Summary Of The Feel Of Silence By Bonnie Tucker

Bonnie Tucker and Matt Hamill; How are They the Same and How are They Different

In the book, The Feel of Silence by Bonnie Tucker, you see the story of a young woman growing up deaf. Although medically and physically she is profoundly deaf, in the mind and heart she desperately wants to be a part of the hearing world. Even in her older years she never really accepted her deafness totally. On one hand you have the Deaf people in the world who are like Bonnie, but on the other you see people like the hammer, formally known as Matt Hamill. He was born with a profound hearing loss and he was raised to be as much in the hearing world as possible. He never learned to sign when he was young and also was told that he was just as good as everyone

One of these is the college experience. Matt started off going to Purdue for a scholarship for wrestling. He was forced to sit in big lecture halls where an interpreter was provided. But as you will recall Matt did not know any sign language. So his grades started to fail and he was eventually forced to leave Perdue and go to a deaf school. Once at the deaf school Matt thrived and quickly became the star of the wrestling team. He learned sign language and met a lot of deaf and hard of hearing friends. Bonnie on the other hand went to a hearing college and forced herself to succeed. She had a lot of troubles in class to start but she found a few ways to cope. One of the ways is that she had upperclassmen take notes for her and she studied constantly. She wanted to be a law student so she read all of the law books that the library could offer. She did her best to stay active in class and lip read the professor. It was very difficult sometimes but in the end she graduated as one of the top in her class. Another difference between Bonnie and Matt is the way they accepted their deafness. Bonnie learned in time that her deafness was a thing that she would have to deal with forever. She understood this but she still wanted nothing more than to be a part of the hearing world. She never truly integrated herself into the deaf world. Matt on the contrary, after going to the deaf school became very in to the deaf scene. He learned that being deaf is a part of who he is and that he would do nothing to change it. The deaf world is his home and all of his friends are there to support him all the way through his