That's my buddy EwokThroughout the read, I have been stunned by Chief Bromden’s ability to hide his hearing. Minus the one slip up, Bromden has heard multiple things for years and nobody knows. I then focused on my own life and realized, there have been so many times I have been able to hear and either chose or pretended not to. I do it almost daily. Before I realized this about myself, I thought about my dog, Ewok. He just turned 13 years old, and has started this whole deaf act. I know it indeed is just an act because he responds when he Wants to, and does not when he does not want to. If Ewok knows of the blustery snow outside, and I come running down the stairs to take him outside, he will let me search the house forever before he shows himself. Likewise, if I cannot find him and retreat to mumbling, “treat”, I will immediately hear his jingling collar grow louder as he comes out from wherever he dwells. I cannot blame the dog though; I do the exact same thing. For instance, when I have just snuggled in on the couch with a blanket for a Saturday nap and I hear someone say, “Carly let the dogs out”, I immediately pretend to either sleep or not hear. If I am working hard on my A.P. English homework and my mom approaches with a, “hey lets go shopping”, I fly out of the chair. Clearly everyone has things in life they want to do and do not want to do, but I even pretend not to hear, just for myself. When someone gives me bad news of say a death, I go into a silent denial no matter who tries to comfort me. The most recent encounter of this sort of internal conflict, occurred while watching, “500 Days of Summer” with some friends. All of my friends already had seen the movie and warned me, “This is not a love story”. Then, clear as day across the screen, in black text, it read, “This is not a love story”. I still hated the movie though, because I wanted it to end happier, like a love story. Why do we trick ourselves into thinking we can change things? Why do we only observe things we know we can change? I find it interesting to think that I singlehandedly chose deafness on multiple occasions. Thoughts?
My dog does the same thing, and I have to admit I use the same tactics on him. If he comes into my room in the morning and whines I usually pretend to be asleep so he will leave me alone. I always feel a little immature when I do this, but maybe I'm just being a typical human being.
ReplyDeleteCarly, I found this post very interesting. I also treat my dog the same way when I am feeing tired or lazy. I think it is very interesting that faking deafness is used as sort of an escape from reality. In many situations, I would rather pretend to be deaf than to face a specific problem than actually have to deal with it.
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