Kershaw 1
Illuminating the Subconscious: Sensory Loss in Sound of Metal
Our entire world is centered around five things: one’s ability to see, hear, smell, taste, and
feel. As ableist as it sounds, we live in an ableist world. Many people describe their favorite
things as the laugh or smile of someone they love. A mother may say the first time she heard her
child laugh is her favorite memory or a fiancee may say seeing their significant other’s reaction
to their proposal. This demonstrates how important the five senses are to shaping the human
experience. Despite their importance, many people go their entire lives without access to one or
more of those senses as an aid, and their quality of life may be no better or worse than someone
who is fully able. Alternatively, someone may lose a sense due to aging or their environment. In
this event, I argue the loss of a human sense can be a flashlight for viewing subconscious desires
or emotions that would have otherwise remained obscured by the security of sensory perception.
The 2019 film Sound of Metal shows an example of this through the protagonist, Ruben, as it
explores themes such as accepting disabilities and how it transforms the human mind. This can
be supported by sources such as: “The “Sound of Metal: An Immersive Analysis,” which
demonstrates the authenticity of Ruben’s experience, allowing my thesis to be applied to a
broader group of people. Meanwhile, “Aesthetic Blindness: Symbolism, Realism, and Reality”
highlights the broader symbolic importance of senses in literature and reality.
In the film Sound of Metal, the protagonist, Ruben, experiences sudden hearing loss in
which most frequencies are suppressed, leaving him with the ability only to hear low and narrow
high frequencies, which is discussed in Carreiro’s article “Sound of Metal: An Immersive
Analysis” (Carreiro et al. 124). At first, Ruben is angry and desperate to regain his hearing. It is
, Kershaw 2
suggested to him that he join a deaf community in which he slowly finds his place. Despite
appearing integrated into the community, Ruben is still desperate to return to the life he used to
lead; however, after returning, he discovers that losing his hearing changed his life, revealing
emotions and subconscious thoughts that would've never surfaced otherwise. The film reveals a
rollercoaster of emotions that Ruben experiences through cinematographic shots, visual editing,
and sound design. This is especially shown through the sound design, which artificially puts the
viewer in Ruben’s position. Scenes such as the breakfast scene immediately after hearing loss
juxtapose Ruben’s typical auditory experience with his current state, further highlighting his
current struggle. Carreiro describes how high frequency and harmonic components are
eliminated from the film in this scene by describing it as “reduced intelligibility” (Carreiro et al.
126). As the artistry behind the sound design progresses, the viewers are further immersed in the
emotional turmoil that Ruben is going through.
Sensory perception is crucial to interpreting one’s environment. Similar to playing a
first-person player game with the sound on mute, one may interpret the game as peaceful without
sound. However, when the sound is turned up, it may be revealed that the player is in danger of
losing all their experience points in just a few seconds. Whether someone is alone in a shady
alleyway, using their senses for mere survival, or developing a complex emotional experience
and using their senses to add vibrancy to their experience. Either way, both of these sensory
inputs have a great impact on one’s psychological processes beyond their immediate
function–contributing to someone’s survival skills or forming a core memory. While some are
born with a disability such as deafness, others develop it over time; this is often referred to as
Presbycusis. Presbycusis is typically associated with old age; however, according to Gates’
scientific article, “sensory presbycusis probably has little to do with age and much to do with
Illuminating the Subconscious: Sensory Loss in Sound of Metal
Our entire world is centered around five things: one’s ability to see, hear, smell, taste, and
feel. As ableist as it sounds, we live in an ableist world. Many people describe their favorite
things as the laugh or smile of someone they love. A mother may say the first time she heard her
child laugh is her favorite memory or a fiancee may say seeing their significant other’s reaction
to their proposal. This demonstrates how important the five senses are to shaping the human
experience. Despite their importance, many people go their entire lives without access to one or
more of those senses as an aid, and their quality of life may be no better or worse than someone
who is fully able. Alternatively, someone may lose a sense due to aging or their environment. In
this event, I argue the loss of a human sense can be a flashlight for viewing subconscious desires
or emotions that would have otherwise remained obscured by the security of sensory perception.
The 2019 film Sound of Metal shows an example of this through the protagonist, Ruben, as it
explores themes such as accepting disabilities and how it transforms the human mind. This can
be supported by sources such as: “The “Sound of Metal: An Immersive Analysis,” which
demonstrates the authenticity of Ruben’s experience, allowing my thesis to be applied to a
broader group of people. Meanwhile, “Aesthetic Blindness: Symbolism, Realism, and Reality”
highlights the broader symbolic importance of senses in literature and reality.
In the film Sound of Metal, the protagonist, Ruben, experiences sudden hearing loss in
which most frequencies are suppressed, leaving him with the ability only to hear low and narrow
high frequencies, which is discussed in Carreiro’s article “Sound of Metal: An Immersive
Analysis” (Carreiro et al. 124). At first, Ruben is angry and desperate to regain his hearing. It is
, Kershaw 2
suggested to him that he join a deaf community in which he slowly finds his place. Despite
appearing integrated into the community, Ruben is still desperate to return to the life he used to
lead; however, after returning, he discovers that losing his hearing changed his life, revealing
emotions and subconscious thoughts that would've never surfaced otherwise. The film reveals a
rollercoaster of emotions that Ruben experiences through cinematographic shots, visual editing,
and sound design. This is especially shown through the sound design, which artificially puts the
viewer in Ruben’s position. Scenes such as the breakfast scene immediately after hearing loss
juxtapose Ruben’s typical auditory experience with his current state, further highlighting his
current struggle. Carreiro describes how high frequency and harmonic components are
eliminated from the film in this scene by describing it as “reduced intelligibility” (Carreiro et al.
126). As the artistry behind the sound design progresses, the viewers are further immersed in the
emotional turmoil that Ruben is going through.
Sensory perception is crucial to interpreting one’s environment. Similar to playing a
first-person player game with the sound on mute, one may interpret the game as peaceful without
sound. However, when the sound is turned up, it may be revealed that the player is in danger of
losing all their experience points in just a few seconds. Whether someone is alone in a shady
alleyway, using their senses for mere survival, or developing a complex emotional experience
and using their senses to add vibrancy to their experience. Either way, both of these sensory
inputs have a great impact on one’s psychological processes beyond their immediate
function–contributing to someone’s survival skills or forming a core memory. While some are
born with a disability such as deafness, others develop it over time; this is often referred to as
Presbycusis. Presbycusis is typically associated with old age; however, according to Gates’
scientific article, “sensory presbycusis probably has little to do with age and much to do with
