Week 14

I am a hearing student assigned the book Train Go Sorry in my Introduction to Humanities Class. Other readings assigned in this class include several essays from the book My California. In both books and film, we examined the cultures of California that form a microcosm of the U.S.; and the U.S. forms a microcosm of the world. In this essay, I will incorporate 4 required questions.

In the book “Train Go Sorry” by Leah Hager Cohen, Cohen explains that she grew up in a school for the deaf even though she is not deaf herself. Her father is the superintendant at Lexington School for the Deaf, which her grandfather also attended. Growing up at this school taught Cohen a lot about the deaf and the struggles that they have to deal with everyday, it also taught her about he culture that comes from within the deaf community. Throughout the book Cohen tells the stories of herself going up at the Lexington School for the Deaf and her experiences she go tout of it. She also feels the stories of two other students at the school. In this essay I will talk about the meaning of “Train Go Sorry” and what character this connects to and what it means to walk in someone else’s shoes. I will also tell you my perspective on the book and some facts about ASL and Deaf culture.

The title of the book “Train Go Sorry” means, “missing the boat”, this translation is also known as a metaphor meaning a missed connection between the deaf world and the hearing world. This is why there are so many misconceptions about the deaf; one example is the misconception that deaf people are not as intelligent as hearing people. If there was not this missed connection between the deaf and hearing cultures there would not be these misconceptions. In the novel “Train Go Sorry” this focuses on a boy named James Taylor who does to Lexington School for the Deaf. James grew up with a large family and he was the only deaf one out of them all. Before he attended Lexington School for the Deaf James had a hard life, he did not perform well in school because of bad living conditions at home. James rarely attended school because of the fact that he needed to catch two busses and two trains just to get there. For two weeks James went missing at school and he was found at his house and found living in conditions that were very poor so he was offered free housing at Lexington and he accepted. Once at Lexington James decided to visit his brother who ended up in prison after committing several crimes. After many attempts to visit his brother James went one day to visit him and traveled three hours to get to the prison and was searched to find out his brother had court that day and would not be having any visitors. After this experience James decided he needed to buckle down and finish school because he did not want to be in prison along with his brother. James ended up earning his high school diploma and graduated with his class at Lexington.

To “walk in someone’s shoes” means to experience life from someone else’s point of view. In this book the author, Leah Cohen