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American Annals of the Deaf, Volume 128 Number 1, February 1983,

pp. 25-33 (Article)

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DOI: 10.1353/aad.2112.0004

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http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/aad/summary/v128/128.1.guella.html

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 Short Stories with Deaf Fictional Characters
Bernard Guella

The literature on the deaf fictional characters portrayed in short stories is reviewed to see what
images of deaf people are presented. The images are grouped into categories useful for discussion
purposes; stories that do not easily fit into groups are discussed separately. The findings are
supported by research from the fields of deafness, literature, folklore, sociology, and rehabilita-
tion. Images of the deaf are found to be portrayed largely in stereotypes that have little basis in
reality, although some stories do offer images based on an understanding of deaf culture. Both
major and less-known writers' works are reviewed; stories discussed and references are presented
at the end of the paper.

Many deaf characters appear in fictional
works, but not much has been written
about the deaf fictional character. Anthologies,
journals, and numerous articles concern them-
selves with other groups as they are represented
in fiction, but the author has found only a hand-
ful of articles and only two anthologies of fiction
whose central plots deal with deaf characters.
Therefore, there is a need to study how these
characters are represented and what they rep-
resent as symbols. So far the author has found
almost 100 short stories and about half as many
novels in this area; this paper will discuss a
sampling of these short stories. The stories have
been categorized, and a proportionate number
of stories from the various categories will be
presented. Before the stories are discussed, rea-
sons why there is a need for research on this
topic will be explored, and the categories used
will be described.
The initial impetus for studying deaf fictional
characters as discussed here was curiosity, and
it is still a major reason for ongoing investiga-
tion. Of all the fiction read, only one or two
works associated with deafness were known to
the author. Since then, many more titles have
been found, but it is still a question why the
association between deafness and fiction is not
better documented. Since this field seems to be
largely unexplored, this paper is limited to an
overview of the literature; many more issues
concerning deaf characters still have to be stud-
ied. The early sources that are useful are the
works in the reference list by Batson and Berg-
man (1972), Panara (1972), and Taylor (1974-
1976).
There are other more objective reasons show-
Mr. Guella is the rehabilitation counselor for Toolworks
workshop in San Francisco.
ing why an attempt should be made to study
how deaf characters are treated in fiction. One
reason is that, as a minority, those who are deaf
have been considered outside the mainstream
of every culture throughout history. In Outsiders
in a Hearing World, Higgins (1980) gives a brief
summary of this point. He points out that for a
long time the hearing community has specu-
lated about what deafness is like, on what think-
ing is like without spoken language, and on
what deaf people are like. Through these ideas,
the hearing community has created a world in
regard to education, vocation, and other areas
that has had little input from those who have
experienced deafness. Higgins makes the point
that "the hearing have created a world in which
the deaf live but are not fully part of. The bases
of that historical relationship continue today"
[p. 27]. With this in mind, it is not surprising to
note that the majority of people who attudinally
identify with the deaf community are under-
educated and underemployed (Schein & DeIk,
1974). Similar points are also covered by Witt
and Ogden (1981) and by Schowe (1979). Fiction
is one way of presenting a picture of reality. The
thesis of this paper is that the picture of deafness
does not approximate the life of those in the
deaf community. This view can also be found in
Trenton Batson's article "The Deaf Person in
Fiction—From Sainthood to Rorschach Blot"
(1980). After these distortions are made known,
authors and readers will be aware that there is
a need for symbols that more closely approxi-
mate reality, or that represent what a hearing
impairment means to a person.
Another reason for studying the deaf in fiction
is that literature represents a culture's ideas about
the concerns of that culture and how people
treat those concerns. One factor that makes the
literature of one people different from that of
another is the way people treat similar concerns.

A.A.O. I February 1983 25

 Short Stories with Deaf Characters
As attitudes change, the style and content of
literature change to show what people think
about themes, but the themes often remain con-
stant. One theme is the treatment of outsiders.
What do outsiders mean to the main culture,
and what should the attitude be toward those
who do not share certain important aspects of
the culture, such as those with a hearing impair-
ment or a different language? The differences in
attitudes toward deaf people between one coun-
try and another or between one time period and
another could be other topics. This paper, how-
ever, looks for patterns of attitudes in fiction
concerning deafness, and its focus is limited to
the meaning which that literature has for people.
