Rhetorical Analysis of the Film A Quiet Place
Start Date
12-4-2024 3:30 PM
Location
CASB 104
Document Type
Presentation
Abstract
Title: Rhetorical Analysis of the Film A Quiet Place
Author: Joshua Lanier
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Monica Shehi Herr
Field/Course of Study: Disability and Rhetoric
Abstract: In the 2018 horror film, A Quiet Place, (produced by John Krasinski) the audience is introduced to Regan, a deaf girl whose family is fighting for survival after alien creatures with ultra-sensitive hearing come to earth to prey on the human race. Krasinski chose to cast Millicent Simmonds, a deaf actress, in the role of Regan. All of the actors were taught basic ASL (American Sign Language) by Simmonds on set, which Krasinski later commented in an interview with University Wire that his only regret was that he didn’t learn more ASL from Simmonds because “I think there’s no more beautiful language.” The question behind this research is what message does that send the Deaf community? Krasinski, just as the majority of the hearing public, may be unaware of the rhetoric associated with deafness, a disability of which they have a limited knowledge. Although Krasinski undoubtedly did his research before the production of the film, it is difficult to understand the messaging without having experienced at least some degree of deafness. Another viewpoint on this film came from Gabrielle Berry from her paper in the journal Music, Sound, and the Moving Image. Her concern is how “point of audition (POA)” is represented throughout the film, where the audience is immersed in Regan’s in-and-out auditory sensations from her (broken) cochlear device. The viewers are shifted to Regan’s POA as the creature emerges behind her, then quickly jolted into the creature’s hyper-sensitive POA, which startles the audience, producing a type of “jump scare” as the action unfolds. Berry is concerned about the film’s portrayal of a “fantastical conceit and ‘fantasy’ of deafness.” The intent of her paper is to illustrate the “harmonic resonation of the studies of sound, deafness, and disability.” In the film A Quiet Place, we are shown a family that is forced to live their lives in silence, as juxtaposed to the world of (almost) complete silence that Regan lives in daily. In this research paper on the rhetoric associated with the disability of deafness, the messaging to the Deaf community by the portrayal of a deaf character and use of ASL, as well as the messaging associated with the desirability or dependability of cochlear implants comes into question.
Keywords
rhetoric, Deaf community, deafness, cochlear implant, messaging
Rhetorical Analysis of the Film A Quiet Place
CASB 104
Title: Rhetorical Analysis of the Film A Quiet Place
Author: Joshua Lanier
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Monica Shehi Herr
Field/Course of Study: Disability and Rhetoric
Abstract: In the 2018 horror film, A Quiet Place, (produced by John Krasinski) the audience is introduced to Regan, a deaf girl whose family is fighting for survival after alien creatures with ultra-sensitive hearing come to earth to prey on the human race. Krasinski chose to cast Millicent Simmonds, a deaf actress, in the role of Regan. All of the actors were taught basic ASL (American Sign Language) by Simmonds on set, which Krasinski later commented in an interview with University Wire that his only regret was that he didn’t learn more ASL from Simmonds because “I think there’s no more beautiful language.” The question behind this research is what message does that send the Deaf community? Krasinski, just as the majority of the hearing public, may be unaware of the rhetoric associated with deafness, a disability of which they have a limited knowledge. Although Krasinski undoubtedly did his research before the production of the film, it is difficult to understand the messaging without having experienced at least some degree of deafness. Another viewpoint on this film came from Gabrielle Berry from her paper in the journal Music, Sound, and the Moving Image. Her concern is how “point of audition (POA)” is represented throughout the film, where the audience is immersed in Regan’s in-and-out auditory sensations from her (broken) cochlear device. The viewers are shifted to Regan’s POA as the creature emerges behind her, then quickly jolted into the creature’s hyper-sensitive POA, which startles the audience, producing a type of “jump scare” as the action unfolds. Berry is concerned about the film’s portrayal of a “fantastical conceit and ‘fantasy’ of deafness.” The intent of her paper is to illustrate the “harmonic resonation of the studies of sound, deafness, and disability.” In the film A Quiet Place, we are shown a family that is forced to live their lives in silence, as juxtaposed to the world of (almost) complete silence that Regan lives in daily. In this research paper on the rhetoric associated with the disability of deafness, the messaging to the Deaf community by the portrayal of a deaf character and use of ASL, as well as the messaging associated with the desirability or dependability of cochlear implants comes into question.