Silence Speaks Volumes

In the short film, "The Silent Child," a young deaf girl named Libby lives at home with her family, who are all very busy and self absorbed. No one in the family can communicate with her, although at times they like to believe that Libby is following along while reading their lips. They finally decide to hire a specialist, named Joann, in order to help Libby learn how to communicate. Joann recognizes that the quickest and most effective way for Libby to learn will be through sign language. The conflict in the story comes in when the mother becomes adamant that there is no time for the family to learn sign language, and that the only sensible option is to send her to speech therapy to learn how to read lips and talk on her own, even though the instructor knows that this will be unsuccessful, she cannot fight against her mother's wishes.

One of the most powerful moments in this short film, is when we see a scene that is entirely from Libby's perspective. They are sitting at the dinner table, when suddenly we see things from Libby's eyes, in absolute silence. Her family members are all very engaged with each other, and from below, an angle shot at Libby's height, we see things with no sound, and suddenly realize with great impact how her daily life must seem. I would argue that this is one of if not the most important in the film, as it allows us, just for a moment, to be able to see things from Libby's perspective, and the silence speaks louder than any other technique the director or producers could have used to help us realize why this issue is important.

One of the most important aspects of any film is being able to establish quality characters with whom your audience can relate. Through scenes like the one mentioned above, they help establish a strong relationship between the audience and Libby, which sets the ending up perfectly when they reveal that this short film is to raise awareness for an important social issue. By helping the audience see things from Libby's perspective, we are more privy to help when the time comes for a call to action from the audience, and because we now understand what girls like Libby all around the world are going through, we know have the motivation and desire to do something to help.

Mother knows best

Recently, there was a short film that won an Oscar, the name of this short film is "The Silent Child".  This film is roughly 20 minutes long, and follows a little deaf girl, named Libby, that has a new social worker, named Jo-Anne that comes to help teach her to communicate via sign language.  Within this film, they use a variety of techniques to show that deaf people are treated as an inferior class of human, when they are just like regular people, but just lack an effective way to communicate with most people.

One of the biggest ways that they showed this was through some of the characters.  For example, Libby's mother, who was the one that has the most interaction with Jo-Anne, and Libby throughout the film, but at every turn, she makes Libby seem like an inconvenience, she basically wants Libby to be fixed, and doesn't seem to really care about her at all.  Throughout the film, the mother is always busy, running errands, always standing, or sitting away from Libby, except for 2 times, one where she tries to take the TV remote away from Libby, and of course Libby fights back, since she doesn't know what's going on, or why she's trying to take the remote, and the other is where she kisses Libby goodbye before leaving somewhere, and Libby naturally recoils from her.  Neither one of them are positive experiences, which shows how distant Libby's mother is from her.  There are also other characters that when conversing with Jo-Anne, show lack of faith in Libby, like Libby's Grand-mother, when she's talking to Jo-Anne, seems surprised when Jo-Anne says Libby is actually really smart.  Another moment is when Libby's father meets Jo-Anne, he expresses a lack of faith in Jo-Anne's help, saying they have low expectations, and only want her to have increased confidence.

Another way that they showed this is through the music.  In many scenes involving characters that can hear, there was music playing, but in the scenes that were focusing specifically on Libby, it was silent.  There was even one scene, where when the family was together having a meal, there was complete silence, just to show what it was like in her world all the time, and to emphasize the fact that nobody paid attention to her, since during this scene, no one even so much as looked at her.  The music helped to show that the difference between Libby's world and the world of the living.  But, when it focused on her, she was still able to enjoy herself, still able to do things that everyone else did, like swimming, going to the park, regardless of whether there was sound or not.  This helped to illustrate the difference, and that deaf people are still like everyday people, but are easily ignored by those that can hear just fine.

With the use of genre, they also helped to express a very interesting idea, since it was a fictional story put into a short film, and made it seem as realistic as possible.  They basically made it so that they could say that this is a common story, not an exceptional one.  While it is such a common story, it's still widely ignored nonetheless.  You could tell that they intentionally did this, and felt passionately about this, that they wanted everyone to understand what's going on, and make a change in the how deaf people are treated.  In their acceptance speech, Rachel Shenton, the writer, and fiancee to Chris Overton, the director, Rachel signed and spoke her speech, which showed how much this issue was important to her, since she could clearly speak, which implied that she can hear, but since she signed, she's also very aware of the deaf community.  This is why they chose to do a realistic fiction of a story that is much too common, and that needs to be changed.

