"We feel safer with a madman who speaks than with one who cannot open his mouth", stated the French philosopher EM Cioran. Although seemingly counterintuitive, this statement is undoubtedly true and invites us to ask ourselves what is so powerful about silence. Silence is, by definition, simply the absence of sound. How can an absence be so impressive? The answer lies in its ability to suffocate, overwhelm and control. Because it is undefined, silence invites the imagination to run its course, thus making it profoundly intimidating and controlling. This fact has often been used as a means of control. This theory is clearly seen in both Toni Morrison's Beloved and Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, where different cultures and individuals use silence as a means of power, control and manipulation. However, although it is the less impressive of the two, language is by no means less powerful than silence. In response to the threat of silence, an urgent need for language and expression arises. As seen in both Beloved and The Woman Warrior, the power of language always prevails; whether through writing, telling stories, or simply allowing memories to present themselves, language always finds a way to break the silence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In Beloved, silence is used by whites as a tool to suppress blacks both directly and indirectly. Morrison immediately introduces this concept with his dedication to the "60 million and more" blacks killed in slavery. This is Morrison's way of honoring those people who have been faced with absolute silence - death - and as a result are unable to tell their story. Yet even black survivors struggled with the silence. They were denied the opportunity to learn to write and were given no say in their fate or that of their families. They were also suffocated in a more symbolic way, through the brutal and senseless treatment they endured. They have been completely stripped of their humanity, forced to believe they are worthless, and treated as less than animals. This dehumanization not only led to the loss of a personal voice, but also lastingly damaged slaves' internal ability to find expression for their pain. In order to continue living as functional human beings after slavery, they needed to silence their memories and hide them from others and often from themselves. Sethe, for example, constantly struggles to silence her memories of the pain of slavery, often by working or distracting herself. When the occasional memory resurfaces, he finds himself unable to deal with the emotions that accompany it. In one of these cases, "he had to do something with his hands because he was remembering something he had forgotten he knew. Something inwardly shameful... had slipped into a crack in his mind" (Morrison 73). This not only shows the crippling effects of their mistreatment, but also shows the shame that complements these horrible memories. To combat these emotions, Sethe forces them back into the recesses of her mind, often by distracting herself. His motto is: "nothing better than this to begin the serious daily work of rejecting the past" (ibid 86). In the case of Paul D, he keeps his memories "in that tobacco box buried in his chest where once there was a red heart. Its lid had rusted" (ibid, 86). Even Denver, affected by the problems of slavery only by inheritance, experiences this repression, this silence of painful memories or thoughts. When he hears something about thepast of his family that he "could not bear to hear" (ibid, 122), "he can no longer hear... anything from then on. For two years he walked in a silence too solid to be penetrated" (ibid., 121). This is a rather extreme case, manifesting itself with physical symptoms, but silence in any form throughout the novel is indicative of the horrible damage caused by slavery. Whether self-inflicted or not, this silence is not a solution; it only prolongs the pain. This repression cannot last long, because facing this silence is the only way former slaves can move forward with their lives. While ultimately beneficial, this is not an easy process. As Amy says, “It will hurt, now… anything dead that comes back to life hurts” (ibid, 42). The first problem, dehumanization (the direct result of the destruction of slavery), is a difficult problem, but more accessible than repressed memories. Baby Suggs aims to address this first problem by organizing meetings that promote the expression of humanity, individualization and self-love. She tells them, "[white people] are not in love with your mouth... what you say out of it they won't pay attention to. What you shout they don't hear... you must love it" (ibid., 104). In response, a huge emotional outburst ensues, with "children laughing, men dancing, women crying, and then it all blurs together" (ibid, 103). The release of such pent-up pain is truly powerful. For Sethe, Paul D, and Denver, their release is catalyzed by the presence of Beloved, the human embodiment of repressed memories who are now not only resurfacing, but taking on a physical presence in their lives. His presence forces them to confront the past, each in a different way. For example, when Paul D has sex with Beloved, he finds that "rust flakes...fell off the seams of his tobacco box. So when the lid gave way he didn't notice" (ibid, 137). . For