Misinterpreted Muteness

Since I wasn’t able to participate in the silence activity in class on Thursday, I thought I’d share my thoughts about it here.

Silence is solitary, personal; it reflects inner turmoil, past musings, incessant thoughts.

Inside that silence, there is power. Power to keep truths guarded and personal, or to refrain from conflict. There is also repression (but this is only perceived by others). In choosing not to express ideas, feelings, memories, stories, silence becomes what another interprets.

Inside that power is manipulation. The Silenced could be misinterpreted because their silence does not divulge their intentions, actions, thoughts, etc.

For Eva, I think her silence is stifling. She is a product of what people make of her. She has had no claim in who she is, for she relies on other’s mistaking the way she looks at them, the way she presents herself. I feel as though she has a childlike way of not speaking. She lacks self-awareness, and this prevents her from realizing early on how her self-presentation is being misconstrued. If she had known earlier how others were seeing her, before the recurrent abuse started, she then could’ve tailored herself to not be what was wasn’t an adolescent. It’s after years of abuse that she conforms to what others think of her. She assumes that identity as her own. Instead she just kept quiet. But, at the same time, she is almost passively defiant because when she speaks, it is usually to say, “Naw.” She has the power, but does not externalize it, never loud enough for her to be heard.