Comparing Carlin And Luczak's Poetry Analysis

Four common characteristics of minorities that underpin affiliation are (1) the group shares a common physical or cultural characteristic such as skin color or language, (2) individuals identify themselves as members of the minority and others identify them in that way, (3) there is a tendency to marry within the minority, and (4) minority members suffer oppression. To a large extent, members of the Deaf minority also share a common language (ASL in the U.S.) and, because of their common physical characteristic, that language will never die out. On the second count, Deaf people do indeed identify themselves as culturally Deaf and, third, they marry Deaf nine times out of ten. Both Carlin`s and Luczak`s poems, for example, reflect the opposite oppression that members of the Deaf World experience. In some ways like the members of other language …show more content…
Similarly, the Deaf child, however raised, has a Deaf heritage form birth. Most children who cannot communicate well in spoken language will, when allowed to, learn signed language, become acculturated to Deaf culture, marry Deaf, and identify themselves as members of the Deaf World. A distinguished otologist has contended that Deaf children start out in mainstream hearing society and enter the Deaf World in adolescence. Most children in the Deaf World cannot communicate with their parents who know no sign language, and while their home may be nurturing, it cannot be substantially acculturating. The anormality of having culturally different parents is then both a centrifugal and centripetal force in the Deaf World. At the same time, the anomaly propels Deaf people toward the Deaf World, since identification with the Deaf World offers pride, language, instruction, role models, a culturally compatible spouse, and more than cannot be had