One reason that the short story has been cho-
sen for a special study is its ability to present in
a condensed form images that can express ideas
central to society. Kostelanetz (1967) expresses
this point well in his introduction to the short-
story collection 12 From the Sixties:
The medium of the short story is a metaphor
in its ability to offer an image of experience
which, though not an exact replica, in some
way recreates experience . . . the short story
devotes its attention to a small area of human
existence. However, should this microcosm be
resonant enough, the story will become a com-
plex symbol for larger issues, [p. 9]
A short story usually attempts to handle only
one main theme or character; if the theme or
character is handled well, the statement made
can be meaningful and informative. Some stories
that are not well written are still popular and
express common attitudes of their day. Some of
the stories discussed here are written better than
others, but all present an image of how people
see the experience of deafness. The research of
the folklorist Antti Aarne reveals that the hear-
ing impaired appear throughout the world's
folklore, often in ways that show the outsider
status that caused them to be misunderstood or
written about in a way meant to poke fun at
them (Aarne, 1914,1961). These themes are still
popular today and have been reported by hear-
ing-impaired writers (Wright, 1969; Yglesias,
1978).
A last reason for studying the deaf in fiction
is that the number of those who are hearing
impaired, and of those who use sign language,
is large enough to warrant that this population
be recognized more than it is today. An esti-
mated 6.6% of the United States population, or
13,362,842 people, have a hearing impairment
26
(Schein & DeIk, 1974). Further, sign language is
the third most used non-English language in the
United States (ASHA, 1974). Though many peo-
ple with hearing impairments have no connec-
tion at all with the various deaf communities,
the attitudes of the hearing community toward
the nonhearing usually apply to all with a hear-
ing impairment. Those who have a mild hearing
impairment are accused of not listening when
they don't want to, when in actuality they may
have not heard or may have misunderstood the
speakers. This is also an attitude that many
hearing people hold toward the severely or pro-
foundly deaf. In addition, the basis for accusa-
tions that some older people are senile is that
these people have recently begun to lose their
hearing. This is not far removed from the deaf
and "dumb" stereotype held by many hearing
people. (In this case "dumb" is defined as
"unintelligent".)
I hope that I have been able to show ade-
quately in my brief summary that the size of the
population that is hearing impaired is probably
larger than many have suspected and that this
segment of the population has long suffered
from the misunderstandings of the hearing soci-
ety. There are many ways to identify people's
attitudes toward deafness; fiction is one way.
Short stories offer brief but insightful studies of
particular ideas. What this paper tries to dis-
cover, then, is how deafness and deaf people
are treated in fiction and what attitudes these
images express. The attitudes expressed are more
varied than was to be expected, but the char-
acters drawn have not been found representa-
tive of members of the deaf culture. A similar
attitude concerning the treatment of deaf fic-
tional characters can be found in an early work
by Best (1943).
Deaf fictional characters are found in stories
originating in many countries and have been
written since the first half of the 1800s by both
well known and little-known authors. It is inter-
esting to note that even though the number of
prevocationally deaf people is only a minority
of the total number of the actual hearing impaired
(Schein & DeIk, 1974), the majority of the hear-
ing-impaired characters in the stories are pre-
vocationally deaf. Furthermore, the majority of
these stories either show little or no understand-
ing of deafness or present the hearing impaired
as overly sympathetic; the minority present a
somewhat rounded portrayal. If literature is in
part a reflection of society's consciousness, then
A.A.O. I February 1983
 Short Stories with Deaf Characters
what these stories reaffirm is either that the
hearing society does not have a complete under-
standing of deafness or that the hearing society
often does not take deaf people seriously. The
authors who wrote in an earlier time held world
views different from those of current authors,
but as representatives of their day, most authors,
particularly the earlier ones, show a deaf person
as not being considered the peer of a hearing
one.
Since short stories use symbols, it can be
expected that certain stereotypes of deafness
would have been developed. A common notion
is that a person's inner nature and outward phy-
sique are somewhat dependent on one another
(Wright, 1960). Writers use this concept sym-
boücally in portraying the disabled. Panara (1972)
expands on this use of symbols. He sees that
writers have used deafness to express alienation
and loneliness. He finds it paradoxical that as
education has expanded among and between
the hearing and the hearing impaired, there
should appear more stories focusing on the use
of the deaf character to represent alienation and
loneliness. There are other reasons why there
are more deaf fictional characters than before,
but Panara's observation suggests that the image
of deaf people in later fiction is no more based
on reality than were earlier images. After all,
one observation that most social observers com-
ment upon is the existence of a close deaf com-
munity with easy access to members of other
deaf communities. After one reads many of these
stories, it becomes clear that the believability of
both deaf and hearing characters depends on
the abilities of the writers. Even when a skilled
author does not present a deaf character in a
flattering light, she/he infuses the character with
more insight about humanity than a less skilled
writer does, even one who attempts to write
favorably about a deaf character. But one obser-
vation about the readings is that no matter who
the author, deaf characters are usually pro-
trayed within a limited range of symbolic options,
as will now be discussed.