Can You Hear the Music?

Music is universally understood. Whether one has studied the deep intricacies found in music theory or listens to music simply for fun, it can be accepted and appreciated by a massive audience. Music can tell a story all in itself though lyrics and movements. It can also help tell a story. The movie Remember the Titans is well-known and well-loved by a large audience. The director wanted to help the audience that didn't understand the sport of football through music. When the game was close and each play was crucial, he played quick, suspenseful music to help set up an intense, anxious feeling. When something good happened, triumphant, uplifting music played, to help the audience know that something good happened (on the football field). Music can greatly amplify a story and its mood. In "The Silent Child," a sign language teacher named Joanne is hired by a family to help their youngest child, Libby, be more prepared for her first year in school. In this short film, the music and lack of music helps set many themes, feelings and plot through its use of music.

First, let's look at the way music helps establish the relationship between Joanne and Libby. All throughout the movie, there is lots of noise. This is sometimes the constant chatter between the other four family members at the dinner table, or the TV is on, or there is background music playing. When Joanne first interacts with Libby, everything is very silent. The audience only hears what Joanne hears, which is her motions and lips moving as she signs to Libby. This lack of music repeats during the intimate moments between Libby and Joanne. Although these are the most silent scenes in the movie, they are the most important and cherished ones to these two. 

Next, let's look at the way the music revolves around Joanne. Joanne represents and connects the two separate worlds this movie has: the hearing and the deaf. When Joanne is seen riding her bike, interacting with the family or doing other activities, the music is lovely, clear, and simple. When she has these interactions with Libby, it is silent. The use of music shows that she is the bridge between both worlds, and she is capable of doing incredible things in both. She breaks through in the silence as she relates and "listens" to Libby. She tries to help the family understand what is truly best for her on the other side of the bridge.

In the final scene of the movie, Joanne comes to the school where Libby is attending to try and see how she is doing. Libby's mother has decided to cancel the lessons because she felt that they were not needed. Joanne, worried for Libby, sees her through the gate of the school. Libby is standing all alone while all the other kids are playing. The two lock eyes and sign, (I think) "I love you" to each other. It is a sad and moving scene, but it is the music that helps set the ultimate mood and present the theme that the directors are trying to make: change needs to happen. In this scene, the music is very eerie, with dissonant chords played. The music never seems to resolve itself. There are lonely instruments playing the melody. While the final texts of the film are being played, asking for the audience to be more aware and to help provide change to deaf children, the music is plays itself to feel very unresolved. It never really ends, it feels incomplete, and it seems like it's teasing that it won't play a final note that would bring everything together. This use of music helps portray the theme and message that things are not okay for these deaf children, that things need to be done and that we should feel unresolved with the situation they are in.

My Thoughts on the BYU English Symposium

I had the opportunity to attend two panels during the English Symposium, one about the Book of Mormon and the second about Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart."

To begin, the presentations about the Book of Mormon provided some great insights that I hadn't manged to see before in my own readings. My favorite presentation was one that talked about cycles in the Book of Mormon, the most prominent being the one that people go through in order to repent. The cycle that he discussed was broken down as follows: Unrighteousness, desire for change, action, then faith and healing. He backed this claim up with a number of notable examples, my favorite being the story of Alma the Younger, who went through this exact process before he was called to be a prophet of God. Another presentation focused on the symbolism of light and dark in the Book of Mormon, and I thought they pulled a lot of great examples and were able to clearly explain what they could mean symbolically, such as the light of Christ, the mist of darkness, and the thick darkness that overcame the Nephites shortly before the second coming of Christ.

The second presentation about Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" helped me gain a lot of great insights into the book and helped to enhance my understanding of it. My favorite presentation was one where the speaker discussed the symbolism of the tortoise, and how while many critics think that it is a symbol for Okonkwo, she interpreted that it was a symbol for white men. She had some good evidence and the presentations in general were well thought out. Another paper discussed whether it was a good idea to introduce music from one culture into another and I found that interesting as well, and I generally agreed with the speaker's points. Overall, the presentations were well prepared and it was a good experience to hear literature discussed on a higher level where these types of symbols are broken down and analyzed.

