Kelly, Logan

A World Without Sound
by Logan Kelly

Grade 8
Prompt Code: E8A
IST: Kiwi Lotati
Evaluator: Tory
(read the Evaluator's Comment and Connections)

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            To me, a world without sound would be very hard to adapt to. Most of my life needs sound, for things like: doing what my mom says, listening to music, hearing my pets if they want to go outside and, definitely, waking up. Those are the sounds I need; what about the sounds that I take for granted? What would my world be like without hearing it? Although I have never tried walking around for an hour with ear plugs, it is how I learned the answer to those questions.
            Waking up has always been hard for me. With no sound, it will be impossible without help. So a post-it for mom to shake me awake should do the trick. After a rude awakening I see that it is a beautiful morning but there are no birds singing, so it may as well be the middle of the night. I go downstairs to have some cereal. The dogs greet me in a silent chorus looking crazy without sound coming out of their mouths. I pour some Rice Crispies into a bowl and pour in some milk. There's no snap, crackle, pop. The cereal (and my day) is seeming very bland. So I really try to focus on taste: the milk is unusually good, almost like cream. I can only feel the crunch and little bits poke my mouth. The interesting thing is I can feel the sound; it reverberates in my head.
            Looking out at the ocean I see the waves break soundlessly like molten metal. I never really noticed or appreciated that before. My mom and sister say something to me, then remember my school paper and start gesturing wildly. It is like I am in a sound proof room, sort of cool and really peaceful. My mom hands me three post-its—they still talk too much even in note form! They are going on errands and I have to watch the pets. So I wave as I turn on the computer—no boot-up noise but I can see the pixels come alive. I go on the internet for some video game news. A new game has just been released at the Tokyo game show. The game looks AWESOME, but it is awful with no audio. I have to really look at the screen to notice a lot of what I would normally understand through sound. Then the kitten runs past my screen with a feather in her mouth. Yikes, it's one of my bird's tail feathers! I look at the cage and he is flapping wildly after being harassed by the kitten. Usually I hear him shriek and chase the kitten away. I am trying to comfort the bird when suddenly I smell something bad. The dogs are looking at me funny so I let them out, oops, not soon enough, I guess. One of them has left me a present by the back door. If I could have heard them asking to go out, this never would have happened. I'm really starting to miss hearing.
            Playing my guitar would be no fun, so I decide to play some video games out of boredom. That gets boring too when I get hit a ton of times because I can't hear anything coming at me. Video game audio is really important. Squinting so hard at the screen has made me tired. I then realize that I have been playing for 30 minutes and I have not let the dogs in. I storm downstairs and see them taking turns leaping at the door. Opening the door, I dodge the stampede of bark-less dogs. I then apologize to all the dogs, which is pointless because even though they still can hear, they totally don't understand. I feel better until I spot our neighbor coming up the path shaking his fist. With my new super sight I can see the veins popping out of his neck—not a good sign. I guess the dogs had been barking the whole time. Then I smell bubble gum. A moment later my sister appears from around the house with a huge bubble coming out of her mouth. Wow, I have developed super smelling abilities! For once I am glad to see her, because it means now my mom can deal with the neighbor. Besides, my hour is up so I can remove my earplugs. Oh my gosh, our neighbor is making more noise than the dogs ever could!
            I then realize that it would be very boring for me to live a life without sound. Noiseless pets, games and Rice Crispies would be no fun, and I took that for granted. I would miss not being able to talk to my mom or tease my sister. I have learned to appreciate my sense of hearing. Even though I did manage to use my other senses to help me survive, it is no substitute for good old sounds! I wonder though; what would happen if sound did not even exist? That would be horrifying, but maybe a good topic for a science paper!

Writing Program Evaluator Tory comments:

Logan’s expository essay uses great sensory details, original description, and humor to reveal the action of his experience of living an hour without sound. Through his use of descriptive and figurative language, such as “the dogs greet me in silent chorus,” or “the waves break soundlessly like molten metal,” Logan conveys his experience for the reader in vivid terms. Chronological organization and specific details (such as “no boot-up noise” on the computer) allow the reader to easily follow the story as well as picture precisely what is happening in it. Logan chooses to begin the essay with the start of his day—waking up—something that would certainly be hard to do without sound, and something that many hearing people most likely take for granted. This opening immediately engages the reader, and soon the essay is off and running as the soundless hour becomes more and more chaotic—from bland cereal to barking dogs to angry neighbors. This building action makes the essay exciting and interesting to read, and is enhanced by Logan’s humorous descriptions of various scenes. The essay concludes by acknowledging that he once took the sounds around him for granted—a sophisticated and carefully considered observation.

Connections:

*To read other takes on prompt E8A, read Amanda Rubio's poem "I am, I am!" and Katherine Coleman's essay "My World is Probably Different" in Illuminations, the 2005-2006 Gorman Anthology.

*Logan's essay fits the expository mode because of its great use of detail. It also uses the reflective narrative mode, as it tells the story of Logan's experience without sound, and then reflects on that experience. To think more about how Logan's essay uses techniques of both the expository and narrative modes, read the descriptions of each mode in the Student Guidelines.

*Logan's paper is written from a perspective of someone who normally lives in a world filled with sound. Research Deaf Culture and consider how a Deaf person's experience of a world without sound is probably different from Logan's experience.

*In the last sentence of his concluding paragraph, Logan posits an interesting question: "what would happen if sound did not even exist?" How would you answer that question?