Review of article "Perceptions of Deaf Characters in Adolescent Literature"

After reading Perceptions of Deaf Characters in Adolescent Literature by Sharon Pajka-West, I think that I will need to find the rest of the books that she mentions and read them for my self. I also need to keep in mind the insider/outsider debate for most of the positive feedback from the study showed that the hearing authors created more interesting and numerous deaf characters in their novels. Where as the deaf authors created only one or two deaf characters, usually the main character was deaf and the rest of their small world was hearing. Pajka-West gives a possible explanation for this by stating “With fewer deaf characters, it is nearly impossible for the various ways of being deaf to be included in the book. Thus, the preference for the books by the hearing authors may be connected to the preference for a variety of deaf people represented.” (p44) Having read Deaf Child Crossing and Nick’s Secret I did notice this to be true. There was only the main character Nick who was deaf, and signed some with his mom and then read everyone else’s lips. The same goes for Deaf Child Crossing, the main character Megan is deaf but the minor character of her friend at summer camp Lizzie is Deaf. If you are looking to show your full Deaf students’ characters in books that are the same as they are it will be more difficult to find in deaf author books, especially if the characters are female. Many of the male characters got positive comments if several of the books but the female deaf characters were said to be “weak and, at times pathetic.” (p42) Most of the deaf adults that read the books for Pajka-West’s study claimed that these deaf female characters “could be seen as positive role models for their numerous successes; yet, their behavior appears as outliners and makes them unrealistic and unbelievable.” Overall, after reading Pajka-West’s article I think that she uncovered a central theme in many of our studies in multicultural literature and what teachers should put into their classroom libraries; to read the books and look at all the criteria, not just is this written from an insider perspective, but to make sure that the story and characters are shown in a realistic light. I could not agree with Pajka-West more when she says “If an important purpose for dear characters in fiction is educational and informational, then I suggest there is a need for the characters to be presented as realistic models of deaf people. If not, the readers of such fiction gain inaccurate information about deafness including reinforced negative stereotypes, as can occur in any other literature portraying cultural minorities.”(p40)

I you would like more information about this topic and a reading list to get you started with deaf characters in teen’s literature then please go to Dr. Pajka-West’s blog site at

www.pajka.blogspot.com