The Power of Language
The story is much more direct on this topic. The Professor dominates the narration for the first half when he is in a culture dominated by French powers and capable of controlling his speech (literally and metaphorically). In the second half, he is in the hands of the Reguibat and loses all such control when his tongue is removed. From this point, the story proceeds entirely with the Professor as a background character. Only when the Professor is purchased by the Ouled Nail does his perception of language resume. The emotional climax of the story is when he sees written text for the first time in months and can hear words in his head again.
Read more about this topic: A Distant Episode
Famous quotes containing the words power and/or language:
“They [women] can use their abilities to support each other, even as they develop more effective and appropriate ways of dealing with power.... Women do not need to diminish other women ... [they] need the power to advance their own development, but they do not “need” the power to limit the development of others.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)
“There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip,
Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out
At every joint and motive of her body.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)