The Chosen: The Sound Of Silence

Silence is the complete absence of sound. Many people experience silence as a consequence, or for a lesson learned. In The Chosen, Danny Saunders is raised in silence, and the only way he communicates with his father is through Reuven Malter, the buffer of the father-son relationship. I’ve also experienced silence in the class Silence Walk. While frustrating, silence can make you open up and listen to not only your surroundings but also yourself.
In having a day of silence, my mind wandered off. I hadn’t heard anything out of the ordinary, but it was strange to not be able to speak. I often found myself thinking about things other than the activity. For example, my plans for the weekend, or what my friends were doing. I also felt that it wasn’t either positive or negative, but it was a good learning experience. In doing this activity, I also realized that this was how Danny lived his entire life with his father, not being able to communicate, and not knowing why.While I only experienced it for an hour, I couldn’t imagine the pain and confusion it caused Danny. While there are many cons to being raised in silence, a pro is, the silence caused Danny to think for himself, and have a mind of his own, without the negative input of his father.
In The Sound of Silence, the duo between Simon and Garfunkel they sing about a dream about how silence is becoming a normal thing.
Their visions of neon lights and distractions everywhere. They symbolize the distractions such as technology and it’s slowly taking over face to face communication. This relates to The Chosen because the silence between Danny and Reb Saunders becomes a habitual thing. While in the poem, Silence, it addresses recognizing the patterns of silence. The author has done this by noticing body language and actions of individuals. Both can indicate what someone will or won’t say. This relates to The Chosen because Danny is accustom to his father’s actions and his
sillence.
The reading that I could relate to most is the song because this can relate to day to day conversations. Technology is where conversations are more often taking place. While people are noticing it, they aren’t doing anything about it. In the song he states that he tries to enlighten them but no one listens. Also if people are willing to listen there are signs. Because of the technology advancement today, this is why I can relate to the Sound of Silence the most. While silence is not always looked upon as a positive thing, there can be many pros to it. In all of the readings they each give their own interpretation of silence and its impact. Before any of the activities and readings my perception of silence was much different. Now I realize that silence can be a way to find yourself and also understand what others are feeling. Silence can be seen as positive and negative, it just depends on the way a person depicts it.