In about two-fifths of the stories, deaf char-
acters either are treated with little or no under-
standing or are assigned too small a part to have
meaning. Some of the stories that show little
understanding do not necessarily portray deaf-
ness negatively, but they use the characters only
incidentally and show little insight concerning
deafness. Some of the deaf characters, although
assigned a small role, still offer some comments
A.A.D. I February 1983
about the problems of communication between
deaf and hearing characters. However, a pro-
portionate number of these stories will not be
discussed because more benefits can be derived
from concentrating on stories with more sub-
stantial deaf characters. The next largest group-
ing gives what may be caUed a somewhat rounded
representation, followed closely by groupings
that treat deaf characters as too sympathetic, as
grotesque or mysterious, or as fools. Then there
are those stories that do not fit well into any of
these classifications. Many of the stories could
fit into more than one category, but for the sake
of a beginning study an attempt has been made
to find areas that present similar attitudes. What
stands out most is that even though no single
image of the deaf prevails, the range of images
is narrow when compared to the actual range
existing in members of the various deaf
communities.
First the group presenting deaf characters in
the most rounded manner will be surveyed. AU
the characters in the stories discussed have an
early, profound hearing loss, which, as was
already pointed out, is not the norm for people
with hearing losses. One aspect of these stories
is the characters' attempts to deal with the lack
of communication between the deaf and the
hearing characters. In Joanne Greenberg's "And
Sarah Laughed" (1972), it is the need for com-
munication between the deaf themselves, as well
as between them and the hearing world, that is
a central theme in the story. The story is told by
a hearing woman, Sarah, who has a deaf hus-
band and four deaf sons and is about to meet
her deaf daughter-in-law for the first time. The
eldest son met his wife at a residential school
for the deaf where he had gone to learn drafting.
Up until the time her son brings his wife home,
Sarah could commmunicate with her family only
through written messages and a few homemade
signs. For the most part, she believed the edu-
cators who told her that her children could be
taught to be like hearing children if the whole
family would use the oral method. Sarah accus-
tomed herself to a world of silence; but the lack
of effective communication, combined with the
silence, left her with few outlets to communicate
what she felt emotionally. Because she lacks the
easy communication that she experienced before
her marriage, she feels deprived and isolated.
She takes refuge in the fact that she can qry in
bed without her husband hearing her. Even
though the reader is given only a glimpse of
27
 Short Stories with Deaf Characters
how the rest of the family reacts to this lack of
communication, it is fair to surmise that their
frustrations are not more bearable because they
had never communicated well with other peo-
ple. The need for communication is central in
all of us.
This becomes apparent when the son and his
bride come home and display a knowledge of
signs. The other deaf members of the family
anxiously await every moment when they can
be alone with the signers, so that they too can
learn signs. They refrain from signing in front
of Sarah because they know she dislikes it. At
the end of the story, Sarah realizes not only that
there has been little family communication in
the past, but that she is now being left out of
everyone's experience of learning to communi-
cate with one another. She gives in to her impul-
ses and asks to learn to sign. The famUy's attempt
to learn to sign represents a desire not only to
talk, but also to learn how to share their expe-
riences with one another.
Even though the deaf characters are not the
main focus of the story, their roles are essential.
Those familiar with Greenberg's novel In This
Sign will be interested to know that it is the son
and daughter-in-law in the short story who are
the basis for the parents in the novel.
It is interesting to note that this story, the only
one found that mentions a deaf character having
a deaf parent, faUs into the "somewhat rounded"
group. Despite obvious differences, the story
corresponds to findings (Meadow, 1968) that
point out that the self-esteem of young deaf
children of deaf parents is higher than that of
young deaf children of hearing parents. This is
one of the few stories where the problem of
communication is overcome, and it is overcome
in a family that has learned to respect one anoth-
er's deafness. This respect of deafness, symbolic
of the respect of oneself, is not usually even
hinted at in most other stories. Furthermore,
this aspect of deafness is a basis for the type of
self-esteem that Meadow's finding points out.
