ASL Film Review
Children of a Lesser God
Children of a Lesser God is a love story about a speech teacher who falls for a beautiful yet distant deaf girl in a small New England school for the deaf, and the obstacles that they face due to their differences. James Leeds, a renegade teacher with an unconventional approach to education and a resume that includes stints as a bartender and a disk jockey, begins to teach there. Upon his arrival, he is warned by school administrator Dr. Franklin not to get creative with his instruction. Naturally, Leeds already has his mind set on his teaching plan and proceeds to play loud rock music in class in order to teach the students to feel the vibrations of the music and get them to try to speak phonetically. But a new element enters his life when he meets the attractive custodian, Sarah. An exceptionally intelligent yet extremely bitter young woman, Sarah is a graduate of the school who has decided to remain there, in the confines of her world of silence; it's safer for her to be with her own "people" than to face what she perceives as a cruel and uncaring world. She hardly seems interested in James and will only communicate with him through signing, although she can read lips and even speak a little. James learns from Sarah's mother that Sarah was sexually molested as a teenager; this explains why she is so wary of his attempts to form a relationship with her and why she is so full of fear. Eventually, James does get through to Sarah and the two fall in love, although both have to learn new ways to communicate their feelings.
At first the controversy of this movie lies within Sarah’s unwillingness to speak because she feels that she shouldn’t have to learn to speak just because others do. She likes to be in her own world of silence because it makes her feel safe and that no one can make fun of her or hurt her there. She refuses to speak and is content just because others want her to. She refuses to learn to speak because she feels she should only do things that she is good at to prevent other from making fun of her as she was when she was a child. Everyone made fun of her voice as a child to the degree that she gave up speaking. She is scared to try to learn to speak because then she will be seen in a way that she thinks is not her own. Also, Sarah is dealing with issues with her mother because the sent her away because her parents didn’t know how to take care of her. She does finally visit her mother after years but she is still resentful of her mother. But the as the movie progresses it becomes more clear that the deeper controversy lies within her own deaf identity. She feels isolated and controlled because everyone always does things for her. For example James wanted her to quit her job, has to speak for her, and uses sentences like “me and her”. She feels like she has no “I” and that her identity is only what others give to her. She tries to make James understand that that is not her and she will never let him in her world of silence until he understands that. She will never want to know him until he can realize that she has to be allowed to be herself and create her own identity. Before she can resolve her issues with James, she must resolve her own personal issues in order to move on with her life.
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