Speech Sounds free essay sample

Speech Sounds is a fictional story written by an African-American science fiction author by the name of Octavia E. Butler. Octavia Butler received both the Hugo and Nebula awards for various works of hers. At a very young age Octavia was diagnosed with dyslexia and had acquired a slight speech impediment, which led to ongoing teasing and humiliation from her peers. She was often belittled and bullied by this and also affected by racism and sexism. Writing fictional stories was Butler’s self-therapy to foster her emotions based on the experiences in her own life. She was drawn to reading and writing science fiction stories to elude her boredom and loneliness. Speech Sounds is one of her many fictional pieces that she has written to help convey her emotions to an audience. In 1984, Octavia Butler was presented with the Hugo Award for her story Speech Sounds and also received a lifetime achievement award for her writing from the PEN American Center. We will write a custom essay sample on Speech Sounds or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In most of her works, Butler explored multiple social issues such as race, sexuality, gender, religion, and social class. The main characters of this short fiction are Rye and Obsidian. They get their names from the exchanging of gifts that each had to give as a symbol of friendship. Obsidian presented Rye with a necklace with a black, shiny, igneous rock to keep, while Rye presented Obsidian with a pen that appeared to resemble wheat. The two of them are placed in this walking dead society as superiors. The main focus in Speech Sounds is the interpretation of the Illness, lack of communication among people, and the resulting isolation. Speech Sounds is a story about a disease that causes an entire society to develop an â€Å"impairment. † In the short story, the character Rye refers to this impairment as â€Å"The illness. † The illness had taken away the ability for human beings to communicate with one another, loss of human intelligence, and sometimes resulting in death. In homeland security we would call a widespread sickness like this a pandemic1. According to Harshit Sinha of the Indian Institute of Management, â€Å"Such events can plunge a community, a nation, or the entire world into a state of chaos. Intrigues of politics, financial bungling, poor management, ineffective planning, and numerous other shortcomings simultaneously come to the forefront, aggravating already intricate problems. Rye states, The illness had played with them, taking away, she suspected, what each valued most. With the ability to communicate lost by the people of the world, people began to rely on their survival instincts. Law and order is eliminated in society. With the downfall of an economy society then leads to complete chaos and anarchy. People without any knowledge of how things were three to four years prior to the illness now would not know how to function in the world leaving every man to fend for himself. In the story, Butler’s character Rye describes this pandemic as â€Å"stroke-like in some of its effects. † â€Å"Language was always lost or severely impaired Often there was also paralysis, intellectual impairment, and death. † The symptoms of a person having or have had a stroke would be sudden trouble speaking, sudden confusion or trouble understanding simple statements, sudden problems with walking or balance, and loss of movement to parts of the body, particularly to one side. Butler states, She [Rye] had lost reading and writing skills. That was her most serious impairment and her most painful†. Could this illness that Butler refers to be a stroke or another disease called dementia? Dementia is strictly a term used to describe a decline in mental capacity. A person with dementia may experience the loss of reasoning, effective and clear communication, the ability to focus, and exhibit memory loss. The second most common type of dementia is vascular dementia, which occurs after a stroke. The Alzheimer’s disease accounts for approximately 60-80% of dementia cases. These cases are determined by a patient’s medical history, a series of lab tests, physical examination, and personality changes. Society today as we know it could very well run to ruins such as in the event of Chernobyl. On April 25, 1986 two Soviet radioactive reactors located in the Ukraine exploded from extreme pressures causing the release of fission and radioactivity into the atmosphere. This incident became a direct result of the Cold War isolation. The accident destroyed the Chernobyl 4 reactor killing 30 plant operators and firemen within three months and several further deaths later. Many people within reach of the toxic fumes given off by the plant suffered from cancer and other defects such as deformities and radiation burns. Speech Sounds has a parallel plot to Chernobyl and how things could be in the future. We could be pushed into a world of disease, death, and the destruction of all critical infrastructures. Butler’s work frequently explored the subject of life