Octavia Butler is one of the most outstanding African American feminist writers who write science fiction stories toward a utopian society. However, Butler’s short story Speech Sounds can be read as a depiction of an anti-utopian society that represented by misery, chaos, violence, and disorder. It feels as if Butler seems to be criticizing her society through her own depiction of the society in her story that Rye is a woman that has the ability to speak among other people who are not able to communicate with each other because of the illness that Butler describes as pandemonium. In most circumstances a small misunderstanding is how altercations between individuals and other unfortunate situations come about. Communication is the center basis for civilization and without it society would be thrown into a world pool of chaos.
The first misunderstood situation in the story was the first page of the story
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which was page 89 paragraph 2. Where there were two men on the bus who had gotten into a disagreement, but there had been no physical contact only gesture of intimidation and mocking on another. It was actually the bus driver in the scenario who initiated the violence by hitting a pothole and accidentally knocking the taller man onto the shorter fellow. Communication in this situation would have been very helpful and could have help avoid the whole fight on the bus or at least enable the guys to have the chance to apologize for the unintentional bump. But instead just the opposite of this happened which actually caused another fight to start between three men only a few seconds later. Until obsidian who was a rogue individual dressed as LAPD gassed the bus the fight just could have turned into murders. Butler also talks about the occurrence that went to cause this violent and out of control dystopia called Los Angeles. It was a disease, the disease had no name but took the lives of many men and women it also affected the ability to communicate for everyone specifically. There were few who could actually speak one of the few was the protagonist Rye or Valerie, although she was not able to read or write. Most were struck in the comprehension fields of speaking, hearing, writing, or reading just about everyone could only do one or the other. But as for the other character who name was unknown but given the name Obsidian was able to read, which mad Rye furious towards the point she thought about killing him as it says in the story. Because she had lost her ability or write and read so she felt as if she didn’t have much to live for, almost as if she were on an empty shell. There is a saying that goes “A man who can not properly communicate is a prisoner in his own body”.
This sayings current relevancy is because it explains exactly what is going on in this tragic plot of a story written by Octavia Butler. Well communication is a crucial factor played in helping to build and maintain a utopia. But when it is taken is when the structure of civilization is torn and people start to develop a prisoner’s mindset. The mindset to where you have to be suspicious of everyone you see because you can only go on assumptions to what this persons intentions are. Which is the reason through the story why rye carried around a concealed revolver. Although there was a major lack of the ability to communicate it is shocking how through the story there were full conversations going on while people could not talk, read, or write going off of only gestures and actions. One of the actions that was most attention grabbing was how obsidian grabs a condom out and rye blushes because of the fact it has been so long since the last time she had been
touched. Octavia Butler gave the perfect description of what a dystopia would look like and or feel like. With vivid word play so strong it gave the feeling as if a person was there for themselves watching the whole story as the plot unfolds in front of their very eyes. It is well know that humans as a race thrive on our communication whether it is how you are choosing to express yourself or taking it as an opportunity to just be social. No matter how you look at it communication is the common point in ground that everyone all share even though it may vary in some parts of the world and in different languages. Butler clearly suggests that the advancement of civil society rests with the ability people’s ability to talk and communicate through spoken language with others when rye tells the children “It’s all right for you to talk to me”. So with that being said if there ever came a time in history where people lost their ability to comprehend or communicate be ready to overwhelm with masses of misunderstanding and violence.
In the story "Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler, all of the characters are struggling from an illness, an epidemic outbreak that has affected their entire lives. Rye is a woman who lost her family and, because of her illness, her ability to read. Her story is similar to African Americans during the era of slavery because when they were taken and put on ships they lost their entire families, their freedom to do what they wanted, and their ability to learn how to read, write and communicate. In a way, the illness that Rye obtained symbolized what happened in many slaves lives. It was as if slaves were condemned with the same illness as read in the story. This story is symbolic in the way that they use the characters and their circumstances. Slaves
In an Amazon.co.uk interview titled “Magic, Mystery and Mayhem: An Interview with J.K. Rowling,” when asked about the way she came up with the names of characters in her books, she replied, “I invented some of the names in the Harry books, but I also collect strange names. I've gotten them from medieval saints, maps, dictionaries, plants, war memorials, and people I've met!” J.K. Rowling chose these names for a reason based on the deeper meanings behind every character's name and the way they relate to their roles and personalities. In Octavia E. Butler's short story “Speech Sounds”, Rye and Obsidian were the names she chose for her characters. Rye, the name of the main protagonist which symbolizes home and earth yearns to reconnect with her family and to rebuild a family of her own while Obsidian, the supporting character, is named after a type of lava stone, which is believed to contain magical properties that “absorbs and destroys negative energy such as anger, criticism, and fear” (Zagata). The names of the characters have two purposes: to describe the character's role and personality, and to give them an identity.
She presents two contradictory images of society in most of her fiction: one in which the power and prevalence of evil seem so deeply embedded that only destruction may root it out, and another in which the community or even an aggregate of individuals, though radically flawed, may discover within itself the potential for regeneration. (34)
Mullen, Harryette. "A Silence Between Us Like A Language: The Ultra Translatability of Experience in Sandra Cisneros's Woman Hollering Creek." Melus. Vol. 21 Issue 2, 1996: 3-21.
