Title of poem: Deaf Trees Performer s name: Richard Carter Date of Performance: 16th January 2009 Place of Performance: University of Bristol Length: 03:41 Summary of Features Anthropomorphism Blending Eyegaze Handshape Neologism Symmetry Use of space Notes: Overview This story is an allegory about the situation of Deaf communities in the hearingdominant world. The brown trees which are different from the majority of the green trees represent Deaf people. Empathy is created through anthropomorphisation of the brown trees. Talking trees are common in mythologies and fantasies (such as the Ents in J.R.R. Tolkien s books) but Richard gives additional qualities of Deaf identity and sign language to the trees, making the story both folkloric and familiar to the Deaf audience.
Translation A person is walking through a forest It's so beautiful, he is surrounded by lush, green trees everywhere! He carries on, until he comes across a tree he doesn't recognise He pulls out a book, thumbs through it until he finds the name of the tree, so that's what it's called! He continues his walk until he comes across another tree he doesn't recognise, so he pulls out his book, thumbs through until he finds the name of this tree, ah, so that's what it's called! Further into the forest he walks until he sees another, different tree, he looks it up in his book, ah, so that's what that one's called! On through the forest he goes, until this time he comes across a funny-looking, brown tree That's strange, all the other trees are green, and here's this one brown tree, hmmm He thumbs through the pages of his book, but the brown tree isn't mentioned He puts the book away and looks around, thinking It's an odd-looking brown tree It really sticks out, surrounded by all these lovely green trees With a furtive glance around, the man picks up his axe and chops the brown tree down He quickly pushes it out of the way, plants a seed that grows into a lovely green tree, that's better! He carries on through the forest, but comes across another brown tree! He quickly chops this one down, hides it out of the way and plants a new seed that grows into a lovely green tree, perfect! But as he walks further into the forest, he finds more and more brown trees! The more he chops down, the more he finds, here and there, brown trees are growing, so he gives up One day, two Deaf friends decide to take a walk through the forest, with its beautiful green trees One of them spots a brown tree, "Why is there one odd-looking brown tree over there, among all these green trees?" "I don't know! Just the one, different tree, I don't know why" "I don't know either!" The forlorn brown tree looks down, then suddenly realises... With a huge effort, it brings it branches in towards its trunk, then pushes them out forwards "Are you Deaf?" it signs to the walkers "Yes, we're Deaf"
"Same as me, I'm Deaf, but I'm the only one! All these other green trees are hearing!" "You're a Deaf friend! He's Deaf but he's the only one here! We have to make sure you stay here, we'll fight to save you, to make sure you don't get chopped down!" "But the hearing man keeps chopping us down, all my friends are dying, I don't want to die out, I want the community to thrive!... I've got other Deaf friends over there" "Where are they?" "They're over by the mountains!" and with that, his signing branches withdraw and the tree stands silent once more "He said there's a Deaf community by the mountains, come on, let's take a look!" So off they go searching through the forest until finally they come to the foot of the mountains, with a covering of green trees everywhere And then they see a circle of brown trees "I bet that's the Deaf community over there!" So they walk on, through the deepest parts of the forest, on and on until they step out into a clearing They find themselves in the centre of a circle of trees The trees look down and they look up "Are you all Deaf?" One tree looks down in surprise, then with a huge effort pushes out his branches to sign, "Yes, I'm Deaf, we all are!" "This is Deaf Club!" "This is Deaf Club? We have the same at home!" "Whenever hearing people come along, we just pull our branches in and stand here, pretending we're not Deaf" Oh... "Right, well, we're going to help to save you all, we're going to campaign for you to the council to stop chopping you down" "We'll make sure Deaf Trees are recognised now. OK?" Theme This story deals with the theme of Deaf people as a minority group, exploiting an allegorical setting of the forest and the trees. Unlike most allegorical stories in which analogy is hinted but never explicitly stated, metaphorical mapping between the trees (source) and Deaf people (target) is overt in this story. Deaf people take an active part in the story and actually meet and communicate with the brown trees.
