Silence as a Voice for the Oppressed in The Pure and the Impure and The Wild Side Audrey Roclore College

The exploration of how our language (or lack thereof) can impact our perceptions of ourselves and one another has been extremely prevalent throughout a variety of literary works. Silence’s interaction with individual characters impacts each of them very differently, either condemning them to an assigned sexuality or societal role, or freeing them from the condemnation that they would usually face. In all ways, silence acts as the platform for open, honest discourse due to its separation from the biases of language. Colette breaks her own silence in order to free herself from the societally expected role of a doting wife, and in order to become the famous writer that she has been concealing to benefit her husband. Contrarily, Stephanie from Wild Side uses silence as a method of protecting herself from the judgement of her family and society. The main difference between Colette and Stephanie’s implementation of silence is the atmosphere of societal expectations that differs for each of them.

Stephanie is a transgender prostitute who is part of a throuple with her partners Djamel and Mikhail. All of this would serve to ostracize her from mainstream society, however, as the viewer comes to find, all of these things are kept...