The quote I found the most profound in this text was the
quote, “Even the silence has a story to tell you. Just listen: Listen.” This
quote was on page 278 of the text and it’s in the chapter called “How to Listen
#7”. This haunting passage comes right after
the death of the grandfather in the text. I believe this quote is highlighting
how the silence after a tragedy such as this one, shows how much pain everyone
is in and that’s why you can hear the story it is telling. This passage
immediately reminded me of the song The Silence by the Bastilles. The songs
main chorus says:
Cause it is not enough to be dumbstruck
Can you fill the silence?
You must have the words in that head of yours
Oh, oh, can you feel the silence?
I can't take it anymore,
Cause it is not enough to be dumbstruck, oh
Can you fill the silence?
You must have the words in that head of yours
Oh, oh, can you feel the silence?
I can't take it anymore,
Cause it is not enough to be dumbstruck, oh
I believe these lyrics also highlight what the author was
trying to say in their own passage. Filling the silence is always difficult,
especially in situations around jarring life events. The rest of the song lyrics also relate to
this story as well.
For example, when the song says, “tell me a piece of your
history” it could correlate to the stories our protagonist longs to tell. When
the song says, “Now you’ve hit a wall and you’re lost for words, my dear, my
dear, now you’ve hit a wall and you hit it hard, my dear, my dear, my dear, oh
dear” that could relate to her grief over the loss of her grandfather and how
its caused her to hear the story in the silence.
Link to the Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bastille/thesilence.html
Link to the Youtube Video with lyrics: https://youtu.be/00p2FW7ZLVo
Link to the Youtube Video performance: https://youtu.be/PaOUqpS9Y6I
Hi Sam,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great song selection. I agree that the How to Listen poems were powerful throughout the text, but the last one on silence seemed particularly significant given the death of her grandfather. It also reminded me of "The Sound of Silence."
I really appreciate this song selection because of its thoughtfulness. A lot of songs are easy to choose for a scene because of the abundance of music out there, and lyrics that easily fit passages. However, I think that you really took a step back when considering what passage and song to choose. Your choice works well with the scene and it's interesting that you chose to fill silence with silence!
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