Hunger for Words

In reading And Sarah Laughed we watch a woman, surrounded by people that are deaf, grow to be deaf in her own way. Sarah has always yearned to communicate with her deaf sons and husband, but through the years she has taken to the silence. The author, Joanne Greenberg, uses many literary techniques to teach the importance of true communication in all relationships.
Joanne wants us to sympathize with Sarah, to understand her feelings and actions. She uses third person limited with Sarah so that we view the unfolding events through her eyes. Because of this we are able to watch as Sarah transforms throughout the story. At first she only wants the simple basic things, a generous, loving man and a prosperous, happy farm. As she grows older, “her youth [is] sold into silence.” (250) She becomes lonely and cut off from the world of communication. In the past, she had only wanted to hear from her sons “a question that had to do with feelings and not facts, and [to] answer it...