Speech Sounds by Octavia E. Butler
Dystopia is an opposite of utopia. It is an imaginary society living in a world after environmental disaster, devastating disease, dehumanization or totalitarian regime. The only dystopia from real life that comes to mind is North Korea – a totalitarian country, which bears no similarity to Speech Sounds. But nowadays there are a lot of films that depict a society that survived after epidemics.
In my opinion, the author tried to show that communication is a key to peaceful life and without it people cannot understand, trust and support each other. But it is difficult to communicate without spoken language; no body language will ever substitute it. People fight in the bus because of misunderstanding: “[] someone came to the end of his limited ability to communicate.” (Butler)
1. “I didn’t like his looks—I never had” is a very important quotation that can be interpreted in many different ways and can be viewed as symbolic. (Heinlein) When the narrator uses it at the beginning of the story, the reader thinks that he is talking about the appearance of Unmarried Mother. But later it becomes obvious that he expresses dissatisfaction with the sex change and him being a man. There is the irony in the names of the characters. He calls himself Pop that means ‘father’, as he is his own dad. And Unmarried Mother, as Jane all her life thought that she is a woman, but after giving birth to a child the doctor announced to her that she is a man.
2. The Ouroborous is a symbol of eternity and infinity, the cycle. The bartender interfered with his past in such a way that it completed the circle of his life and will repeat again and again. He says: “The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail, Forever and Ever.” (Heinlein)
Works Cited
Butler, Octavia E. Speech Sounds. 1st ed. 2016. Web. 15 June 2016.
Heinlein, Robert A. All You Zombies. 1st e. 2016. Web. 15 June 2016.
