Critical Review Of Speech Sounds By Octavia E. Butler

Not long ago I read a short story that brought tears to my eyes, a science-fiction story by Octavia E. Butler which was published in 1983. The story is set in a society where communication has become impossible due to a virus, that has different effects; the most prominent being that it makes half the population incapable of writing and reading and the others can no longer speak. The protagonist, Valerie Rye, who has lost children, parents and husband to this illness, is in a bus when a fight breaks out. A man entres, ends the fight and gestures to Valerie Rye to get into his car. She obeys and mentally gives him the name “Obsidian”. In the car, Valerie finds that he can read and is suddenly filled with jealousy; wanting to kill him. However she does not. Instead they share an intimate moment and she reveals to him that she can speak. They discover a woman being chased by a man with a knife. Although Obsidian tries to save her the man manages to stab the woman. Obsidian collapses to the ground, shot by the man with his own gun.

This results in Rye killing the murderer. Two children, who are capable of speaking coherent English emerge from the doors of a house and cry over their mother’s death. The story ends with Rye introducing herself to the children and adopting them: “‘I’m Valerie Rye, ’ ‘it’s alright for you to talk to me’”. This critical review will analyse the plausibility of a virus having such an effect on mankind as well as if it is probable that jealousy will split the community in the way described in the story, furthermore the author’s purpose will be analysed and lastly the review will discuss my personal opinion of the story.

Although it is somewhat plausible that there will be a large virus that affects the part the brain responsible for verbal and written communication, it is not probable that such an illness would have different effects on some people than on others. In the story, because of the virus “language [is] always lost or severely impaired. It [is] never regained. Often there [is] also paralysis, intellectual impairment, death” (Butler 4). Due to the existence of different diseases that have an effect on the brain causing an inability to speak coherently (a condition known as Aphasia) such as Alzheimer's and Reye’s syndrome one can say that an outbreak of disease that has this sort of impact on human brain is indeed plausible. Although neither Alzheimer’s nor Reye’s syndrome is a communicable disease, Reye’s disease shows that a virus (mainly if treated with aspirin) can lead to the inability to speak coherently and sometimes result in death. Similarly to the illness in the story Alzheimer’s slows down and destroys memory. In our society today scientists are constantly discovering new viruses. For example there was a discovery of hepegivirus 1 in 2015. The virus in “speech sounds” has different effects on different people as described by the narrator: “he was literate and she was not”. Illnesses differ only in the scale of how bad it is. However that it has different effects on different people has so far never been seen. Therefore it may be likely to have a virus outbreak affect the human brain, but it is not plausible for such a virus to have different effects on some people than on others.

Nevertheless the story included a very realistic aspect our world and its impact on us: Jealousy and its ability to destroy the chance to a true community. When Rye finds that Obsidian can read it has a great impact on her: “She felt sick to her stomach with hatred, frustration, and jealousy. And only a few inches from her hand was a loaded gun. ” Not only does jealousy make her aggressive it also scares her from speaking. In Butler’s story those who do retain the power of language are afraid to use it, as those around them are likely to fly into a jealous rage that could prove deadly. “frustration leads to violence. Fear controls us. As stated in a psychological article: Jealousy can “potentially distort communication” and create”.

Octavia E. Butler uses “Speech Sounds” as a chance to criticise jealousy leading to man’s inability to band together as well as warns society that communicating is incredibly important when maintaining a civil society. Additionally being an Afro American woman she criticises a white male dominated society. Butler uses the virus as a metaphor for humanity’s blindness when it comes to the effect of power and its relation to race and communication. Therefore, we can see in the story that when Rye identifies that the two children are able to speak she decides to first abandon then to protect and teach them. She may not have the power to speak in public, but she has the power to protect the children from the jealousy and violation in that society. In most science fiction short stories we find the ending is usually catastrophic. This asks more of human response and has a greater impact when trying to warn society of an end our world will have if we don’t change something. Octavia E. Butler writes in a different way, as in most science fiction short story she draws a picture of a destroyed society, but also manages to end with a spark of positivity and potentially giving us hope that it is possible to rebuild our world for the better. We have to protect each other and band together. In the 1980’s there was a lot of discussion and research on HIV (a virus transmitted through certain bodily fluids) due to just recently having been discovered this may have inspired Butler to write “Speech Sounds” on a widespread illness together with being an Afro American woman in a white male dominated society.

Is it weak of me to say that this short story made me cry? Yes? Well then I will just say that it is a great story. And now you’ll have to excuse, something got into my eyes… Octavia E. Butler’s science fiction short story is different than many and one cannot say that it is the classic piece that most would imagine even if told that is dystopian or anti-utopian. It is a wonderful piece bringing together criticism and hope in a very balanced way. Maybe it’s time we all start trying to imagine a more hopeful future.