Loss Of Communication In Speech Sounds, By Octavia Butler

It is often said that communication is key to cooperation and in order to be able to communicate properly one must use their language accordingly to voice their thoughts and ideas to others. In the short, science fiction story "Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler, speech is absent in a society causing disorder amongst the citizens. The short story makes many connections with society and people today in terms of lack of responsiveness and feelings of indifference to others. But while the story directs a loss of speech to a loss of empathy this isn’t necessarily correct.
“Speech Sounds” is set in a dystopia and starts off with Rye taking a bus to Pasadena. On the bus a fight ensues between two individuals who have a misunderstanding which leads …show more content…
Empathy can be shown without speaking. While Butler demonstrates how speech is taken for granted and in her short story she also puts in smaller points where shared feelings and understanding is present. When Rye and Obsidian are driving to Pasadena, they both learn of each other’s abilities to speak, read and write. They connect, despite confusingly communicating with gestures and its almost as if they complete each other. Rye can speak while Obsidian can read and write; one lacks what the other has, completing them as a …show more content…
After seeing the children come out to their mother’s dead body and respond aggressively when she began to drag the body away, they spoke leading Rye to question their lives and how it can affect society as a whole. “Fluent speech! Had the woman died because she could talk and had taught her children to talk? Had she been killed by a husband’s festering anger or by a stranger’s jealous rage?......What if all they needed were teachers? Teachers and protectors” (Butler). She could understand the pain of the children not just losing their mother but also having to suppress their speech and not let others find out which also caused suppression of their feelings. Despite verbally expressing their feelings completely she understood. In a similar way Rye even understood where the man’s motives may have come from. That understanding and comprehension was still present. “Rye glanced at the dead murderer. To her shame, she thought she could understand some of the passions that must have driven him, whomever he was. Anger, frustration, hopelessness, insane jealousy . . . how many more of him were there—people willing to destroy what they could not have?”