Speech Sounds and Octavia Butler
The science fiction short story “Speech Sounds” is written by American writer Octavia Butler, it was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in December 1983. This story presents Rye, a survivor of a dystopian world ravaged by nuclear war, where the effects after the blast caused people to lose the ability of basic communication. Here we see Rye fight against external and internal conflicts such as fighting against the world she lives in and fighting against her own wavering state of mind or identity. Her solution to finding peace with both situations was to find if she had any living relatives left, being that the ones living with her have perished, and in that moment she recalls her Brother and
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We know Rye is a very well educated working woman who does not rely on anyone to survive. She’s willing to fight and shoot down opponents if absolutely necessary, she’s honest with her desires and shameless with whom she decides to be with, doesn’t immediately resort to motherly instincts around the children who’ve just lost it all, and puts her own survival above all else. An objective and well controlled woman who thinks rationally and quickly enough to preform accordingly in tough scenarios. During the time Speech Sounds was published, this character would be considered a revolutionary feminist character for going against several stigmas of the time and even be a unique icon to the sci-fi …show more content…
Butler may be the only African American woman currently writing science fiction for a living.” (Joan Fry "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." Interview by Joan Fry. Web.) Evidently Octavia stood out in the sci-fi scene as a black woman writing about her concerns with concepts of humanity and she portrays intelligent and strong willed protagonists. “Some critics call Butler a “futurist”; others claim she writes “speculative” fiction. Butler, who is adamant in her dislike of labels, does not consider some of the stories in Bloodchild science fiction at all: “I’m a story-teller,” she insists.” (Joan Fry "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." Interview by Joan Fry. Web.) Regardless to however way one would want to categorize Octavia’s writing, she only wants to portray a story that discusses her views of humanity and links personal events to her stories. These bleak out looks she has in humanity would be the center to all her writing as she explores and lays the situations out in her stories “In Butler’s view, humans are incapable of living in peace with one another—or even with the creatures in their environment.” (Joan Fry "An Interview with Octavia E. Butler." Interview by Joan Fry.
Elie Wiesel winner of the nobel peace prize, in his speech demonstrates hope, despair, and memory and how it affects one life. He brings this to attention when he states that “all those victims need above all is is to know what they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them...that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs”(11). Just like Wiesel’s speech, A long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah shares a view similar to Wiesel , about the importance of hope, despair, and memory and how they can affect the lives of many. This relates to Ishmael Beah, a boy who violently lost his family and sucked into the world of drugs and killing. Both Wiesel and Beah have experienced traumatic events filled with despair,
Anarchy, a social state in which human actions are governed by their morals, is considered to be the most liberating template to form society around. In an anarchical society, the absence of government allows absolute freedom for any individual involved, and in a society such as this, people are able do as they please without experiencing any governmental repercussions for their actions. Where this seems to parallel the society introduced to us in the short story, “Speech Sounds”, by Octavia Butler, it in fact contrasts the society that Rye lives in. While most authoritarian governments have a strong physical presence in society, the allegory "Speech Sounds" uses a virus to demonstrate the metaphysical oppressive force that is felt by a totalitarian
Linguistics Being supposedly made up on the spot, Noah S. Sweat did not have time to compose an eloquent speech about a controversial topic. He instead spoke a purely unfactual and highly descriptive banter using doublespeak to voice his opinion of whiskey. Both sides of his argument include impactual adjectives to describe the drink. Or as Mr. Sweat would say on line 6, “the devil’s brew,” or on line 12, “the philosophic wine”. Each side of his argument is entirely one sentence long, implying that he emotionally fuels his speech as he works out his thoughts with the audience as one thought flows to the other.
One of an analysis of President that Ronald Reagan uses in his speech is simile. He compared what happened on the challenger disaster and what happened to the great explorer Sir Francis Drake. As well he showed how they are so similar accident. Both of them lost their life just for one reason which is to discover the world and to make our live easier. According to what Ronald Reagan said” The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave” (Ronald Reagan).
Both Neuromancer and Dawn are works of science fiction taking place in the future of our own world. In this way they both provide ways to look at our own society through a different lense. Both Gibson and Butler bring to light many of the problems of our own world through their literature. Two articles are highlighted as well: In her article, Razor Girls: Genre and Gender in Cyberpunk fiction, Lauraine Leblanc addresses the issue of gender as a dichotomous system.
