Speech Sounds

by

Octavia E. Butler

Valerie Rye Character Analysis

Rye, the protagonist of “Speech Sounds, is a woman living in dystopian Los Angeles in the wake of a global pandemic that has left most of its survivors unable to use language. Three years ago, the pandemic killed Rye’s husband and children and left Rye—who was a teacher and writer—without the ability to read or write. While (somewhat unusually) Rye can still speak, the pandemic has robbed her of everything she cares about (her family and her passion for reading and writing), leaving her hopeless, alone, and contemplating suicide. While taking a bus to find surviving relatives, however, she meets a man (Obsidian) who steps in to defuse a fight between passengers. Having learned to expect violence and cruelty from those most impaired by the disease, she is hesitant to trust strangers, but since Obsidian appears calm and relatively unimpaired, she gets in his car when he invites her. The two quickly establish trust and mutual affection, and they ultimately have sex and agree to live together. Rye’s feelings for Obsidian reveal how desperate she is for genuine connection and how isolated she has felt since the pandemic—as soon as they establish their partnership, Rye no longer feels at risk of suicide. Tragically, though, Obsidian dies immediately afterwards when he pulls the car over to try to break up a fight between two parents (who also die). Sick with grief, Rye almost leaves the dead couple’s young children, but she stops when she realizes that they can speak. The notion that language might be returning after the pandemic gives Rye hope, and she takes the children with her, planning to teach them language and protect them, feeling that she finally has a reason to live.

Valerie Rye Quotes in Speech Sounds

The Speech Sounds quotes below are all either spoken by Valerie Rye or refer to Valerie Rye. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Miscommunication and Violence  Theme Icon
).
Speech Sounds Quotes

Two young men were involved in a disagreement of some kind, or, more likely, a misunderstanding.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:

She watched the two carefully, knowing the fight would begin when someone’s nerve broke or someone’s hand slipped or someone came to the end of his limited ability to communicate. These things could happen anytime.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye
Page Number: 89-90
Explanation and Analysis:

The bearded man stood still, made no sound, refused to respond to clearly obscene gestures. The least impaired people tended to do this—stand back unless they were physically threatened and let those with less control scream and jump around. It was as though they felt it beneath them to be as touchy as the less comprehending.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye, Obsidian
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:

As a result, she never went unarmed. And in this world where the only likely common language was body language, being armed was often enough. She had rarely had to draw her gun or even display it

Related Characters: Valerie Rye, Obsidian
Related Symbols: Guns
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:

Obsidian lifted her hand and looked under it, then folded the map and put it back on the dashboard. He could read, she realized belatedly. He could probably write, too. Abruptly, she hated him—deep, bitter hatred. What did literacy mean to him—a grown man who played cops and robbers? But he was literate and she was not. She never would be. She felt sick to her stomach with hatred, frustration, and jealousy. And only a few inches from her hand was a loaded gun.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye, Obsidian
Related Symbols: Guns
Page Number: 98
Explanation and Analysis:

She nodded and watched his milder envy come and go. Now both had admitted what it was not safe to admit, and there had been no violence. He tapped his mouth and forehead and shook his head. He did not speak or comprehend spoken language. The illness had played with them, taking away, she suspected, what each valued most.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye, Obsidian
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:

She had told herself that the children growing up now were to be pitied. They would run through the downtown canyons with no real memory of what the buildings had been or even how they had come to be. Today’s children gathered books as well as wood to be burned as fuel. They ran through the streets chasing one another and hooting like chimpanzees. They had no future. They were now all they would ever be.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye
Page Number: 101
Explanation and Analysis:

Rye glanced at the dead murderer. To her shame, she thought she could understand some of the passions that must have driven him, whoever he was. Anger, frustration, hopelessness, insane jealousy... how many more of him were there—people willing to destroy what they could not have?

Related Characters: Valerie Rye
Page Number: 107
Explanation and Analysis:

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. And now that there was something worth protecting, he was gone.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye, Obsidian
Related Symbols: Guns
Page Number: 107
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Speech Sounds LitChart as a printable PDF.
Speech Sounds PDF

Valerie Rye Quotes in Speech Sounds

The Speech Sounds quotes below are all either spoken by Valerie Rye or refer to Valerie Rye. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Miscommunication and Violence  Theme Icon
).
Speech Sounds Quotes

Two young men were involved in a disagreement of some kind, or, more likely, a misunderstanding.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:

She watched the two carefully, knowing the fight would begin when someone’s nerve broke or someone’s hand slipped or someone came to the end of his limited ability to communicate. These things could happen anytime.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye
Page Number: 89-90
Explanation and Analysis:

The bearded man stood still, made no sound, refused to respond to clearly obscene gestures. The least impaired people tended to do this—stand back unless they were physically threatened and let those with less control scream and jump around. It was as though they felt it beneath them to be as touchy as the less comprehending.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye, Obsidian
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:

As a result, she never went unarmed. And in this world where the only likely common language was body language, being armed was often enough. She had rarely had to draw her gun or even display it

Related Characters: Valerie Rye, Obsidian
Related Symbols: Guns
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:

Obsidian lifted her hand and looked under it, then folded the map and put it back on the dashboard. He could read, she realized belatedly. He could probably write, too. Abruptly, she hated him—deep, bitter hatred. What did literacy mean to him—a grown man who played cops and robbers? But he was literate and she was not. She never would be. She felt sick to her stomach with hatred, frustration, and jealousy. And only a few inches from her hand was a loaded gun.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye, Obsidian
Related Symbols: Guns
Page Number: 98
Explanation and Analysis:

She nodded and watched his milder envy come and go. Now both had admitted what it was not safe to admit, and there had been no violence. He tapped his mouth and forehead and shook his head. He did not speak or comprehend spoken language. The illness had played with them, taking away, she suspected, what each valued most.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye, Obsidian
Page Number: 99
Explanation and Analysis:

She had told herself that the children growing up now were to be pitied. They would run through the downtown canyons with no real memory of what the buildings had been or even how they had come to be. Today’s children gathered books as well as wood to be burned as fuel. They ran through the streets chasing one another and hooting like chimpanzees. They had no future. They were now all they would ever be.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye
Page Number: 101
Explanation and Analysis:

Rye glanced at the dead murderer. To her shame, she thought she could understand some of the passions that must have driven him, whoever he was. Anger, frustration, hopelessness, insane jealousy... how many more of him were there—people willing to destroy what they could not have?

Related Characters: Valerie Rye
Page Number: 107
Explanation and Analysis:

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. And now that there was something worth protecting, he was gone.

Related Characters: Valerie Rye, Obsidian
Related Symbols: Guns
Page Number: 107
Explanation and Analysis: