Speech And Silence In Conrad Aiken's 'Secret Snow, Silent Snow'

Guterson’s engaging novel Snow Falling on Cedars, thrilling murder mystery, explores and comments on the relevant ideas of the world he is depicting whilst simultaneously presenting an enduring puzzle to solve. Straying from the convention of a murdered victim, David explores a society that has been influenced by the tragic nature of the embedded prejudice created from the ramifications of the war, altering their decision and perspective on certain issues. Whilst that it presents the idea of truth and knowledge by declaring that truth can be viewed as subjective, being controlled by a persons perception, feeling and opinions hence triumphing over justice or reason.

“Silence is violence” is a common phrase used by people nowadays which references people who lack initiative when it comes to speaking out against oppression. The same phrase could be applied to the ideas within Shusaku Endo’s novel, Silence. Endo was clever to name his novel Silence, because the word is a very prominent symbol within the story. In fact, it plays a crucial role to the development of the main character. Although some readers may argue that the role of silence in the book is neutral, I claim that silence plays a negative role for the characters because it is what causes protagonist Rodrigues to renounce his faith. In the story, it represents the silence of God, which induces Rodrigues to question his religion through the torture of innocent Japanese Christians.

When Paul Baumer returns from the war to visit his family, he is unable to relate to them anymore. He says: “I find I do not belong here anymore, it is a foreign world,” He has been away for so long, that he feels very distant from them. The people back home don't understand the pain and terrors of war that Paul has experienced. This makes him feel misunderstood by his loved ones, and he is unsure of how to share his thoughts with them. While his father thinks of the war as an honorable and respectable place to serve, Paul sees it as a violent and scary place to be.

The speaker glorifies what most take for granted and shows how significant certain objects can be within their own relationship. “ The loud voice is famous to silence,/ which knew it would inherit the earth/ before anybody said so” (2-4). The speaker is able to describe the importance of the inevitability of sound in any silence. To the silence, the sound that is going to be generated within it, both signifies the silences’ end as well as its necessity. For there cannot be a clarity of the sound without first the crushing nothingness of silence. The duality of the two is a perfect example of what the speaker was trying to convey within the opening stanzas of the poem, sound and silence are vague generalities that only matter to each other in their own distinct relationship. Outside of their relationship, sound is not just noise being generated; the message it carries is what is important. However, within the confines of their relationship the fact that the noise is simply sound where there was nothing before is what makes the “loud voice” famous to the

Paul uses anecdotes, examples of hyperbole, and the way his writing is organized to allure the reader and bring them in. His remembrance of the woods he used to go to appeals to a nostalgic emotion. He supports this even more when he says," Those of us over 35 are perhaps among the last generation to have known truly

Silence deprive from the desire of live, because we can see how the silence deprive the character the desire of live. “Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire of live” (Wiesel e22). The live of the main character is a night, that makes he lose his hope and want the death. Silence is the result of oppression. “A few young men forced her to sit down, then bound and gagger her. Silence fell again” (Wiesel e51) After they had been forced they fall in silence, oppressed by the strength and authority of that young men. Summing

Kerouac uses the idea of the “silence being so intense” to show the idea that uniformity in society is wrong. “Mad raging sunsets poured in seafoams of cloud through unimaginable crags, with every rose tint of hope beyond, I felt just like it, brilliant and bleak beyond words. Everywhere awful ice fields and snow straws; one blade of grass jiggling in the winds of infinity, anchored to a rock. This was the life I was meant to live. ”(Kerouac,41).

This is especially prominent in the last stanza, which states that "For us there was no birth cry...and we heard nothing when the world changed. " With other images such as the "continuous whir because the child in the house keeps growing" and "the sound of spiders breathing," the narrator sets a tranquil scene where silence is not out of the ordinary. But in turn, the narrator questions if the silence is not silence at all, but the sounds of change that are "above the shut-off level of our simple ears."

In the second stanza it is the semantic field of cold: ‘winter’, ‘ice’, ‘naked’, ‘snow’. All these lexical items give us a feeling of cold which evokes loneliness, unknown, fear.

Silence. White on white, dark shadows highlighting every curve and hiding even more. A cold breeze blew. The whirls visible amongst the particles of blown dust, brushed across her cheeks and left her coughing. A young girl quickly paced across the newly accumulated snow on the ground, footsteps plodding and hurried, chest heaving as she flew past. A flicker of her hazel eyes showed behind her free-flowing luscious brown locks as she hurriedly walked, the shine marred by tangled debris. Her small footprints leave behind an easily traceable trail, despite the quickly disappearing prints as new snowflakes gently falls atop. The contrast blows a confused and irregular line of clear space behind

Exploring the inner turmoil of the human soul is a fascinating subject that has captivated members of academia since the dawn of metacognition. Paul Simon writes a beautiful, harmonious piece of timeless art known as The Sound of Silence, which is almost whispered, in song, by Art Garfunkel. Paul Simon, by using the enticing paradox: “the sound of silence”, the clever use of “light” to describe the false hope society places on external forces, as well as a plethora of other paradoxes and metaphors, such as a growing seed, urges people to cease looking to extraneous solutions to answer their internal quarrels, and begin instead, looking within themselves for the answers they seek. Simon kicks off this incredible introspection by depicting his inner quarrels as a “vision” that started as a “seed that is planted in his brain”.

These two stories use of snow are extremely different in so many way. Silent Snow, Secret Snow’s use of snow was to show the purity within an imaginary world while Snow’s snow was to show purity within love.

The Rise of “Snow” by author Suzanne Mantell, discusses the publishing of the book, Snow Falling on Cedars. Mantell reveals the rigorous and nerve racking process Guterson went through in order to publish his novel. In addition to the publishing of the book, Mantell examines the success of the book post-publishing, quoting Guterson and his agents. To end the article, Mantell highlights a new deal made between Guterson and the publishing imprint, Vintage.

Some readers may suggest that ‘The Snow Child’ is a simple one dimensional Gothic narrative, whilst others might argue that it is a complex allegory.

“Velvet Shoes” exhibits snow in a serene, almost angelic way. The short verses and flowing rhyme scheme help to evince a tranquil and relaxed atmosphere. Wylie uses the phrases “soundless space” and “tranquil pace” to paint the image of a calm world in which the characters bear no worries and only focus on the strikingly noiseless and radiant winter wonderland surrounding them.