Show Me a Sign

Show Me a Sign is divided into two parts. The first part describes Mary’s pleasant life on Martha’s Vineyard, while Part 2 is concerned with her hellish experience of captivity in Boston. In both locations, Mary is treated well or poorly, depending on the community’s perception of people who are deaf. The early chapters of the novel paint a rosy picture of pastoral beauty. Mary says, “Our sheep farm sits on rolling meadows bounded by stone walls. From the high road to the Atlantic Ocean beyond, Chilmark is a hilly place. I sign, ‘Good morrow, sheep.’ They barely look up” (14). Mary thinks nothing of using sign language to greet her family’s flock. Her natural use of sign language to communicate is mirrored in the behavior of the town’s other inhabitants, both hearing and deaf. She explains:

It is common practice for Vineyarders to use a spyglass to converse with neighbors whose houses are far apart. If they are hearing, signals are sent by blowing a large horn. Then both parties take up their spyglasses to read each other’s signs. If the other party is deaf, like Mr. Skiffe, they choose a time (18-19).

Such a system is not only practical but offers the upper hand to those who are deaf.