Denver, Beloved is a reason to tell stories. They sit together and "Denver spoke, Beloved listened, and the two did their best to create what really happened" (ibid, 92). This is therapeutic for Denver, who had to grow up in a house of silence and repression, given only fragments of stories she desperately clings to. For Sethe, Beloved's mere presence is enough to initiate catharsis. For everyone, she reminds us that memories cannot – and must not – be suffocated forever. The silence in Woman Warrior is much less harmful, but it is still a very difficult subject for those bound by its restrictions. Although with less harmful intentions than those seen in Beloved, this silence similarly seeks to control the culture and traditions of a specific society. Efforts are aimed at children, women and transgressors, all those who threaten the continuation of traditional culture. By controlling what people say (or don't say), the Chinese are able to ensure that people continue to think, act, and feel the way tradition dictates they should. Especially in a time when their culture is in danger of disintegrating (in the face of immigration to the United States), being selective about what is said allows only selected messages to be conveyed. This is exemplified in the story of the "nameless woman", an aunt who is rejected by her family and who later takes her own life (and that of her newborn child). The first thing Maxine is told about this woman is "you mustn't tell anyone... let's say your father all has brothers because it's as if she was never born" (Kingston, 3). By not allowing anyone to say their name or acknowledge their presence, they suppress the parts of their memories that are notthey agree with the common goal of culture: an exercise in selective memory taken too far. Silence is especially valued in girls and boys, as seen when Brave Orchid goes to the market to buy a slave girl as a nurse, and readers see that only quiet girls are valued. Furthermore, when Moon Orchid goes to live with Brave Orchid and her family, she is amazed at how "unkind ['non-traditional' in Chinese] her children were" (ibid, 121). Children cannot speak only when spoken to, and speak only at the right volume, and for this reason Moon Orchid considers them abominable. Children, however, cannot learn these things, because no one vocalizes the rules or traditions; they are simply expected to know them. The fact that adults deny this type of communication to children only worsens the anxiety that children feel about not being able to integrate. They don't know how to fit into American culture, because no one tells them how. They don't know how to fit into Chinese culture, because no one tells them how. And they certainly can't figure out how to be Chinese-American, because no one even knows how. Children also get lost when it comes to tradition. Maxine observes: "even good things are unspeakable... we children had to deduce holidays... adults get angry, evasive and will shut you up if you ask them" (ibid, 185). Maxine even insists that her mother cut out her tongue when she was a child to keep her quiet. But not for this reason, in fact, this happened: he remained completely silent for three years. She didn't really understand her silence or the reasons for it, but she could understand that "the other Chinese girls didn't talk either, so [she] knew that the silence had to do with being a Chinese girl" (ibid, 166) . Children's difficulty with language is one of the many unfortunate byproducts of their culture's control over what is said and what is not said. As Maxine notes, "you can't even trust your voice to the Chinese; they want to capture your voice for their use. They want to fix your language to speak for them" (ibid, 169). Although it is most clearly expressed in children, both children and adults struggle to find a way to maintain their voice in a culture that wants to "capture" them. As has been demonstrated, the suppression of memories is never complete, never permanent and never a solution; language and expression always show themselves, aggressively or subtly. In The Woman Warrior, readers discover that methods for doing so vary from telling stories (called "discursive stories") to projecting onto others and resulting bullying. Brave Orchid, Moon Orchid, and finally Maxine all take the former route by using these "conversation stories" as selective messages chosen to reflect specific things they cannot explicitly say. "White Tigers" is a story about female strength, about finding a balance between a woman's filial and social duties and her personal goals. These things can never be passed on outwardly from mother to daughter in Chinese society, but through elaborate stories Brave Orchid is able to pass this wisdom on to Maxine. Likewise, the story of Brave Orchid's past as a respected doctor serves to subtly inspire hope in Maxine, while teaching her that while she has goals, she also has duties to perform (as seen in Brave Orchid's choice to leave this life ). for a more unstable one in America, with his family). This is women's disguised way of breaking the silence, of ensuring the psychological and emotional strength of future female generations. Maxine doesn't notice it right away, even though she seems to have always been drawn to stories and storytelling. Instead, Maxine's initial reaction to silence.