leo Deliglio. In this piece, Miss Hester says, “I have kept a boarding house in the city for ten years. I sold it only last month to a friend of mine, and am out here to open a new one on a smaller scale just to show that it is much pleasanter for us deaf to board together than living apart in town.” Unlike Lee’s sisters, Miss Hester, a full member of both the Deaf and hearing com-munities, wants to support and be around others who are Deaf; she is competent, admired, and well- respected by all.

Researcher and Gallaudet Uni-versity professor Sharon Pajka- West has found that portrayals of deaf characters in literature have become more realistic and positively received by deaf read-ers in the last decade. She cred-its this change to more writers researching the Deaf commu-nity and/or having connections to it. As teachers, we need to

One example of this pairing is to compare the behavior of the Duke and King in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with a similar modern situation by reading this section of the novel alongside deaf poet Donna Williams’s “We Never Meant Any Disrespect.” This poem is a reaction to the fake sign language at the funeral of Nelson Mandela in December

FIguRE 1. Examples of Literature Pairings

1. “The Wife of Bath” (deafness as punishment) and I. King Jordan’s Speech to the National Press Club in 2006 (deafness changing his life for the better)

2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (deafness as isolating and degrad-ing) and Desloge’s “I Must Be Believed” (the value of signing, the deaf community, and educa-tion for the deaf)

3. Jim’s negative comments about his daughter’s deafness in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Dorothy Mile’s poem, “To a Deaf Child” (admiring the beauty of a deaf child’s expression through sign language)

4. The use of fake sign language by the Duke and King in The Adven-tures of Huckleberry Finn and Marlee Matlin’s interview on Out Front with Erin Burnett (Decem-ber 11, 2013) after Nelson Man-dela’s funeral service

5. Carson McCuller’s The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (showing negative experiences of deaf characters) and the memoir No Sound by Julius Wiggins (telling of the ben-efits of living in a deaf environ-ment) as well as “Reflections of a Late Deafened Adult” (a com-mentary written for an ASL Web-site) by Rob Abbott

6. Chapter 25 of Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (promoting deafness as an ideal way to iso-late oneself) and the artwork of Deaf artist Chuck Baird, which celebrates deafness, sign lan-guage, and the Deaf community

EJ_Mar_2016_C.indd 96 3/2/16 7:29 PM

97English Journal

Disabling Assumptions

and Eugene Bergman. Washington: Gallaudet UP, 1985. 1– 15. Project MUSE. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.

Williams, Donna. “‘We Never Meant Any Disrespect’— Poem and Back-ground.” DeafFireflys Blog. N.p., 21 May 2014. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.

1921, Volume 33 ed., No. 8 sec.: 262– 64. Gallaudet University Ar-chives. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.

Wiggins,Julius.“WithMyOwnKindfrom No Sound.” 1970. Angels and Outcasts: An Anthology of Deaf Char-acters in Literature. By Trent Batson

Pajka- West, Sharon. “Representations of Deafness and Deaf People in Young Adult Fiction.” A Journal of Media and Culture 13.3 (2010): n.p. June2010.Web.July2014.

Terry, Alice T. “Reconstructing Cleider Rodman.” The Silent Worker. May

Dynnelle Fields (hearing), Kelly Kim (deaf), and Casey Spencer (hearing) are English teachers in the Secondary Depart-ment at The Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, Massachusetts. They have worked together to address the negative messages about deafness that traditional literature often imparts to their students and to all readers of these works.

PARCC Test Prep

The teacher tapes black paper over wordsin her classroom. Auschwitz blacked outwith Shakespeare, Whitman, Hughes, and Twain.

Classroom guidelines covered up, EmilyDickinson’s mouth sealed. Test week, and nothingcan appear that might help the children.

No words. She, who had allowed studentsto play with words like dolls, dressingand undressing them, revealing in them secrets,

symbols, layers of meaning, must now makewords disappear. Pictures, too, which might prompt writing ideas. She peels from the walls

Anne Frank, an African mask, Ziggy.Surely the room is test-ready now.But won’t pines and grass and birds and clouds

spark ideas too? So she measures black paperover the windows. Fluorescent bulbsprovide the only source of color now.

Shut off, she cannot see desks, the door,her hands before her face, like a spelunkerwithout a flashlight, a child without words.

—JoeCountryman©2016byJosephCountryman

Joe Countryman (joecountry68@gmail.com), a teacher for 29 years, currently instructs eighth graders in English language arts at Winslow Township Middle School in New Jersey. His publications include an instructional unit for the Walt Whitman House in Camden, New Jersey, as well as poems in The Green Mountain Journal. He has been a member of NCTE since 1999.

EJ_Mar_2016_C.indd 97 3/2/16 7:29 PM