Orchid of Bayou Reaction Paper - 928 Words

Orchid of the Bayou Reaction Paper October 7, 2010 The book Orchid of the Bayou was eye opening. Cathryn (Kitty) Hoffpauir Fischer did a good job of being honest, which really allowed the reader to get a better understanding of what being deaf in this time period meant. Her writing really allowed me to see the different struggles that deaf children had to face, and how these struggles were overcome by Kitty. This book taught me many things about Deaf culture. First, this book allowed me to see the negative way in which deaf people were perceived. This book is not old by any means, and I was taken aback by the way deaf children were perceived by not only others in the community, but often times by their own parents as well. The term†¦show more content†¦This also discouraged some parents from enrolling their child because they did not want them to be away for such long periods of time. Now schools for the deaf are more common, and deaf children can attend mainstream public schools also; making it apparent that just because a child is deaf does not mean that they are dumb by any means. Also, Kitty has a disease called Usher Syndrome. Before reading this book I had never heard of it, and thus never realized how common it really is. This disease takes away two vital senses; hearing and vision. Kitty really opens up about her fears about losing her sight. The idea of total isolation is scary, without a doubt, and in my opinion she handles it with more courage than I could have ever imagined. Sign language is visual, and once Kitty loses her ability to see it will be very difficult to communicate with her family, and nearly impossible to communicate with hearing people who she most of the time needs an interpreter to communicate with anyways. I was very impressed by Kitty’s courage throughout her life. As a child she is extremely brave considering she in unable to communicate with her family, and is very confused by most of what goes on in her life because of this communication barrier. Kitty makes t he best of her situation regardless. As she gets older she shows extreme courage again as her father faces alcoholism and struggles to keep food on the table for the family. Kitty again handles this with courage beyond her