Artie Covell Ms. Doyle Honors English American Voices September 04, 2024 The Smiling People Short Essay Sound is symbolic of fear and insanity, and silence is symbolic of death. The Smiling People, written by Ray Bradbury, is a short story about a man named Mr. Greppin. He lives in a home with his aunt and uncle and their two kids, and he hates their solemnity. This drives him to the point of insanity where he kills them all by making them “smile”. This creates a silence which is symbolic of death. This created a fear of noise for Mr. Greppin, knowing what he had done. Sound is symbolic of fear because Mr. Greppin is hiding his crime. After the murder of his relatives, Mr. Greppin goes through the time-consuming and painful process of completely …show more content…
He’s scared of being caught. For example, in the text it states, “.music sounded. and it terrified him. ‘There can’t be noise in my house. Not since two weeks ago” (Bradbury 4-5). Using context, we know that two weeks ago was when he murdered his family. He is horrified that whatever this sound might be could get him caught. This shows how sound represents his fear because he’s “terrified” by the slightest sound. Sound is also symbolic of Greppin’s insanity. Knowing what he did and his fear of sound, when he hears one, he goes crazy. He rushes to it, ignoring anything in the way and fixes it immediately. For instance, after hearing a musical tone coming from the attic, Greppin, “.burst into the attic. He destroyed the vase with one kick. The music was gone, the vent plugged, the vase in a thousand pieces” (Bradbury 5). This shows how far Greppin goes to prevent sound, he smashes the vase in a fury just so the sound will go away. His deathly fear of sound pushes him to insanity. And finally, the sound of silence represents death. The silence that has occurred since Greppin made his relatives “smile,” is a direct representation of their death. Since he knows nobody else can move in his house, he