In “Fledgling”, by Octavia Butler, the narration and unique characteristics of the main character bring up prevalent topics – racism, feminism, and sexuality – in today’s society. Through the first person point of view, Shori is able to show the racism that is present throughout the novel, which still exists in society today. Although Shori’s genetically modified skin gives her an advantage over the Ina’s, the Ina ’s think it makes her too close to a human’s genetic make-up. The Ina’s discriminate against Shori because she is “dark-skinned and human” (173).
American journalist and politician, Clare Boothe Luce, in her opening speech at the 1960 Women’s National Press Club meeting, prepares her audience, qualifying and defending her forthcoming criticism. Luce’s purpose is to provoke thought in the journalist’s minds on what journalism is really about at its core. She adopts a frank and humorous tone to best capture the attention of her intended audience of female journalists. Through, appealing to the ethos, logos, and pathos with flattery, syllogism, and rhetorical questioning to prepare the audience for her message: “the tendency of the American press to sacrifice journalistic integrity in favor of the perceived public demand for sensationalist stories.” In the first paragraph of her speech, Luce assures the audience that “[she is] happy and flattered to be a guest of honor…”
The Cluster F-Bomb and Angry Feminist Feminists in literature or the media are often presented as really loud, angry, man-hating, lesbian and bra-burning stereotypes with radical beliefs, especially when they are presented with the only function to be made fun of and / or ridiculed. One could argue that Shazzer definitely fits in this category: She is a person who expresses her opinion in a really strong and clear way, so that everyone understands and gets her point. As a reader, you get the impression that she always talks really loud and passionate – the effect is created by the use of caps lock when Shazzer is speaking. She is also the one person in Bridget’s group of friends who uses a lot of slang words and expletives which are sometimes
During the Progressive Era, women began reforms to address social, political, and economic issues within society. Some addressed the issues with education, healthcare, and political corruption. Others worked to raise wages and improve work conditions. Among these (women) is Carrie Chapman Catt, a leader of the women’s suffrage movement. Beginning her career as a national women’s rights activist in 1890, she was asked to address Congress about the proposed suffrage amendment shortly after two years.
Short Writing Assignment: Explaining IT to My Teacher In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main protagonist, Melinda, stated that she hates “IT”. Although we don’t know who the person “IT” is, I predict that “IT” is an outgoing, and untrustworthy person. Here are some reasons why.
On November 13th, 1969, Spiro Agnew, who was the Vice President at the time, gave the speech, Television News Coverage, about how news producers are becoming too powerful (Bibliography.com.) To successfully inform his audience, he uses many rhetorical strategies to keep everyone engaged and attentive. Agnew delivered an exceptional speech by using multiple techniques such as analogies, anaphoras, parallelism, and rhetorical questions to justify this problem to his audience. To help his audience understand what is being addressed, Agnew uses analogies to connect his ideas to familiar objects.
For centuries, men and women have abided by the strict gender roles set forth by society. In her piece Bloodchild, Octavia Butler goes against gender norms set forth by society in an inverse way. Butler wanted to experiment with the notion of a man bearing children. The impregnation of a man shows the reversal of male and female roles. The process of implantation involving an alien female and human male leads to the switch in power dynamics between the two genders.
After reviewing my tribute speech about my son Scott, I noticed details that at the moment I did not realize what I was doing wrong. I noticed I sway through the entire presentation and played with the paper a lot as well as playing with my hair and earing at 3 minutes and again at 6 minutes and 43 seconds into the speech. Not only was I guilty of these issues, I also realized my organization was a little off kilter. I rushed through the speech along with not looking up from the paper as much as I should have and I need to work on my pronunciation. Looking back at my presentation it was obvious that I was extremely nervous, making me sway back and forth along with playing with my earrings.
This speech was given on November 13th, 1913 by Emmeline Pankhurst, who has been called the mother of British suffragette movement, in Hartford, Connecticut. She was on a fundraising tour across the United States and it became her most famous talk. She addressed to an audience filled with men but also women such as Katherine Houghton Hepburn (mother of the movie star) who was also a leader of the American suffrage, an audience assembled by Connecticut Women's Suffrage Association. Pankhurst's intentions were to justify the aggressive tactics the movement had taken and to encourage women to join their forces, it was also known her aim was also to increase fundraising to go on fighting for their cause.
Susan Cain: The power of introverts The speech about introverts by Susan Cain has a very effective introduction. It catches the audience attention right away. She describes a memory in her childhood related to the topic she will be talking about. She creates a mystery for the audience with the visual aid of a suitcase she is carrying around as she talks about a suitcase in her introduction.