Children of a Lesser God is a movie that introduces the audience to the world of people with disabilities, in this case, the hearing impaired individuals after which it moves gracefully into universality while exploring the difficulties that people often face concerning love and relationships. Written by Mark Medoff, the movie received an award of Best Play during the Tony Awards of the season between 1978 and 1979. The screenplay was fashioned by Hesper Anderson and Mark Medoff, thus opening up the drama while making the most out of the romantic vibrancy of the story.
In the movie, James, a therapist I the field of idealistic speech is hired as a teacher at a school for individuals with hearing impairments. He uses his skills innovatively with the aim of inspiring the eleventh-grade class he teaches to read lips and learn how to speak. Besides, even the institution's skeptical principal becomes impressed with the successes of this new professor. Later, James happens to meet a twenty-five-year-old former student of the institution named Sarah who now works as a cleaner. Sarah was born deaf, and she has no interest in learning how to read lips or to speak. However, James notices that Sarah is a brilliant woman from the way she brilliantly uses sign language and he gets motivated to help her communicate more effectively in the world out there. He offers to become her tutor, but Sarah rejects the offer; she feels that it will make people regard her as a needy woman. Despite his attempts, Sarah rebels being transformed into a poor imitation of people who can speak or hear.
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James becomes surprised by the fiery independence of Sarah and her sensual beauty, which makes him eventually fall in love with her. The feeling becomes mutual, and Sarah finally decides to move in with James. However, they still may not explore each other's world despite their attempts to break down the barriers challenging their relationships. James becomes frustrated because Sarah turns out to be stubborn towards adapting to the world where people can hear and speak. Despite his attempts to dominate and reform her, she resents his efforts. They eventually engage in a violent confrontation, which leads Sarah to walk out of the relationship to seek refuge at her mother's place. After being separated for quite some time, they become accentuated towards each other, which lead them to reunite with one another. They promise to find a way through which they can stay together in a transcending world of both speech and silence.
Children of a Lesser God is a romantic movie that narrates the story of love between a deaf young woman and a rebellious teacher who thinks that he can lure Sarah into learning how to read lips and speak phonetically. However, Sarah does not think so because she has been using sign language since she was born; she argues that if James loves her, then he must enter her silent world. This movie changes the image of the deaf in the popular culture by principally accomplishing this feat through Marlee Matlin who plays the character of a young deaf woman named Sarah. She infuses the movie with the strength of her feelings about the rights of the hearing-impaired individuals. The character of Sarah portrays an image of a deaf and stubborn person who does not feel weak because of becoming handicapped. The message of the story in the movie is that deaf people feel the same just like any other person and therefore deserve to be treated equally.
Both characters in the film are exceptional in different ways. For instance, James is exceptional because he can both read languages and hear while Sarah cannot. Besides, his exceptional love for Sarah drives him into desiring to reform her, but she refuses the offer. However, he does not give up on her but persists until Sarah eventually falls in love with him and agrees to stay with him. Despite the challenges they encounter which makes Sarah run away from the relationship, he still goes to plead with her and promise to find a way through which they can be comfortable with each other's world. Sarah is also exceptional in her way; she does not want to feel needy and therefore rejects Jame’s offer, claiming that he does not need to change her. Instead, he only needs to understand her world. Also, if James loves her, then he must do just that. However, the relationship ends up having issues which they later solve to stay in harmony through both worlds.
The movie Children of a Lesser God tries to explain that the deaf in the society still believes in some misconceptions; for instance, the deaf is unable to read or dance or have feelings. This movie outlines that the deaf in the society worry and feel the same way ordinary people do. Besides, they also can aspire differently. According to one of the deaf students, at Harvard University, being deaf is one of the most crippling handicaps because it interferes with the communication roots of an individual. Hence, the movie provides more exposure to people who have hearing impairments. This will result in the silent world and the hearing world understanding each other more. This movie also provides excellent help to the American Sign Language by introducing the public to ASL hence, it gives the language legitimate respect. The movie shows that ASL is a true and beautiful language like other languages.
