The Sound of Silence

About the story

A painter who works in silence meets a deaf cellist who hears music through his hands. Together they build an exhibition that turns sound into color and color into sound.

This guide assumes everyone has finished the story, so it discusses the ending.

Character map

• Maren Cole paints what he feels Elias
• Elias plays what she paints Maren Cole
• Maren Cole writes to him in The notebook
• Pell rents to Maren Cole
• The woman in the gray coat feels the music of Elias

Who’s who

Maren Cole · Protagonist

A painter renting the back room of the Halloran Gallery for the winter.

Elias · Love interest

A cellist, deaf since a fever at eleven, who plays by feeling the vibrations.

Pell · Gallery owner

Brisk, skeptical, and surprised by what she finds.

The notebook · Their bridge

Passed back and forth like a ball, the first language they share.

The woman in the gray coat · The audience

A visitor whose face changes when she touches the panel.

Themes to look for

• Being heard

  ‘This is what it is to be heard.’ Hearing in this story is not about ears.

• Translation between senses

  Music becomes color, and painting becomes music.

• Collaboration

  Every piece is begun by one and finished by the other.

• Assumptions

  Maren is ashamed of being surprised that a deaf man is a musician.

Discussion questions

1. Maren likes silence because it lets her ‘hear her own hands.’ How does that idea prepare us for meeting Elias?
2. Why is Maren ashamed of being surprised that Elias is a musician? What assumptions does the story challenge?
3. What changes when Maren stops painting the cello and starts painting what Elias feels?
4. When Elias plays her painting, the music is ‘no longer his. It was hers, passed through him.’ What does that mean?
5. Pell calls it a silent exhibition. Maren says there’s ‘everything for the ear.’ Who is right?
6. Maren places Elias’s hand on her heart. How does the story turn the cello scene into a declaration of love?
7. Elias had known for weeks and ‘had simply been waiting for her to hear it.’ What did she need to hear?
8. How would you design an artwork for someone who experiences the world differently than you do?

Craft corner

For writers in the group. Each term links to the writer’s glossary.

• Sensory detail: Find the passages that describe sound as touch or color. Which image stays with you?
• Symbolism: What does the notebook come to stand for over the course of the story?