Speech Sounds

“His use of the left hand interested Rye more than his obvious question. Left-handed people tended to be less impaired, more reasonable and comprehending, less driven by frustration, confusion, and anger.”

In this dystopia, some people are more affected by the illness than others. Rye has observed that these people tend to be left-handed, and she uses this knowledge to discern Obsidian’s level of impairment. She knows this because she is left-handed, demonstrated when she points to the bus. While left-handedness is a common characteristic of the “least impaired,” it is not a rule; during the fight on the bus, the short man punches the tall man exclusively with his left fist. As an exception to the rule, the short man reminds the reader that Rye’s knowledge is limited.

“There was no more LAPD, no more any large organization, governmental or private. There were neighborhood patrols and armed individuals. That was all.”

Due to the severity of the illness, society cannot maintain any form of government or organization since effective communication is necessary for these structures. Obsidian’s police uniform is unusual because there are no active police departments. He is one of the few forces of order that still exist—“armed individuals.” Obsidian’s police uniform signals his self-appointed role as protector. It symbolizes a concept of law and order that no longer exists and is therefore nostalgic of the past.

“This was an attitude of superiority, and that was the way people like the bus driver perceived it. Such ‘superiority’ was frequently punished by beatings, even by death.”

Even in a postapocalyptic society, there are still social hierarchies and tensions. Rather than being separated along class lines, people are divided by the severity of their symptoms. When someone more affected encounters someone less affected, they can sense an “attitude of superiority.” This is what happens in the interaction between the bus driver and Obsidian. The bus driver gets angry, shouting and flailing, while Obsidian watches him calmly. This subdued response is perceived as condescending, and resentful people often respond with violence. It is only because Obsidian has a pistol that the interaction with the bus driver does not escalate. 

“Language was always lost or severely impaired. It was never regained. Often there was also paralysis, intellectual impairment, death.”

The harsh reality of Rye’s world becomes apparent when the effects of the pandemic appear in the text. Language is one of humanity’s most essential means of communication. Without it, suggests Butler, humans are no better than animals. They must resort to gestures and grunts as communication and, in many cases, even violence as a means of expression. Because the consequences of the illness are so severe—threatening even death—it is no wonder people respond to their circumstances with aggression.

“The illness had played with them, taking away, she suspected, what each valued most.” 

Before the illness, Rye was a writer and taught history at UCLA. For her, literacy was integral to her personal and professional identity. She loses her ability to read and write, and she cannot remember much of what she has read in the past. Meanwhile, she retains the ability to speak and understand speech, but when her family dies, she has no one to talk to and little need for her voice. Obsidian is literate, a fact that is frustrating for Rye. But speech is the ability dearest to him, and it is the ability he has lost. Obsidian desires to be a civil servant and help others resolve problems. Many of those problems are due to miscommunication and disagreement between people. It is possible that Obsidian was a police officer before the illness and that this job required strong verbal communication skills. Now, however, he is forced to resolve conflicts without the help of his voice.

“Now both had admitted what it was not safe to admit, and there had been no violence.”

Jealousy is a recurring issue in the story. The illness has drastically worsened everyone’s lives, and it is very difficult for people not to be envious of others’ capacities. Because the illness also makes people more emotionally volatile, jealousy is a very dangerous emotion in this world. For this reason, people often hide any abilities they have, which is why Rye hardly speaks, although she can. When Rye admits that she can speak and understand speech, and Obsidian admits that he is literate, is it significant that it does not turn to jealous violence. This is evidence of the trust developing between the two characters.

“What kind of world was this to chance bringing a child into even if the father were willing to stay and help raise it?”

When Obsidian asks if Rye would like to have sex, she is overwhelmed with a fear of pregnancy and the risk of bringing a child into this difficult world. She feels that children “had no future” now that the illness has taken over (Paragraph 63). Children live more like “chimpanzees” than kids and have no chance of growing to be more or do more. This negative sentiment is reversed at the end of the story when Rye meets the two toddlers who can speak. Suddenly, Rye associates children with hope. The possibility of a better future rests on the shoulders of these toddlers.

“The illness had been harder on men than on women—had killed more men, had left male survivors more severely impaired.” 

Men are affected more severely by the illness, and most of the male characters in the story demonstrate this. The bus driver, some of the men fighting on the bus, and even Rye’s neighbor exhibit behavior consistent with a “more severely impaired” person. Obsidian and perhaps the left-handed man in the bus fight are the only men with less severe symptoms. While the narrative states that more men have died than women, most of the central characters in the story are men. This may be because the men are more threatening—due to the effects of the illness—and therefore, Rye has more confrontations with them even though they are fewer.

“He grasped the two fingers and nodded. He was with her.” 

Since her family died, Rye has been alone for a very long time: “No one had touched her for three years” (Paragraph 56). When Rye embarks on her journey to Pasadena, she is searching for her brother and his family. Her goal is to find people to be with, hoping not to be alone. When she meets Obsidian, he fulfills the objective of her journey. With that goal fulfilled, she can return home once they choose to be together.

“Obsidian took Hill Street south, then Washington west, and she leaned back, wondering what it would be like to have someone again. With what she had scavenged, what she had preserved, and what she grew, there was easily enough food for them. There was certainly room enough in a four-bedroom house. He could move his possessions in. Best of all, the animal across the street would pull back and possibly not force her to kill him.”

When Obsidian enters Rye’s life, he offers her an opportunity to no longer be alone. He also provides her a sense of security and stability that she has not experienced in a long time. Once they decide to go home together, she estimates that they have enough supplies to live on and enough room to live in. As a large man with a habit of defending those in need, he also offers added protection from her neighbor. With Obsidian, Rye can imagine a life where she does not always have to be on guard and might even enjoy some leisure.

“Straightening up, Rye saw that the runner was a woman, fleeing from an old frame house to a boarded-up storefront. She ran silently, but the man who followed her a moment later shouted what sounded like garbled words as he ran.”

The uncertainty of details in this scene shows the limitations of the third-person limited narrator’s point of view. The reader is unsure about why the man is chasing the woman, the relationship between them, how the woman relates to the children who appear later, or whether the woman can speak. While it is less clear how the man relates to the others, the narrative suggests that the woman may be the mother to the children. When Rye learns that the children can speak, she guesses that they learned from their mother, who perhaps could also speak. This is corroborated by the woman’s silence as she runs, as opposed to the man’s “garbled words.” Rye suspects that the man killed the woman in a jealous rage. However, all of this is shrouded in uncertainty, and the reader is left to guess along with Rye and the narrator.

“She had found and lost the man so quickly. It was as though she had been snatched from comfort and security and given a sudden, inexplicable beating.”

Obsidian’s death occurs suddenly for Rye and in the narrative’s pacing. In paragraph 80, she imagines how she and Obsidian will live together in her house in Pasadena; by paragraph 88, he is dead. This unexpected death reflects how much of the pleasure in this postapocalyptic world is fleeting. Nothing, not even life itself, is certain.

“Obsidian had been the protector, had chosen that role for who knew what reason. Perhaps putting on an obsolete uniform and patrolling the empty streets had been what he did instead of putting a gun into his mouth.”

Rye initially believes that Obsidian’s obsession with wearing his uniform is like a child playing cops and robbers. However, she later realizes that people must now get by through any means necessary. Obsidian’s role as protector gives him a sense of purpose in the fight against meaninglessness. Similarly, Rye left home to avoid killing herself, hoping to find meaning in family. For a moment, it seems that Obsidian could be the family she is looking for. When he dies, that possibility disappears, but new hope arises with the appearance of the two children who can speak.