Christopher Davis' "Silence" (1963) is another
story that focuses on a hearing woman and how
she relates to a deaf man. The woman meets the
man at their work cafeteria; he is in the printing
department and is shown associating with other
deaf printers. This detail is as realistic as that of
the son attending a residential school in "And
Sarah Laughed," since printing is traditionally
one of the occupations suggested to deaf work-
ers. The man communicates with his friends in
28
signs, but can read the woman's lips weU enough
to understand her and makes himself under-
stood by means of carefuUy chosen pictorial types
of signs. She is attracted to him because she is
pictured as overweight and without many dates,
and also because she welcomes his and his
friends' silence, which contrasts with her noisy
home. The author does not allow her to learn
that, although deaf people often sign silently in
mixed company so as not to attract stares, they
often use their voices when alone with other
signers. However, the conversations of the deaf
friends do not seem different from those of any
other bunch of male workers kidding one another
about female workers and other matters. This is
a significant example of what is missing from
most other stories with deaf characters: Other
deaf characters often converse only with hearing
characters. The reader is rarely allowed to see
deaf characters interacting with others in their
own milieu.
The main characters in the next two stories
are deaf. Margaret Prescott Montague's "The
Little Sign for Friend," from her collection Closed
Doors: Studies of Deaf and Blind Children (1915),
takes place in a residential school for the deaf
and blind. The parents of a 19-year-old boy send
their son to school to learn how to live indepen-
dently, but he is taunted by the other students
because he does not yet know how to sign.
However, he is befriended by one boy. What
seems important in this story is that even though
it deals solely with children, it is not simply a
story for children. It presents us with images of
deaf people in their own environment. Some
are friendly, some envious, others spiteful, fol-
lowers or leaders—the range of characteristics
one can expect to find in any large gathering.
The story acknowledges that deaf people have
concerns similar to those of hearing people, as
can be observed in any deaf community, and
that these concerns are often dealt with within
the confines of relationships with other deaf
people. It therefore seems that more reaUstic
portrayals are available to take the place of the
inaccurate stereotypes that abound.
The final story from this section of somewhat
rounded portrayals is "Dummy," by Howard
Hofsteater (I960), which appears in what I believe
to be a unique (and out-of-print) collection, The
Silent Muse: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry by
the Deaf (ed. Panara, Denis, & McFarlane). A
young deaf man who has no education and little
or no understanding of the world appears to be
A.A.D. I February 1983
 Short Stories with Deaf Characters
almost childlike. The story takes place within
one day, during which the hearing woman who
has always been most friendly to him acts dis-
tant. By the end of the day he is made to realize
that she is getting married and will live miles
away. At this point, the "dummy" imparts an
impressive delineation of the culture of his town
by distinguishing the important characteristics
of the members of the town. He sees that status
is culturally defined by manner of dress, and he
makes other observations that point up the irony
of the title. No one in the story knows that he
sees these things, since no one can communicate
with him on this level. He has been almost all
alone up until now; now that he has left child-
hood, he is completely alone. The man, uned-
ucated and unable to communicate with those
around him, is still a distinct person with knowl-
edge of his surroundings and his feelings towards
those around him. Again, this is a story that
presents something that most other stories with
deaf characters do not: A character who is deaf
and yet has been portrayed with a sense of the
individual that cuts across all boundaries.
Although his problems are specific to himself
and his disability, the theme of isolation is
universal.
By contrast, the rest of the stories to be dis-
cussed lack characters who give readers an accu-
rate range of symbols that represent members
of the deaf community. Next to be discussed is
a story of the deaf viewed as grotesque and as
mysterious. The main character in Turgenev's
"Mumu" (1852/1972) is a deaf mute, Gerasim.
Gerasim is an anomaly: He is an example of the
frequent expectation that "the deaf person,
looking just like anyone else, is expected to act
like anyone else" (Wright, 1960 pp. 76-77), but
he does not. He stands out from the other char-
acters because he is a more reliable worker than
any other character and because he is lonely
since he cannot communicate with others. Ger-
asim is respected by some because of his hard
work and his large size, but he is taken as a fool
by others because of his inability to hear what
happens around him. His grotesqueness can be
seen in the way the other characters react to his
loneliness. He is not expected to mind it because
he is so different. He is suspected of being insen-
sitive, at best, when he drowns his dog at the
wishes of the mistress who owns the farm he
works on; yet she is the unfeeling one. She also
sees him as something out of a sideshow freak
and not as a person. This story presents better
A.A.D. I February 1983
than most other stories the problems that non-
communication can cause for the deaf person.
