Speech Sounds Octavia Butler Summary

No one is able to speak; disputes are settled with fists; society has crumbled. This scenario forms the basis to Octavia Butler’s short story “Speech Sounds.” No one knows how or why, but everyone present on earth is mentally disabled in some fashion. These disabilities include—but are not limited to—speech impediments, hearing impairments, illiteracy, and an inability to reason. Butler tells the story through the eyes of Valerie Rye, one of the few humans who can communicate. As exhibited in Butler’s tale, speech is the most useful tool in diplomacy, necessary for societal progress, and a fundamental element for happiness; all of which are components paramount to the maintenance of a civil society. There are very few situations in which diplomacy

It is common knowledge that humans are social animals by nature. We as humans want to form the most complex bonds with other humans as mentally and physically possible and we do much of this through the use of communication. Without language we are unable to properly convey our emotions and ideas to others which restricts our ability to form complex bonds. This idea that ideas cannot be conveyed without language is exhibited repeatedly throughout Butler’s work: “[s]he did not know how to tell him her children were dead” (347). In addition, the idea that we cannot have complex relationships without communication is also supported by Butler’s work: “[n]o one had touched her for three years” (346). We place a tremendous amount of emphasis on the pursuit of happiness through complex connections with other human beings because all other forms of happiness are short lived. Drugs, alcohol, sex, and money may grant happiness in the moment but it will be temporary and fleeting. This principle is demonstrated after Rye and Obsidian fornicate and Rye demonstrates vast amounts of happiness to the reader only for it to be short lived once Obsidian died, but when she meets the children and learns that they can speak she immediately believes that she can teach them and therefore create the complex bond of a teacher-student