Communications generally occur in body languages: how the individuals interpret each other. Her essay is an event that is reoccurring more and more lately. The event results in a failure in marriage. In today’s society more and more people are splitting up or having divorces due to miscommunications. The essay, “Sex, Lies and Conversation,” that Deborah Tannen wrote is much use of today because it explains where miscommunications happen and she has her own studies and research to back it up. The essay goes into depth about her ideologies that cause miscommunications. Look at a miscommunication twice and do not be quick to judge because it will save plenty of
Reminding each other that in order to look at the future the necessity is to deal with the present. According to Sullivan, “real thinking is better done without words than with them, and creative thinking must be done without words”, this is untrue because without words no one is able to think in both real and creative terms. The way people express themselves in writing is because they thought about the words they were going to be using to send the society a message. Sullivan states that people don’t have time to build words, but don’t words help in expanding the thoughts into bigger details. Words help in various forms of expanding the vocabulary and the thought
Egalitarianism can be absurd and detrimental to American society. In the story, heavy weights are put on strong people, and grotesque masks are put on attractive women. Also, many other people who have an above average intelligence often listen to loud noises which render them from completing a thought (5-7). Harrison’s father, George, compares the noises to, “somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer.” Darryl Hattenhauer of Arizona State proposes that “The story satirizes the American definition of freedom as the greatest good to the smallest number.” Unfortunately, the sacrifice of the individual to the good of society doesn’t improve conditions for the above average, average, or below (Alvarez). Joseph Alvarez suggests that, “the result [of the] power vacuum [is] a ruthless central government created by legislative controls people’s lives, which have become as meaningless as if they were machines.” In addition, the American dream that is described as moving up social and economic class through hard work and education; turn into a nightmare (Hattenhauer). For example, Kurt Vonnegut infers that the ballerina who reads ann...
Tannen, Deborah. “His Politeness Is Her Powerlessness.” You Just Don’t Understand: women and men in conversation. New York: HarperCollins, 1990. 203-5. Print.
Often of times, many of us speak without giving thought to how our words and the manner in which we speak will affect ourselves or another person. Regardless of how insignificant and harmless a few words and the tone we emphasize may seem, both hold power. In a moment, they have the power to either build up and give life or tear down and give death. In a moment, they have the power to shape and characterize the behaviors and values of both societies and individuals alike. In a single moment, they have the power to span beyond the individual who spoke it and cause, whether good or bad, repercussions that will affect a multitude of generations ahead.
One of the greatest things about being an American is the ability to voice my opinion and viewpoint regardless of race, gender, or class. This was not always the case. Many have had to struggle to make their voice heard, and the mindset of American’s furthered the oppression of minority voices. Revolution invigorated the American spirit with a new sense of self-worth and validation of artistic expression by all people. Voices that were once silenced found listeners through literature. Rather than one genre or narrative making way for the next through hostile takeover, many voices rise and refuse to be muzzled. Before independence there seems to be a pattern that suggests that there was no room for more than
Flannery O’Connor lived most of her life in the southern state of Georgia. When once asked what the most influential things in her life were, she responded “Being a Catholic and a Southerner and a writer.” (1) She uses her knowledge of southern religion and popular beliefs to her advantage throughout the story. Not only does she thoroughly depict the southern dialect, she uses it more convincingly than other authors have previously attempted such as Charles Dickens and Zora Neale Hurston. In other works, the authors frequently use colloquialism so “local” that a reader not familiar with those slang terms, as well as accents, may have difficulty understanding or grasping the meaning of the particular passage. O’Connor not only depicts a genuine southern accent, she allows the characters to maintain some aspect of intelligence, which allows the audience to focus on the meaning of the passage, rather than the overbearing burden of interpreting a rather “foreign language.”
In a world where the reign of complexity rules with the strongest of influence, our ability to communicate with one another allows us to solve even the most difficult of situations. Even so, human beings take communication for granted, we possess the ability to communicate instantly from across the globe and in real time, we can alert others of danger within a minute 's notice, and keep our governments in check. Yet, we squander and misuse our communicative abilities to gossip about celebrity drama or the nonsensical events that take place within our society. However our ability may or may not be used, our potential to communicate is essential to our functionality and the survival of our interpersonal relationships
Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar pursue a definition for what it means to be an authoress in a male dominated culture of writers. The central question for Feminists, according to Gilbert and Gubar, is: “Does the Queen try to sound like the King, imitating his tone, is inflections, his phrasing, his point of view? Or does she ‘talk back’ to him in her own vocabulary, her own timbre, insisting on her own viewpoint?” However, I cannot overlook the prospect of a man feeling just as mad and cooped up writing a text that others would view as out of his league. Chinua Achebe is the epitome of this Madman in the Attic. Born and raised in London, and brought up Christian he was as far away from being Okonkwo as I am as a white middle class American female. If Gilbert and Gubar are accusing women of feeling out of place writing in what then was a man’s field of expertise then Achebe masterfully channels the feminine madness into Things Fall Apart by writing a culture of strong independent women masked by silent passive girls.
Lindberg, Laurie. "Wordsmith and Woman: Morag Gunn's Triumph Through Language." New Perspectives on Margaret Laurence: Poetic Narrative, Multiculturalism, and Feminism. Ed. Greta M. K. McCormick Coger. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996. 187-201.
Spoken word, or “slam poetry,” began in blue-collar, 1980’s Chicago as a way for the common man to reclaim poetry, according to Alix Olson, editor of a compilation of the stories of a select few female spoken word artists. Competitions were held in bars and coffee shops, and judges were randomly selected from the audience rather than using so-called “experts.” Slam became incredibly popular with the anti-capitalist and other counter-cultural movements, and created a safe space for the outcasts of society.