Silence

ENG 101
Prof. Dowling
Lorita Zhen Chen
Assigned Topic
4/25/07


There are many quotes to describe “silence”. Most of them are positive and are related to wisdom. For example, “speech is silver, silence is golden”, and “silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.” Also, Buddhism teaches silence can make a person peaceful. However, I find that silence sometimes expresses depression. In other words, to speak out is another type of wisdom as well.

I remember my grandfather was a taciturn person when he was alive. Unlike other elders, my grandfather rarely told us stories about his youth. Nevertheless, grandpa was a hardworking person. Even in his late years, he could not bear to stay at home doing nothing. Usually, he liked to make some furniture or to cook for us, and his cooking was magnificent. While we asked him where learned the cooking, his countenance was woeful, and he tried to avoid answering us. A long time after, we heard from grandma about grandpa’s story. She said, formerly, grandpa was born to a very rich family. Our great-grandfather owned a big restaurant. During the Cultural Revolution in China, great-grandfather’s restaurant was ruined. The repression hit my great-grandfather so hard. Because of their sadness, great-grandpa and his wife passed away before long. My grandfather lost his parents when he was a teenager, so his personality totally changed after then.

In my impression, grandpa hardly spoke to others. He was a silent person. Even when he had conflicts with people, he did not argue with them or communicate with them to solve the problem. Instead, grandpa came home with wrath. He refused to talk to us about what had happened. In my eyes, grandpa was an unhappy and inactive person. Even when grandpa and grandma faced some problems of family, always, grandpa made the decisions but did not tell grandma the reasons. Sometimes, my grandma was very frustrated to be married to a man liked my grandpa. Now I totally understand her. In grandma’s place, grandpa’s personality sometimes hurt her feelings. Our family could keep the peace and be happy because grandma used a lot of patience with grandpa. So in our eyes, grandma was a positive person, but grandpa was a negative person.

In modern society, silence is not good for many things. For example, to speak out one’s feelings makes a relationship work better than to keep silent or to accommodate when a conflict appears; to say what a person knows about in a professional field shows the person’s talent and ability. Thus, it often helps the person to get more opportunities when he speaks than to keep silent. In philosophy, silence is wisdom, but in certain situations, to express oneself appropriately is also wise.