Creative writing is fun

I attended the creative writing seminar that featured undergraduate contest winners. (12:05-1:20)  

The first seminar was a lot different than I thought it would be. I was mistaken, but I had thought that creative writing was typically going to be funny, out there, and random. I thought creative writing was a lot like The Onion. I was wrong. I learned that creative writing is more... well, just that. It's honestly a lot like writing a story. The three that read their essays were more or less based on experiences. Daniel Daw simply wrote about goats. He had taken his experiences from his travels to Great Britain and wrote about something (that to me) is meaningless, but to him, it made the trip that much more meaningful. It was an interesting article, and it really put perspective on what I thought writing should be. 

A Slice of Calvinism and Friendship

Last week I attended two presentations that were part of BYU's English Symposium. I attended the "Calvinism in 17th Century British Literature," followed by the "English Reading Series: Allie Condie."

The first presentation had three students reading their research papers on various topics. Hannah DeTavis opened with her research on Margaret Fell Fox and and Fox's fight for the right for women to speak during church. Jeremy Loutensock followed Hannah with his research on Lucy Hutchinson's On the Principles of the Christian Religion. One of the main points that stuck out to me was Hutchinson's belief in predestination, and that she believed that recognizing one's sins and mistakes could indicate that they are one of God's elect instead of it being an indication that they were created to fail. Olivia L. Moskot went last and read her research on George Herbert. Like Jeremy's research, Olivia chose to focus on predestination. She mentioned some of George Herbert's poems and used a few metaphors to describe our relationship with God.

The second presentation was a book reading by Allie Condie. She opened by reading two reviews she received on her books. One was her very first book review, and it was brutal. The second had a more positive tone to it. Condie wanted the audience to know not to give up after their first try, even if it's terrible. After a while, Condie started reading her novel, Summerlost. It is a book about a young girl who lost her father and one of her brother's in a car accident. Her family moved to a small town with a festival. Condie let us know that the town was based off of Cedar City and the festival was not unlike the Shakespeare Festival. Ultimately, Condie said Summerlost was a story about "friendship," which is a different kind of love than what she usually writes about.

BYU English Symposium

This past Thursday and Friday, BYU had an english symposium where they had many different panels, presentations, about a wide variety of topics.  I only made it to 2 of the presentations, the 3mp competition, and a panel called "The Range of Rhetoric".  The 3mp competition, which stands for 3 minute presentation, had 11 different presenters with a wide variety of topics ranging from feminism, to education, to even just our different portrayal and understanding of villains.  They were all interesting presentations, and I could tell that they had all put a lot of work in, and were very well put together. One that piqued my interest in particular though, was one by Elizabeth Young, who's presentation was entitled "Baudrillard's Hyperrealities: The Case for Living in a World of Simulations".  This one interested me, mainly because I basically did a literary review in my Technical Communications class about this very subject, which was how Virtual Reality can and is used in educational settings, for training simulations, and the like.

The second panel that I went to, which was called the Range of Rhetoric, as mentioned previously, had three presenters that each presented different uses of rhetoric in differing fields; one talked about religion, another Bio-genetics, and the third Statistics.  They each had their different approaches, and had some fascinating ideas.  The first presenter, Mitchell Holman, talked about Erasmus and Martin Luther's debate, and their different approaches, and talked about the importance of listening-rhetoric.  He compared the debate between the Catholic Church and Martin Luther to our political debates today, where there are 2 opposing, extreme viewpoints, that argue vehemently against each other, and refuse to compromise at all.  He spent most of his time talking about the viewpoint of Erasmus, who sought to seek understanding from opposing viewpoints, and seek a compromise that both sides can be happy with, yet no one listened to him, and the presenter talked about the importance of trying to use listening-rhetoric, and trying to understand other viewpoints than our own.  The second presenter, Alexis Polson, talked about how she transformed her literary review about cancer into a magazine article that could help those diagnosed with cancer to better understand what's going on, since many of them don't understand what exactly is happening to them because of all the medical and scientific jargon that goes on with explaining things to them.  And lastly, the final presenter, Brandon King, talked about the business model of pay what you want that has been happening in the video game industry, and the company that has found success with that model.