Interpretive Essay of Cry Silence by Fredric Brown

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Cry Silence If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? In the story “Cry Silence” by Fredric Brown, this age-old riddle is used to analyze a murder. At the beginning of this story a nameless individual, the narrator, at a railroad depot decides to enter a conversation about a riddle to which he believes to know the answer. When it is revealed that the purpose of the riddle was to compare the cruel torture and murder of two people, one his wife, the other a field hand, committed by the large man who he had sat next to, his confidence in knowing the answer to the riddle soon fades. After the long story ended with a lot of contemplation on whether the man was guilty or innocent, Bill Meyers, the possible murderer, coincidentally checks his watch the second the clock at the steeple strikes the hour. The author of this story created the perfect murder through a series of coincidences. In “Cry Silence,” Brown uses foreshadowing, setting, description, dialogue and the evaluation of coincidence to allow for multiple interpretations. Starting the story at dusk, when light and good fades as darkness and evil takes over, is the foreshadowing of the story to come. The smokehouse, for instance, is used as a dark coffin in which to condemn two people to death. Another use of foreshadowing in this story that is used throughout has to do with the use of time. The multitude of clocks at the beginning of the story shows the importance of events to come and their timing. Even the train station itself is the epitome of time and time management. This shows that this story isn’t about an unfortunate situation, but that of evil and treachery. The author’s choice of using a smokehouse in the middle of the farmer’s land as the place of the murder is also the perfect setting to use as a metaphor, in regards to the riddle of a tree falling

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