Speech Speaks Louder than Violence
"I sat where I was, more depressed than ever, hating the whole hopeless, stupid business, and wondering whether the human species would ever grow up enough to learn to communicate without using fists of one kind or another," (Butler 110). This sentence marks the concluding lines of Octavia Butler's Speech Sounds. Its a part of the afterword, and describes how the short story came into fruition as well as the underlying theme of the text. Communication is the most important thing man has created, shown by two key scenes in the text. Speech Sounds takes place in a time when an illness, perhaps a bioweapon from Russia, has ravaged America. Those who survived the symptomatic stroke were severely impaired in speech and communicatory function, almost becoming living zombies. The protagonist of this story is Valerie Rye, who remains one of the few people who can still talk embodying the voice who can put an end to the senseless fighting. If people could understand her. The fi