Altercation In Speech Sounds

Speech Sounds, a fictional story where an entire society has gotten a plague and now none of them can speak with words, so they have to learn to use body language to communicate. This reading provides multiple themes relating to topics such as the hardships of being independent, violence, and peace. The main character of this short story is Rye, who we learns husband and children have passed, and she is on the verge of suicide because she has no one to live for until she meets Obsidian. They meet as he interferes with an altercation taking place on a bus Rye was on and then takes her with him and makes her feel ways she hasn’t felt in a very long time. When the tragic death of Obsidian shatters Rye’s hopes and dreams of them living together

The characters in this story that have not completely lost their sense of verbal communication and comprehension of it seem to be much more relaxed and confident, whereas those who seem to have lost it turn to violence to solve their problems and are extremely on edge and nervous. For instance, while the two men are fighting on the bus we never really find out what began the altercation which very possibly was just a simple misunderstanding, but because they aren't able to communicate fully it results in violence. This same miscommunication can occur in a modern society even where this plague doesn't exist and does so on a daily basis because people will argue over social media or in other ways that arent face to face contact and instantly go to some form of violence rather than talking it out. To recap, through several altercations that occured in this story we learn how miscommunication can lead to

We learn that Rye is suffering from depression and plans on commiting suicide in the near future until she meets Obsidian and in that time all those negative thoughts seem to disappear. While she is with him in the car she forgets all about her plans to end her life and is looking forward to spending her life with him, she uses gestures to communicate him coming home with her and them being together. When he accepts she is full of joy and seems to find a new reason to live. It seems that the reason she has these thoughts is because of the lack of human connection which reveals another theme which is the importance of friendship. It is made clear that in this society not many people have friends, for the most part everyone is independent other than some who are lucky enough to have a spouse or kids. This theme again connects to modern society because many people who have thoughts similar to Rye just need someone in their life to talk to and communicate with. To end, a key theme in Speech Sounds is the importance of friendships and Butler shows the reader what happens to a society without