American Pastoral Essay, Research Paper

The Failure to Develop

Many people stutter; however people usually outgrow stuttering. But it is not something that people just do for a short while to attract attention. People who do stutter are actually really embarrassed by it and the attention they receive from stuttering and fear the next time that it will happen. They will often avoid situations in which stuttering will be a problem. Stutterers have no control over when they stutter or don t. Contrary to the therapist in the novel American Pastoral, stuttering is not an idea conjured up in ones head to gain attention. It is not a psychological problem that comes and goes as one needs it, or when it would be beneficial to a person. Because the truth is, a stutterer never finds it beneficial to have.

Research has shown that stuttering is one hundred percent physiological, and not at all psychological. The psychiatrist got Merry thinking that the stutter was a choice she made, a way of being special that she had chosen and then locked into when she had realized how well it worked (95). The belief that you will not stutter has no effect on your speech. The anticipation of stuttering does not cause stuttering (5). Stuttering is a developmental disorder that starts in the early childhood and nothing Merry did could change that. It develops at the same time as children learn grammar, accents, and other fundamentals of speech and language (1). When children fail to learn speech breathing, vocal fold control, and how to articulate sounds (1) that is when they develop disfluencies, which can turn into stuttering or stammering. If children do not learn these fundamentals at the right critical time, it is difficult or impossible to learn later. Children will develop these problems between the ages of two and six, when development is most crucial. Which is around the age that Merry developed the stutter in the novel. Usually people will not develop speech problems past the age of eleven. More boys than girls develop speech disorders. Which is why it was even more rare for Merry to have the stutter because it s not as common in girls. Even then, the girls tend to outgrow their problems, up until their forties. . It is difficult to determine who will outgrow and who will not (4). Merry did eventually outgrow her stutter though. The first time her dad saw her again after the long absence, he couldn t believe she had attained control, mental and physical, over every sound she uttered (246). At the time of his realization he attributes it to a change in her mental state. He thinks everything she could not achieve with a speech therapist and a psychiatrist and a speech diary she had beautifully realized by going mad (246). Merry did not lose her stutter because she was suddenly psychologically healthy. Merry is finally in control of her vocal muscles enough to speak free of her stutter. Stutterers are not more nervous, do not have worse self-esteem, and are not shcizo, as some movies have portrayed stutterers.

There are moments or times when stutters are completely fluent. This is when they are by themselves, when they read out loud, saying something over and over, singing, speaking in another language or with an accent, or when pretending to be a different person or persona (1). Also, many stutterers report being so scared that they couldn t stutter (4). Emotional stress often reduces stuttering too (5). Some stutterers are fluent when they try to stutter while others stutter more. Merry has many periods in the novel when she adopts some of these ideas and speaks fluently. One time, she walks in on her dad in the bathroom and she starts speaking in French, Oh, pardonnez-moi j ai pense que (89) and she speaks completely fluent. Also, one summer Merry adored Audrey Hepburn. Merry would sing along all the songs in the charming way that Audrey Hepburn did, and absolutely fluently (95). The Swede knows that it was a ludicrous dream to want to be Audrey Hepburn someday, but he thinks if Audrey Hepburn could help her shut down just a little of the stuttering, then let her go on ludicrously pretending (95). He would rather that she has unattainable goals, than make her one release from stuttering disappear. When Merrys stutter does start to disappear for good, it s when she s working with the bombs. Merry loves the patience and the precision required to safely wire the dynamite to the blasting cap and the blasting cap to the Woolworth s alarm clock (259). Merry likes the disconnection from thinking and just doing to complete a project. These become her own self-therapy of a sort to help her rid herself of the stutter.

Also, however, there are times that make her stuttering more apparent. Time pressure, cognitive stress, and speech related fears and anxiety will increase stuttering (5). Sometimes when Merry was stuttering, Dawn s hands would be clasped at her waist, and her eyes fixed on the child s lips (90) and this made Merry nervous so she would stutter even more. When stutterers are nervous they try harder to talk, tensing their speech-production muscles too much, and getting more stuck (5).

No one has quite discovered the cause of stuttering, although there have been many experiments. A general theory is that it is some type of genetic inheritance, because there is usually more than one member of a family that stutters (2). However, they can not trace it back to being recessive, sex-linked, or autosomal dominant (1). A study of 95 identical twins reared apart found 5 stutters, but none of their twins stuttered. This is in spite of finding similarities in talkativeness, pitch, and hoarseness, as well as tasted in clothing, books, etc. This suggests that stuttering is not genetic. But this is only one of few expirements that disprove stuttering to be genetic. The Swede thinks it is genetic though and blames himself many times in the novel for having given this trait to Merry. He can t understand how a girl can be

Blessed with golden hair and a logical mind and a high IQ and an adultlike sense of humor even about herself, blessed with long, slender limbs and a wealthy family and her own brand of dogged persistence with everything except fluency (95).

Other people in the novel have trouble understanding how the offspring of such good-looking and successful parents (96) could have a stutter. No evidence exists to support that Swede or Dawn should be held accountable for Merry s disorder. Until someone can prove that stuttering is genetic, neither Swede or Dawn can be held accountable, nor should they blame themselves.

Recent brain scan research has found abnormalities in the brains of stutterers. But during stuttering, cerebral activity changes dramatically. The most striking difference is that left-hemisphere areas active during normal speech become less active, and areas in the right hemisphere not normally active during speech become active (2). Brain scan studies have found no differences in stutterer s brains when they are not talking, and when they are talking fluently. But during stuttering, changes are seen in stutterers brain activity. Left-brain areas that should be active during speech become inactive, while right-brain areas that should be inactive during speech becomes active. Brain scans have found abnormally low activity during stuttering in the central auditory processing area, and in the area that integrates auditory and somatic sensation.

Merry has many difficulties in this novel because of her stutter, but eventually she was able to overcome it all on her own. During the novel, her parents try to figure out what they did to cause her to have this stutter. Truth is, stuttering may cause emotional problems, but emotional problems do not cause stuttering. Nothing anyone did caused Merry s disorder and no one made matters any better by examining every little thing she did and trying to get rid of it. It only made Merry more aware of it herself and doubt her self. She began to think at points that she was less of a person and not as worthy. The intelligence of stutterers is in no way inferior to that of non-stutterers (5). If Merry would ve given herself more time she would found a way to deal with it, and never have killed other people. There are so many other people that have stutters and lead perfectly normal lives. Many times, stutterers know what words or syllables cause problems and try to avoid them. Many of their close friends, in adulthood especially, never even know that they have a stutter, they can hide it that well. Stuttering is a normal-disorder that doesn t have to change your lifestyle at all. Therapists and psychiatrists try to find explanations for it. They try to figure out what it is that is making you do what you are doing; they try to put the blame on some aspect of your life that you aren t happy about. There are no easy answers to it and no simple thing to blame. Stuttering is something you have to take in stride and deal with. Whether you are the one with the stutter or close to someone with a stutter.