Speech Sounds Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler’s “Speech Sounds”

Octavia Butler’s “Speech Sounds” is a science fiction short story published in 1983. This thought-provoking piece is set in a post-apocalyptic world scorched by a pandemic. Those who have survived the disease have lost their ability to communicate – whether through speaking, reading, writing, or simply understanding. Butler questions how the world would react if society was unable to communicate effectively. How would this impact relationships, survival, and the order of society? We will explore the importance of language and communication, and how without it, empathy and morality are at risk.

The story follows a woman named Valerie Rye. She lives in Los Angeles, California but begins her journey to Pasadena

Referred to only as “the silence.” People were now reduced to communicating only through their body language, gestures, and mumbled grunts or squawks. For those that maintained their ability to read, they lost their speech. Those that kept the ability to speak lost their capability to understand. The disease left the world with mismatched puzzle pieces that could never find their place – all standing in one room, lonely while being surrounded by others. “In this world, the body is the word and text by which meaning is produced and received.” (Gale

That was all. (Butler 569)

He breaks up the fight by throwing gas onto the bus. The pair had both worked to assist people off, which in turn made some passengers believe the two were associated. The man offered to help Rye get to her destination by making gestures to his vehicle. Rye declined, but the man insisted. One of the men who started the fight saw the interaction:

He gestured obscenely and several other men laughed. Loss of verbal language had spawned a whole new set of obscene gestures. The man, with stark simplicity, had accused her of sex with the bearded man and had suggested she accommodate the other men present—beginning with him. (Butler 571)

Rye was gaining unwanted attention but was now too scared to get back onto the bus in fear of retaliation or sexual assault. With little choice, she accepted the mystery man’s offer, who she soon would know as Obsidian. Rye was weary of him, but she would be safer with him than on the bus. Obsidian was a nice man, trying to help others where he could. The two built a connection shortly after meeting each other – something Rye had missed desperately in the past three