Show Me a Sign

Show Me a Sign (2020) is the second novel by author Ann Clare LeZotte. Her other books include T4 (2008) and Set Me Free (2021). After its debut, Show Me a Sign made multiple Best Books of 2020 lists, including NPR, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal, along with winning numerous regional awards. The novel tells the story of a girl who is deaf in 1805 Massachusetts. Because LeZotte is deaf, she describes the experience of deafness for hearing readers. LeZotte is also a librarian who has given presentations in American Sign Language (ASL) on bullying behavior and disability. Her personal background lends greater insight into the experience of her protagonist in Show Me a Sign. The book is classified under the categories of Sign Language Instruction and Children’s 1800s US Historical Fiction. This study guide and all its page citations are based on the Kindle edition of the novel.

The novel is set on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts and covers events beginning in November 1805 and ending in January 1806. The story is told using first-person narration by the 11-year-old protagonist, Mary Elizabeth Lambert. Mary is deaf and lives on the island at the beginning of the 19th century. Her father is also deaf, and her brother and mother are hearing. Martha’s Vineyard is unique because a large percentage of the inhabitants are deaf, and the entire community uses a local sign language to communicate among its members.

The phenomenon of deafness on the island draws the interest of a young scientist from Boston named Andrew Noble. He intends to ferret out the cause of deafness by studying the inhabitants. Andrew is prejudiced toward people who are deaf and assumes they are intellectually deficient; he also concludes that deafness is a disease. In his quest for answers, he kidnaps Mary, intending to bring her to Boston to study her. Mary’s ordeal in the outer world explores the themes of social hierarchies, the differences between the worldview of Martha’s Vineyard and Boston, and the various ways that deafness is defined.

Plot Summary

Mary is a happy girl who lives in a loving family on an island where deafness is common. Her best friend Nancy Skiffe is hearing, and the two communicate using sign language. Mary’s family has recently suffered a tragedy after her 15-year-old brother, George, saved her from being run over by a carriage but lost his own life in the process. Mary is haunted with guilt and blames herself for her brother’s death. Mary’s mother is still grieving eight months after the tragedy and is having a difficult time moving forward with her life.

Mary’s father is a prosperous landowner who employs an Irishman and a Black freedman as farmhands even though the community is prejudiced against nonwhite people. Nancy’s father bears a particular grudge against the Indigenous Wampanoag because he wants the land that the government has allotted to them.

Despite family grief and community squabbles, Mary is relatively content in her world. She loves to spin stories and is an avid reader. Someday, she dreams of becoming a teacher. She is friends with a retired seaman named Ezra Brewer, who tells her tall tales of his adventures as a privateer during the Revolutionary War. Ezra is also deaf, and he works in the outer world.

One day, Mary and her friends are excited to learn that a scientist named Andrew Noble is visiting the island because he wants to study the causes of deafness. When they meet him, Mary is struck by his arrogance and dismissive attitude toward people who are deaf, including herself and her father.

Mary, Nancy, and Ezra follow Andrew as he pursues his investigation. His theories about the causes of deafness vary from silly to absurd. While most people dislike Andrew, Mary’s mother finds him enchanting and offers to lend him George’s books and papers to further his research. Mary is offended by this gesture because her brother’s handmade map of the island is among those papers.

One night, Andrew makes rude and insulting comments during dinner with the Lamberts, and Mr. Lambert banishes him from the house. A fight ensues between Mary’s parents later, and Mary’s mother declares that she has no family after losing her son. Mary is so upset by this statement that she leaves the house early the next morning to avoid her mother. During her walk, she sees Andrew departing the island, still in possession of her brother’s map.

Mary tries to get the map away from Andrew. They struggle, but Andrew subdues her and abducts her for his mentor, Dr. Henry Minot, in Boston. Mary spends several miserable days on Andrew’s ship and several more miserable weeks working as a drudge in the inn where Andrew is lodging. During this time, she sees how badly the outer world treats people who are deaf: Most of the people who are deaf are beggars, and some are admitted to psychiatric facilities under the assumption that they are intellectually deficient. Mary is denied the use of pen and paper because everyone assumes that she can’t read and write. Her sign language means nothing to the Bostonians, so she cannot communicate.

Andrew’s mentor finally appears and takes Mary to his house to study. Unlike Andrew, Dr. Minot is kind and soon begins to question Andrew’s assumptions about Mary’s abilities. When Mary comes across Minot’s journal, she finally understands the lies that Andrew has been telling him. Once she gets access to writing materials, she composes a long letter to Minot to set the record straight. After he reads it, he is upset and frees Mary without Andrew’s knowledge.

A kindly sailor leads Mary to a boat in the harbor where Ezra is waiting to take her home. They no sooner leave port than Andrew pursues them in his own ship. After several nerve-racking days at sea, including a severe storm, Ezra and Mary return to Martha’s Vineyard while Andrew drowns at sea.

Back on the island, Mary finds her perspective on the world has changed radically. In Boston, after seeing how people abuse and discriminate against people who are deaf, she determines to become a teacher when she grows up. A new school in Paris for people who are deaf inspires her to change the minds and hearts of the American public about deafness. Mary has found her mission in life and a way to exert a positive influence on the lives of many other children who are deaf, for decades to come.