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:
“Everyone who has ever built anywhere a “new heaven” first found the power thereto in his own hell.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The human face is the organic seat of beauty.... It is the register of value in development, a record of Experience, whose legitimate office is to perfect the life, a legible language to those who will study it, of the majestic mistress, the soul.”
—Eliza Farnham (1815–1864)