Gerasim's mysteriousness is expressed through
his treatment as an oddity—big and deaf. Though
the story is a well crafted, moving one, the deaf
character still does not present an accurate image
of members of the deaf community. The char-
acter is a powerful symbol of the isolation that
Turgenev writes about. Nonetheless, Gerasim
stands out as grotesque, and he is another exam-
ple of the limited range of characters that deaf
fictional characters portray.
Clifford Eddy's deaf character in "Deaf, Dumb,
and Blind" (1970) is, mysteriously enough, never
presented to the reader. Instead, the typed
account of his death is read by a doctor sum-
moned to the house by a servant. The doctor
relates how the deaf person's ancestors were
burned for devilish practices; the character, a
poet, is made "deaf, dumb, and blind" and par-
alyzed in World War I. The rest of the story is
the poet's account in a typed message of feeling
rumblings, heat and cold, sensing someone
strangling him, and hearing devilish sounds.
Then he dies, and the typed message ends. The
poet, through what he had typed, portrays a
man determined to overcome his disabilities and
one who is determined to be brave and intelli-
gent even in the face of danger.
This is the first example shown in this paper
of a deaf character who, although profoundly
deaf, was not prevocationaUy deaf. This approach
is needed in the story, because the variety of his
descriptions is expressed much more concretely
than they would have been if he had not heard
sounds and had not seen colors before this inci-
dent. The story is an example of a multiply dis-
abled person faced with almost insurmountable
stumbling blocks. It seems to be implied that his
disabilities are a sign of the evil that supposedly
runs in his ancestors' blood. They are also a sign
of the mysterious powers that disabilities can
bring: The poet's resistance to his disability
requires an almost superhuman strength. But
the main difference between the disabled man
and the other characters is his disabilities. The
story is an example of B. Wright's (1960) notion,
stated earlier in this paper, that a person's outer
appearance is a manifestation of his/her inner
nature.
So far this discussion has concerned only stories
in which deafness played an integral part and
which showed that deaf characters are capable
of possessing some admirable traits. It was men-
29
 Short Stories with Deaf Characters
tioned earlier that because a deaf person looks
the same as anyone else, she/he is supposed to
act the same way a hearing person is expected
to, regardless of different communication needs.
One way of combating this categorizing is to
attempt to understand hearing impairment and
the deaf community. In the stories discussed up
to this point there are attempts to show deafness
as an accepted aspect of the characters. The stories
that follow show much misunderstanding of the
concerns of the deaf. The stories fall into the
categories of showing deaf characters as too
sympathetic, of showing them as foolish, and
of exhibiting little comprehension of the needs
of deaf people.
Charles Dickens is a writer who had personal
contact with people who were deaf, but he tended
to write of them in an overly sympathetic man-
ner. The version cited of his "Doctor Marigold"
(1865/1972), is edited to omit the middle section,
which covers the time that the narrator travels
while his deaf daughter is in school. The version
comes from a collection of fiction and nonfiction
by and about the deaf, The Deaf Experience (Bat-
son & Bergman, 1972). The one-dimensionality
of the deaf-mute Sophy in "Doctor Marigold,"
presents the reader with little more than a card-
board character and shows little detail about
what it is like to be deaf.
Though not the main character, Sophy does
have an important role as the adopted daughter
of the narrator. The father teaches the girl through
homemade signs, then sends her to a residential
school for the deaf. Dickens shows understand-
ing here, since he is one of the earlier short-
fiction writers to mention sending a deaf child
to a special school. She returns upon completion
of school, soon marries a deaf man, and travels
with him. A few years later, she returns with a
hearing daughter. While the husband stands
aside, Sophy, the father, and the daughter all
converse in the homemade signs that the father
had taught Sophy when she was a young girl.
That Sophy would remember the homemade
signs, after having learned and used formal
signing for years, is hard to believe; that she
would teach them to her daughter is unlikely,
but it serves as a ploy to present a heart-rending
conclusion. Sophy's role does more to enhance
the character of the narrator than it does to pre-
sent a serious picture of deafness.
