Speech Sounds

49 pages • 1 hour read

Speech Sounds

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1983

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Quiz

Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Reading Check

1. Where does the story take place?

2. Where is Rye going?

3. What happens on the bus that compels Rye to flee from it?

4. What kind of uniform is the bearded man (Obsidian) wearing?

5. What has caused the language impairment from which everyone is suffering?

6. What does the bearded man have that prompts Rye to name him “Obsidian”?

7. What was Rye’s occupation before the pandemic?

8. What skill has Rye retained that Obsidian has lost?

9. How long has Rye been alone, without any meaningful human contact?

10. Who darts in front of Obsidian’s car?

11. How does the man kill Obsidian?

12. What does Rye plan to do with Obsidian’s body?

13. What can the children do that surprises Rye?

14. Where does Rye take the children?

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Rye anticipate that the situation on the bus will escalate out of control?

A) Most of the passengers are drunk.

B) The inability to speak fuels frustrations.

C) The poor road conditions agitate everyone.

D) Several passengers are brandishing guns.

2. Why does Rye get into the bearded man’s car, despite the potential risk involved?

A) She has no other means of transportation.

B) She trusts him because he’s a police officer.

C) She knows him from her neighborhood.

D) She feels reassured when he takes off his gun.

3. What does Rye consider “her most serious impairment”?

A) her memory loss

B) her loss of reading and writing

C) her loss of speech

D) her loss of trust in others

4. Right after Obsidian elicits Rye’s memories of her children, what does the narrative disclose about her feelings regarding “the children growing up now”?

A) They give her hope.

B) She feels jealousy about them.

C) She feels pity for them.

D) She is frightened by them.

5. In what way does Obsidian’s name symbolize his character?

A) He has a dark side.

B) He has a volcanic-like temper.

C) He is cold-hearted.

D) He has solid principles.

6. Of the following, which is the main reason that Rye wants Obsidian to live with her?

A) He makes her feel she’s not alone.

B) He makes her feel young again.

C) He will make a good father to her children.

D) He can help her maintain her garden and house.

7. Why do the dead woman’s children make Rye hopeful?

A) They remind her of her own children.

B) They make her forget about her painful past.

C) They make her think the very young are not impaired.

D) They have quickly adapted to life without language.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is it only by “a piece of luck” that Rye found a bus to take when she set out on her journey?

2. Why is it significant to Rye that the bearded man points with his left hand?

3. What is the fundamental reason that “law and order were nothing,” or that law and order no longer exist?

4. After Obsidian shows Rye the map, why does she suddenly feel a powerful urge to kill him?

5. Why does Obsidian point to his badge before he finally agrees to live with Rye?

6. Why do those who can speak try to hide their ability from others?

7. How does Rye’s brief time with Obsidian influence her ultimate decision about what she will do with the dead woman’s children?

Quizzes – Answer Key

Reading Check

1. Los Angeles

2. to Pasadena to find her brother

3. a fight erupts between some men

4. a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) uniform

5. a global virus

6. a pendant with a black stone

7. history professor and freelance writer

8. the ability to speak

9. three years

10. a woman running from a man

11. He shoots Obsidian with his own gun.

12. bury it in her yard

13. speak

14. home

Multiple Choice

1. B

2. D

3. B

4. C

5. D

6. A

7. C

Short-Answer Response

1. Following a global pandemic, society’s infrastructure and public systems have completely fallen apart. The transportation system is no exception. It is extremely difficult to obtain gasoline; bus transport depends on enterprising individuals; and “cars that still ran were as likely to be used as weapons as they were to serve as transportation.”

2. For reasons unknown, the virus tended to impair right-handed individuals more severely than left-handed individuals.

3. The virus impaired everyone’s ability to communicate with words, albeit to different degrees and in different ways. Because people can no longer communicate with one another, it is not possible to sustain organization, and there is no longer any type of “large organization, governmental or private. There were neighborhood patrols and armed individuals. That was all.”

4. While Rye looks at the map with Obsidian, she realizes he can read. She has lost the ability to read or write due to the virus, and, as a history scholar, this is “her most serious impairment.” Her jealousy over Obsidian’s literacy causes her to feel “sick to her stomach with hatred, frustration,” and she feels the urge to use her gun on him, much as the men on the bus resorted to violence to relieve their frustration.

5. Obsidian points to his badge to let Rye know his top priority is helping and protecting others. If he agrees to live with her, he will continue to risk his own safety to help others whenever he can. Rye understands Obsidian’s intentions and thinks, “If playing cops and robbers was his only insanity, let him play. She would take him, uniform and all.”

6. Although the virus seriously impaired everyone’s ability to use language, it did not impair everyone equally. Thus, in addition to the frustrations that attend relentless communication struggles, feelings of jealousy and resentment drive those who are less impaired to become violent towards those who seem superior. As the narrative states, “Such ‘superiority’ was frequently punished by beatings, even death.” Those who can speak hide their ability for fear of becoming targets of violence.

7. Rye’s first impulse is to leave the children on their own, because “they were old enough to scavenge,” and “she did not need a stranger’s children who would grow up to be hairless chimps.” Obsidian responded to the grief in the world by trying to protect those who were frightened and vulnerable. When Rye looks back at the children, she sees their fear, and “perhaps it was their fear that reached her finally.” Rye decides to protect them, as Obsidian would have done, allowing herself to feel compassion for them.