Although green and brown trees are described as two opposing groups (representing hearing and Deaf people, respectively), they themselves are not antagonistic to each other. In fact, we can assume that they have been co-existing in the forest without any problem until a man walks in and decides that brown trees should go. He is an outsider, but makes decisions for the forest. This outsider with the book may represent intellectuals who worship knowledge and make decisions for others. It may remind Deaf people of their experience with scholars, educators, and doctors, who ban the use of sign language in the classroom, promote the implantation of cochlear implants, demand genetic testing for deafness, and so on. The motivation for the man to chop down the brown trees is not simply a physical difference between the brown and green trees. Not knowing their name and not being able to find it in the reference book gives another level of justification. The book stands for knowledge and authority. This may symbolise the fact that hearing people disapprove of Deaf people not only because they are different from them, but also because they don t know them and Deaf people are not acknowledged (as a cultural-linguistic minority) by the authority. When the man chops down a brown tree for the first time, there is a faint sense of guilt. He shows some hesitation, and looks around to make sure no one is watching before cutting down the tree and planting a new seed. The whole process is prolonged, highlighting the significance of killing a tree. However, once the action becomes repetitive, the man s manner becomes quick and merciless. Each action loses its significance and they become merely habitual tasks. Poetic Features Anthropomorphism The Deaf trees are anthropomorphised and mapped on the body of the poet. Trees are common target of anthropomorphism in sign language folklore because their configuration is similar to the body of humans (the trunk is the body, and the upper area with branches and leaves can be represented by the head and the extended arms). Deaf trees have the choice of when/to whom they reveal their identity. When they realise the walkers are Deaf, they transform their branches into hands (the same 5 handshape for both signs) and communicate. When finished, they return to inactive trees. In other words, two Deaf men are chosen as privileged humans (for more discussion on privileged humans, see the commentary on Richard s Owl ).
In other stories, Richard imposes restrictions on the way non-humans sign (for example, the reindeer in Snow Globe signs with antler-shaped hands located on the forehead and the owl in Owl signs exclusively with B handshape representing its wings), adding extra poetic effect. But in this story the trees display a full physiological capability of natural signing. This allows them to describe a relatively complex situation regarding their community. Blending There are some common examples of spatial blending. When the human characters push their way through the forest, the body and the head of the poet represent the real size human being, and his hands represent the trees. Eyegaze Most of the time the poet s gaze is the character s gaze (the hearing man, the Deaf man, and the trees). All gaze behaviours, except a few, are directed either up, down or sideways. The poet seldom looks to the front. At 1:37 the poet briefly comes out of the story and explains to the audience that he is Deaf (ME DEAF). Also at 1:44 he signs FRIENDS, again explaining to the audience that he is with a friend. These are done by looking straight into the audience. An unusual gaze to audience is found at 00:51 when the poet (as the hearing man) gives a puzzled look at the audience when he could not find a name for the brown tree in the book. Unlike examples above, the poet remains in the role of a character (the hearing man) while apparently also acknowledging the presence of the audience. It can be understood as the man s attempt to share his confusion with someone else. The gaze reveals a common vertical contrast of two characters (the trees are located higher than the humans), but it is based on their physical placements (a prototypical tree is usually taller than the human, so people need to look it up) and not much symbolism is involved. Handshape The majority of the signs are in 5 handshape, reflecting the configuration of the trees. The contrast of MANY-TREE (two-handed signs with 5 handshapes moved throughout the signing space) and ONE-TREE (one-handed sign with G handshape signed at a single point in the signing space) is very clear. But apart from that, the use of handshape in this story is not very symbolic.
Neologism The way Deaf trees transform their branches into hands (making use of their iconic similarity) is very original in this story. Symmetry Many signs are arranged in a sequential symmetrical manner. If something is signed on the right, the same sign is immediately signed on the left, counterbalancing the signing space. This left-right balancing together with the shift in body posture and gaze is used effectively in creating rhythm while the protagonists are walking through the forest. The majority of the signs are two-handed and thus one-handedness is marked in this story. The disapproval of the hearing man toward the Deaf trees is well illustrated through the succession of mostly one-handed signs (0:55-1:05). Use of Space There is not much symbolic use of space. Any Other Comment A three plus one structure is observed in the sequence of the hearing man encountering unknown trees. For the first three trees, he looks them up in his book, finds their names, and he is satisfied. They are located alternatively on right, left and right. This builds up expectation that the next tree will be located on the left and the same sequence will be repeated. However, the fourth tree is signed on the right. It further breaks the pattern built up so far because the man cannot find this tree in his guidebook.