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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
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    The literary devices used in the story is personification and parallelism with auditory imagery. Read summary of The Sound Machine

    The literary devices used in the story is personification and parallelism with auditory imagery.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder

    According to Klausner, the human ear actually can’t hear everything. Any sounds that are so low-pitched or so high-pitched that one can’t hear it at all whereas a dog can. And up the scale, higher than the vibration of that a whistle, there is another vibration and it keeps going on, an endless succRead more

    According to Klausner, the human ear actually can’t hear everything. Any sounds that are so low-pitched or so high-pitched that one can’t hear it at all whereas a dog can. And up the scale, higher than the vibration of that a whistle, there is another vibration and it keeps going on, an endless succession of vibrations as far as the numbers go, which is infinity. There is a whole world of sound about human all the time that we cannot hear. It is possible that up there in those high-pitched inaudible regions there is a new exciting music being made, with subtle harmonies and fierce grinding discords, powerful enough to drive humans mad if they could hear it. So he has made a machine that can prove him the existence of many odd inaudible sounds. The machine has been designed to pick up sound vibrations that are too high-pitched for reception by the human ear and to convert them to a scale of audible tones.

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    Nishtha Tripathy

    The doctor is intrigued by a black box which was the size of a coffin and almost three feet long. The top of the box was open and displayed the numerous colorful wares and silver tubes inside it. The sheer complexity of the box intrigued the doctor to know more about it. To add to the Doctor's curioRead more

    The doctor is intrigued by a black box which was the size of a coffin and almost three feet long. The top of the box was open and displayed the numerous colorful wares and silver tubes inside it. The sheer complexity of the box intrigued the doctor to know more about it. To add to the Doctor’s curiosity was his strange patient, who was caught up so excitedly with the box that he behaved rather strangely.

    His deft handling of the innards of the box, his enthusiasm, and his rapt attention had made the doctor inquisitive about what he was up to. The patient’s attempt was to create a sound machine that would allow humans to hear the high-pitched voices otherwise inaudible to the human ear. The “strange patient” offered to satisfy the curious mind of the doctor by explaining the entire theory behind his innovation of the sound machine.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
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    “The Sound Machine”, written by Roald Dahl talked about the unhealthy obsession of an amateur scientist, Klausner and his invention, the titular sound machine. According to Klausner, there were many odd inaudible sounds which cannot be heard by humans but using his machine, these sounds can be conveRead more

    “The Sound Machine”, written by Roald Dahl talked about the unhealthy obsession of an amateur scientist, Klausner and his invention, the titular sound machine. According to Klausner, there were many odd inaudible sounds which cannot be heard by humans but using his machine, these sounds can be converted to audible sounds. He informed Doctor Scott about this, who later said would catch up with him. He tried the sound machine in his garden and heard a piercing cry through it which the plants were making when they were being cut by Klausner’s neighbor, Mrs Saunders. That proved to him that even plants had emotions like humans. They too felt pain. It was a frightening noise that came just as the stem of a plant was cut. After Mrs Saunders went inside, Klausner tried this experiment once again by pulling out a daisy. He heard a faint crying noise. After repeating the process he came to realize that the cry wasn’t of pain but just a cry, a neutral, stony cry. It seemed to be an emotionless note, an emotion which humans were not aware of. The next day, Klausner went to the park and struck a tree’s trunk with an axe and heard the same piercing cry. He hurriedly went back home and called the doctor to test his theory. However things go wrong after this point. To make the doctor hear the sound, Klausner struck the tree again and a big branch from the tree crashed down and destroyed the sound machine. The doctor kept on saying that he hadn’t heard any sound and after some time, Klausner asked the doctor to apply iodine on the wound in the tree’s trunk where he had struck it. The doctor then told Klausner that he needed some change in life and took him back home.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
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    The story talks about the dark side of the scientific advancements and how in-turn that is harming the nature. To test that nature, too, has feelings and needs to be protected, extreme actions are taken for that, as seen through the obsession of Klausner who keeps pulling out daisies and striking trRead more

    The story talks about the dark side of the scientific advancements and how in-turn that is harming the nature. To test that nature, too, has feelings and needs to be protected, extreme actions are taken for that, as seen through the obsession of Klausner who keeps pulling out daisies and striking tree trunks to prove his theory. Nature needs to be appreciated and taken care of as otherwise it will get destroyed and then no matter how much “iodine” is applied on it, it won’t heal.

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder

    The sound machine, made by Klausner, was actually a black box about three feet long, the shape of a child’s coffin. Klausner had created the sound machine to prove himself the existence of many odd inaudible sounds. The machine was designed to pick up sound vibrations that were too high-pitched forRead more

    The sound machine, made by Klausner, was actually a black box about three feet long, the shape of a child’s coffin. Klausner had created the sound machine to prove himself the existence of many odd inaudible sounds. The machine was designed to pick up sound vibrations that were too high-pitched for reception by the human ear, and to convert them to a scale of audible tones.

    Read summary of The Sound Machine

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
    This answer was edited.

    Through this story, Roald Dahl, talks about the dark side of the scientific advancements and how in-turn that is harming the nature. To test that nature, too, has feelings and needs to be protected, extreme actions are taken for that, as seen through the obsession of Klausner who keeps pulling out dRead more

    Through this story, Roald Dahl, talks about the dark side of the scientific advancements and how in-turn that is harming the nature. To test that nature, too, has feelings and needs to be protected, extreme actions are taken for that, as seen through the obsession of Klausner who keeps pulling out daisies and striking tree trunks to prove his theory. Nature needs to be appreciated and taken care of as otherwise it will get destroyed and then no matter how much “iodine” is applied on it, it won’t heal.

    Read summary of The Sound Machine

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
    This answer was edited.

    The themes of the story are obsession on Klausner’s part, instability, fear and dedication and nature versus science or the dark side of scientific advancement. Read summary of The Sound Machine

    The themes of the story are obsession on Klausner’s part, instability, fear and dedication and nature versus science or the dark side of scientific advancement.

    Read summary of The Sound Machine

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  1. Amelia mazumder
    Amelia mazumder
    This answer was edited.

    Klausner took the sound machine to the park to test his hypothesis whether plants can express emotions in their own way or not. He put the earphones on his head and switched on the machine. He listened for a moment to the faint familiar humming sound; then he picked up the axe, took a stance with hiRead more

    Klausner took the sound machine to the park to test his hypothesis whether plants can express emotions in their own way or not.

    He put the earphones on his head and switched on the machine. He listened for a moment to the faint familiar humming sound; then he picked up the axe, took a stance with his legs wide apart and swung the axe as hard as he could at the base of the tree trunk. The blade cut deep into the wood and stuck there and at the instant impact he heard a most extraordinary noise in the earphones. It was a new noise, unlike any he had heard- a harsh, noteless, enormous noise, a growling, low pitched, screaming sound, not quick and short like the noise of the roses. He tried his experiment there and came to the conclusion that his hypothesis might be true.

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