Deaf Event

For my American Sign Language class I needed to attend some type of Deaf event. The event I chose was the showing of Love is Never Silent on October 22nd from 6-8pm in Wiley Hall at the University of Minnesota. Love is Never Silent is a very touching and powerful television movie from 1985. This movie can help the hearing world get a look at what it is like to have family members that are Deaf. This movie was also probably an inspiration for Deaf people by how relatable it could be to their life. The movie follows Margaret, a child of Deaf parents, through childhood until she is a grown adult. During the stages of Margaret’s life depicted through the movie I learned new information about Deaf culture and was able to make many comparisons between Deaf and hearing culture. The movie begins with Margaret’s mother sewing in their tiny apartment while Margaret and her younger brother are goofing around. The father arrives home and shortly after a man shows up at the apartment and knocks on the door. The parents cannot hear the door so Margaret is left to not only answer the door, but also deal with the man at the door who tries to speak to her parents first, only for Margaret to necessarily intervene later. The man is taking Mother’s sewing machine; she is no longer allowed to work at home and must work in the factory. This is where I first noticed differences in Deaf and hearing culture. The mother worked at home because it was easier and more comfortable for her, rather than being in a busy, hot, and crowded factory where she is not able to communicate with coworkers. The mother gets extremely angry with Margaret when the sewing machine is taken away because she just doesn’t understand why and she blames Margaret. This scene foreshadowed Margaret’s role in the family for most of the movie; she was basically the interpreter, and her parents communicated