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 first of the two scenes which express the importance of speech comes in the opening paragraphs. Her experience on the bus introduces this theme of violence being an effect of no communication. "Two young men were involved in a disagreement of some kind, or, more likely, a misunderstanding," (Butler 89). Without language, a misunderstanding can't be sorted out and thus, will inevitably lead to violence just as unfolds in this scene and our following scene.
The second pivotal scene is the fight between a woman and who presumably seems to be her husband. Obsidian tries desperately yelling but because of his impaired speech, it is futile. "It was the first time Rye had heard his voice—deep and hoarse from disuse. He made the same sound over and over the way some speechless people did, "Da, da, da!""(Butler 104). I don't know how much of a difference it would've made if he could speak, but perhaps if both the man and woman could speak, the argument could've been sorted out without orphanizing their children.
This apocalyptic society shows how powerful words are. If humans were just able to realize how powerful communication is, perhaps violence could be avoided altogether. Octavia Butler definitely made me appreciate this power. Civilization would collapse when words are erased and thrive when violence is eliminated. Did this story move you like it did me? Let me know what other themes you guys identified in the comments below!
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 first of the two scenes which express the importance of speech comes in the opening paragraphs. Her experience on the bus introduces this theme of violence being an effect of no communication. "Two young men were involved in a disagreement of some kind, or, more likely, a misunderstanding," (Butler 89). Without language, a misunderstanding can't be sorted out and thus, will inevitably lead to violence just as unfolds in this scene and our following scene.
The second pivotal scene is the fight between a woman and who presumably seems to be her husband. Obsidian tries desperately yelling but because of his impaired speech, it is futile. "It was the first time Rye had heard his voice—deep and hoarse from disuse. He made the same sound over and over the way some speechless people did, "Da, da, da!""(Butler 104). I don't know how much of a difference it would've made if he could speak, but perhaps if both the man and woman could speak, the argument could've been sorted out without orphanizing their children.
This apocalyptic society shows how powerful words are. If humans were just able to realize how powerful communication is, perhaps violence could be avoided altogether. Octavia Butler definitely made me appreciate this power. Civilization would collapse when words are erased and thrive when violence is eliminated. Did this story move you like it did me? Let me know what other themes you guys identified in the comments below!
This is similar to what I wrote my essay about. The lack of communication in "Speech Sounds" fuels all of the discontent and disorder that appears in the story. Additionally, it makes you realize that some of what you take for granted, when it's gone you will miss it. I for one have never imagined losing my voice and although it's not like I always use it, I can't imagine going a day where I cannot tell my mom I love her. The world that we live in now is looking a bit like the world depicted in "Speech Sounds" because even though most of us have a voice, not many are using it for good.
ReplyDeleteI am interested when you say that being able to communicate can put an end to senseless fighting. In the story, people are just fighting over the smallest things, and some people are just fighting for no reason at all, like the others on the bus. The idea that communication can cultivate peace is a powerful one, one you have elaborated on well.
ReplyDeleteCommunication is extremely important when it comes to arguments because it's already hard to control your emotions. So the people in Speech Sounds are already mad that they lost something that's important to them and they have no control over it, so it causes them to lose control even more easily. You really do realize the importance of spoken language from this story.
ReplyDeleteI quite like this story, because it has a lot of different views on communication, and the fact that the story is entirely focused on communication really helps to extenuate your ideas. I definitely agree with your ideas on the importance of communication, because the story shows many times that without the ability to commute ideas, then people end up resulting to violence, which, as you mentioned can be avoided very easily.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea you presented that violence is a product of miscommunication, an idea I totally agree with. I do not think it will fix every problem, eliminate all violence, or something totally extreme, however many conflict can be resolved through effective communication. I think Speech Sounds also presents an idea that jealousy is another root cause of violence, as in the story the husband kills his wife presumably because of her ability to talk. I also think he killed her because she couldn't talk him out of it and explain the situation, a lack of effective communication. Speech really does speak louder than violence.
ReplyDeleteIn the wake of the Coronavirus, the story/this post has even more meaning to it: How can a society handle its problems? Unity is undeniably the answer, yet we seem to be lacking that today. It's terrifying to imagine society persisting in a world without words, and your post, along with the story itself, seems to capture that. Good job.
ReplyDeleteI very much enjoyed reading this very meaningful piece, especially when considering the life we are currently living in now. Communication is one of the things that makes humans stand apart from other living creatures, why we've been able to come so far. So when we choose to hide things or not speak at all it does is cause issues, or in of this story as you mentioned quite nearly the end of everything.
ReplyDeleteWith everything going on with the world right now this really made me think. Communication is such a central thing in our society and right now we're seeing how a huge pandemic changes all that. How were forced into isolation. It's weird to think that some of the core values of "Speech Sounds" is something we're seeing right now. That maybe if we had communicated better things could have been prevented.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post as it compares violence and speech. Throughout the story, it seems as if the problem is the lack of communication between the characters, and this problem leads to the characters using violence. I think it was helpful for you to include the scenes of the bus and the one with Rye and Obsidian to show it is not just a coincidence theme but a reoccurring idea in the story. I agree that most of the story's plot stems from the characters' inability to speak with one another.
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