after apocalypse. Communication had been lost for years in Los Angeles and across the world leaving people to establish their own ways of communicating with movement and distorted sounds. â€Å"The loss of verbal language had spawned a whole new set of obscene gestures. † Body language became the new alphabet. The extinction of communication can lead to the extinction of the world in the future. Conflict and misunderstandings arise whenever the ability to communicate fails. For instance, Rye informs us that the fight on the bus more than likely started as a result of a misunderstanding rather than a disagreement. â€Å"She watched the two carefully, knowing that the fight would begin when†¦someone came to the end of his limited ability to communicate. † Butler mentions this idea of ‘superiority’. This was the idea that those who had certain abilities to communicate effectively were seen as superior to those who could not. When Rye had realized that Obsidian could read it upset her. â€Å"What did literacy mean to hima grown man who played cops and robbers? She felt sick to her stomach with hatred, frustration, and jealousy†. These feelings of hatred, frustration, and jealousy would not come up again until after Obsidian’s death. Rye realizes that these emotions are tools that can very well urge someone to kill all because they feel inferior to another person. â€Å"Had the woman died because she could talk and had taught her children to talk? Had she been killed by a husbands festering anger or by a stranger’s jealous rage? † These are the questions Rye begins to ask herself once she finds out that the two children can speak clear speech. Another theme in this story is isolation. Thomas Carlyle said, â€Å"Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to a man. † It is a disease in and of itself. Isolation cripples a city or nation economically and socially. Rye mentions that she had not been touched by anyone for three years. She had been on her own ever since the illness had taken her family away from her. Isolation can then become an illness as well. People begin to compete against each other for food and resources while developing an extra sense of cautiousness and rage to others around. This is evident in history before China’s Open Door Policy. In 1976 China was largely closed to outsiders; the political struggles of the late Maoist years depressed economic growth and foreign trade. Isolation can take its toll on a person psychologically as well making someone feel depressed, angry, lonely, and on edge. For three years Rye had isolated herself from the rest of the living community. â€Å"She had found and lost the man so quickly. It was as though she had been snatched from comfort and security and given a sudden, inexplicable beating. † Rye and Obsidian almost immediately had a strong, passionate, attraction to one another. Throughout their short time together, it seemed to have grown rather quickly. Rye was anticipating spending an extended time with Obsidian. They practically went together hand and hand like a puzzle. Obsidian could read and write, and Rye could speak. He was there to protect her, and to protect other people who needed protecting, whether he was actually an LAPD officer or only playing. Being that LAPD officer is what kept Obsidian sane. It’s also what allowed Rye to let down her guard and trust someone. Both Obsidian and Rye had revealed their secrets to each other at this point, which made each of them find a sense of loyalty in the other. Rye could have taken her pistol and killed Obsidian after revealing her secret to him, but instead she trusted him. Now when she finally found that person she could trust and put her feelings into, the illness had stripped her once again of something that made living worthwhile. He [Obsidian] had died and left her—like everyone else. † The ending of Butler’s story brings a major twist that can be viewed as important. Just as Rye is placed in this tragic situation with the death of a woman, her murderer, and Obsidian, out runs two young children. Rye quickly gets up to leave because she knows that if she were to see those children cry it would make her vomit. But as she runs back to the car she realizes that she should try and bury at least Obsidian and the woman. These thoughts push her to go back for the two bodies. When it came time to take the woman’s body the little girl that was there shouts, â€Å"No! † Rye dropped the woman and looked at the little girl with surprise in her expression. â€Å"Go away†, she said. Just as she spoke, her brother reprimanded her and told her not to talk. Surprised, Rye could not believe that the two children had spoken so clearly and she could understand them. Rye spoke back to them and said, â€Å"It’s all right. † â€Å"You’re going with us, too. † This event gives the reader a sense of hope. It gives the reader hope that just maybe a new beginning can rise from this, or that there are more children or people out there who are considered to be superior. Also, for the story it gives hope for Rye and even for mankind.