Since Dickens had a godchild who was deaf
and he had deaf friends, it is disappointing that
he presents unrealistic images of deaf charac-
30
ters. His attitude may be representative of the
romanticism of his time, but he had a better
chance than did many others to be aware of the
behavior of people who were deaf. Any sort of
a rounded portrayal of a deaf character is miss-
ing in his work.
A similar story is John R. Burnef s "The Orphan
Mute," in Tales of the Deaf and Dumb (1835). Even
though it was written by a deaf author and pre-
dates Dickens' story by 30 years, it anticipates
the style that Dickens is famous for. The story
begins with a boy's discovery of a deaf girl lost
in the woods. His parents adopt her, but cus-
tody of the two children eventually falls to an
uncle. The boy is sent to law school and the girl
to a residential school for the deaf. Before the
story ends, the loose ends are joined and the
boy and girl find happiness: The two are mar-
ried, she finds her true grandmother, and all
discover that the uncle is trying to withhold an
inheritance from them. The reason is that the
uncle is related to the girl by marriage and aban-
doned her in the woods many years earlier so
that he could get her inheritance. The inheri-
tance is returned and all ends well. Mary in this
story, like Sophy in the previous one, is a fast
learner who has little personality of her own.
What the reader is left with is sympathy for the
plight of the two characters. Although this treat-
ment is not the same as treating a character, or
people in everyday situations, as fools, it does
foster the feeling of the dependency of those
who are deaf: The deaf characters receive their
benefits in both these stories through the actions
of the hearing characters.
In Brian James' "Untimely Aid" (1963), Mr.
Beresford, the hearing-impaired teacher in a boys
school, is treated as a fool by his students. His
seriousness about literature tends to make him
long-winded. This often annoys the students,
and because of his hearing loss the teacher can
be mocked while he reads in class. He discovers
the mockery one day when he wears a hearing
aid to class. Through his initiation, the reader
becomes aware of how cruel people in the hear-
ing world can be toward those with a hearing
impairment. We are asked to share in his awak-
ening, but the character is not developed suffi-
ciently to enable the reader to empathize with
him. What remains in the reader's mind after-
wards is the treatment of the deaf person as a
fool.
The following stories are examples of how
much misinformation there is about the deaf.
A.A.O. I February 1983
 Short Stories with Deaf Characters
Both are prime examples of popular attitudes
concerning deaf and hearing-impaired people.
An old woman who has become deaf with age
in Vivien Bretherton's "Charm" (1926) testifies
in a court case. Her testimony is based on read-
ing a boy's lips while he is three flights directly
below her! The story is not worth discussing,
but it probably shows the greatest misconcep-
tion about the ease of lipreading that exists. This
type of belief should not be discussed as gross
stereotyping, however. No one could rationally
say that it is possible to read a person's lips by
looking at the top of his/her head, but the exag-
geration in this story fosters the inaccurate idea
that lipreading is a medium that enables hear-
ing-impaired people to communicate as easily
as speech enables the hearing or signs the deaf.
The next story presents another misconcep-
tion that also perpetuates a false image of deaf
people. The plot in Bret Harte's "The Youngest
Miss Piper" (1873/1901) revolves around a woman
of marrying age who is "a little deaf." The idea
that the woman may be feigning deafness is
hinted at, but the truth is left to the reader's
imagination. However, the idea that a person
who is a little deaf cannot hear anything she/he
chooses is often met with disbelief. That a hear-
ing-impaired person can understand some peo-
ple better than others, or at one time and not at
another, brings up in some hearing people's
minds the idea that the hearing-impaired person
is employing a filtering-out process. These last
two stories present just two of the many mis-
conceptions that appear in the stories I have
read, all of which tend to reflect and reinforce
those misconceptions in life. The stories are
examples of only some of the ideas many hear-
ing people believe.
Other stories do not fall into convenient cate-
gories, either because the deafness is a very
small aspect of the story or for other reasons.
This section will deal with a few of these stories
individually. One example is Jean Stafford's
"Beatrice Trueblood's Story" (1956). Beatrice has
had a few unfortunate circumstances in her life
and is about to enter into an unwanted mar-
riage. Suddenly she becomes deaf and does not
marry. With the aid of therapy, she regains her
hearing a few years later. There is a serious
attempt here to explain one version of what
changes occur in a person's life when she sud-
denly loses her hearing; deafness is not used
just as a trick in the story. The dialogue includ-
ing her explanation about living without sound
A.A.D. I February 1983
is thought-provoking; however, it is too short
to be more than this.
