Question

Discuss the short story , The Sound Machine by Roald Dahl hovers between illusion and reality​

Answer 1

In the story "The Sound Machine written by Roald Dahl", Illusion versus Reality is the central theme that runs throughout the story.

• The protagonist of the story whose name is Klausner is a crazy, "dreamy" and "distracted" individual, who is tormented by sounds as he.

• He speculated that there are a number of high pitched sounds that are inaudible to the human ear so he wanted to verify this theory that these inaudible sounds can be caught by using a sound machine. So he invented the sound machine for converting these inaudible high pitched sound into audible sounds.

• Later, in the story, he took his machine MTO a park, early morning. He initially tried to assure himself of the truth of his theory. He slam the trunk of a beech tree with an axe and heard a new sound which was a harsh, tremendous noise, a growling, low - pitched screaming sound that seemed like a sob.

• He then called Dr Scott for proving his theory. However, as he tried to imitate the experiment again, slamming the trunk of the tree for the second time, a branch of the tree fell on his machine

Thus, the sound machine, which could have proved Klausner's theory was devastated. This is symbolic of the fact that Klausner was not able to prove his theory, and none except Klausner could ever hear the sound of plants. Therefore it might have been a figment of his illusion.

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