While she was growing up Lara lived in two distinct and separate worlds. She was never able to find a balance between the hearing and the deaf world because there wasn’t anyone to show her how. Both her parents were deaf and placed a lot responsibility on her from a young age. They needed her to, essentially, take care of them because they weren’t capable of functioning in the hearing world. It wasn’t until she met the met the hearing teacher who worked with deaf children that she was able to begin to reconcile her two worlds. It seems like she believed that the two worlds couldn’t mix successfully.
The relationships that Lara has with her parents are interesting. It is obvious that the father is the dominant personality in the family. The mother follows his lead for the most part. The only time the viewer sees the mother take a stance against him is when she warns him not to isolate Lara because of her differences, like his family did to him. The father doesn’t listen to this advice. In a way he pushes her towards her new life. Eventually, the mother has had enough of the father’s approach and tries to be more understanding. She even buys tickets so they can go to a concert together, even though she won’t be able to hear the music.
The father’s animosity towards his parents and siblings mixes into his life with his wife and child. He has never been able to let go of the anger he feels towards them and he wants his wife and child to feel the same way. When Lara resists he tries to guilt her into staying away from her aunt and music. Lara doesn’t understand why her father is so against her studying music and he never takes the time to explain it to her. By forbidding music, she has found a way to rebel. She has no other way to disobey them, as long as he doesn’t see her playing the clarinet, he’ll never know.
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