Tillie Olsen's "Tell Me A Riddle" (1960) offers
a good portrayal of a woman in her mid-60s.
The story includes the woman's use of her hear-
ing aid to tune out her husband when she does
not want to hear him, but it is not a story about
deafness. The character is so well drawn that
the reader is shown insight into a person—one
who happens to have a hearing impairment. It
is moving to see that such a realistic character
can be depicted and that the diminished hearing
is not denied but does not interfere with her life.
Ernest Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted
Place" (1961) offers us only a glimpse of a deaf
man in a bar. But a conversation starts up between
two bartenders who are waiting for him to leave.
The conversation centers on the old man, dark-
ness, and confidence and youth. Even though
the man has attempted suicide the previous week
and is now slightly drunk, he has a sense of
dignity about him. Once again, the hearing
impairment is included in the story, but it does
not interfere with the man's sense of self. This
story differs from many other ones in that the
character's hearing impairment does not make
him less human than the other characters. This
last aspect of the story presents a representative
picture of what occurs in life. The only basis for
imposing characteristics that have nothing to do
with a hearing loss is the hearing community's
misunderstanding of how a person's hearing
impairment makes him/her different.
The following story presents a character who
is learning an oral method. In Corlis Wilber's
"Stepping Stones" (1958), Laurie is a young
woman approaching deafness who struggles in
her determination to learn to lipread. Much of
the story deals with how important communi-
cation is to her and how learning to lipread will
help her continue to communicate with others.
Like the last few stories, this one would not be
easy to include under any classification. It only
offers a view of how this character deals with
an approaching loss and how it will affect her
communication abilities. What is stressed is her
determination in the face of an unpleasant future.
She is accustomed to easy communication. Other
people in her lipreading class are old and miss
obvious questions, and she does not want to be
like them. She sees them as society sees them—
foolish, senile, deafened. Yet she continues with
the class because she sees it as the way to retain
her skills in communication. Therefore, although
31
 Short Stories with Deaf Characters
this story offers only another limited view of
hearing impairment, it stresses the importance
of communication. This is important to note,
since many of the stereotypes of the deaf might
not exist if there had been better communication
between representatives from the hearing and
deaf cultures over the years.
The last story to be discussed is "Mother and
Child," by Joan Vinge (1975). Like many other
science fiction/fantasy stories, it does not fit
readily into categories. The people on a future
earth, sometime after a plague, are divided into
two main groups: Kotaane—worshippers of the
Goddess—and Tramaine—followers of a reli-
gion worshiping "gods" from another planet.
Both groups use sign language. The Kotaane
can hear sounds but cannot distinguish words
and cannot talk. The Tramaine have poor vision
but can hear and talk; but they still can use signs,
which is part of their tradition. Deafness is not
an issue here, yet almost all conversations take
place in signs. There is more signing in this story
than in any other one, even those in the earlier
mentioned Montague collection. The story is
well written, and it is good to see another story
where sign language is shown to be equal to
languages based on sound in its ability to com-
municate. Most other stories imply that sign
language is hard to learn, too slow for commu-
nication, and of no use—not Vinge's story.
These stories comprise about a sixth of those
found so far. This paper has attempted to dis-
cuss a proportionate number of stories from each
of the categories designated. The stories were
studied for their portrayal of the deaf; and it
became clear that a story by a skilled author will
often add more depth to a character and more
insight into a situation than one written by a
less skilled one. The Hemingway, Olsen, and
Stafford stories are examples of this compared
to most other stories. And, while this does not
always hold true, stories that offered more of an
insight into deafness tended to be written after
the 1920s and 1930s. One reason for this added
understanding is the education both of the deaf
and of the general public. Established education
for the deaf began only 165 years ago in this
country, and it is only recent education that has
given the deaf a chance to begin to make deci-
sions for themselves (Wright, 1969). It has taken
the educated deaf this many years to become
visible within the hearing community and to
educate that community about deafness. By the
1920s or 1930s the barriers may have been bro-
32
ken down enough to influence writers and their
characterizations of deafness. If this is the case,
we may be able to look toward a time in the near
future when there are few stories treating deaf
characters as fools or with little understanding.
We may begin to see deaf fictional characters
who symbolize aspects of deafness portrayed in
a way that shows an understanding of people
within the deaf community.
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33