The image of a frightened Deaf child holding hand grenades in both hands with their safety pins pulled recognizes the repressive history of the oral method. A non-identifiable hand holds a feather before the child’s mouth, indicating one method of practice in oralism in its use of breathing and mouthing words they cannot hear. These technics of education became more important than teaching about subjects or focusing on exercises to improve reading and writing skills.

Call makes a connection with these now aging methods of instruction but notes the continuation of this repression with the forced use of cochlear implants, which has become a controversy in the American Deaf Community today. Deaf people see themselves as part of an ethnic community with its own language and culture. From that perspective, they consider their self-identity being undermined by the perspective that deafness is a medical problem that needs to be cured.