MA129

Name: Mst. Kshitij Jha

Subject: English Literature
Index No. : 038

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 CERTIFICATE

This project work entered has been

satisfactorily presented by
Mst. Kshitij studying in
N. L. Dalmia High School, Mira Road
(East), during the academic year 2020-
2021.

Class: XII Div: A (ISC)

Index No.:038

Teacher’s Signature Principal’s Signature

_________________ _________________

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 INDEX
Sr. No. Contents

1 Cover Page (Representative Image)

2 Acknowledgement
3 Text (Play/ Prose/ Poem) and Title
4 ‘The reason I chose this topic…’
5 Introduction
6 Body
7 Conclusion
8 Learning Outcome
9 Bibliography

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 Cover Page

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 Acknowledgement
I would like to express my gratitude to my English Literature teacher,
Miss Leena Kadam, for her guidance and steadfast support in
assisting me with this project.

I also wish to extend my heartfelt thankfulness to the CEO and

Principal of N. L. Dalmia High School, Seema Saini Ma’am for
providing me with the opportunity to present this project. The deep
study and research whilst the preparation of this project has
unfolded new learnings to me.

I outspread my gratefulness to my parents and my friends, who

constructively helped me finalise this project, keeping to the
deadline.

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 Text - Echoes
Title – Character Analysis of Klausner from
“The Sound Machine”

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The reason I chose this topic…
The profession of a scientist is the only profession I find appealing and I aspire to be
a Scientist. Klausner is a scientist and I can highly relate to the character. Moreover
I believe that the manner of portrayal of scientists in movies, television and novels is
both prejudiced and
inaccurate. A scientist is
always depicted in today’s
world as a highly unsocial
nerd with long, curly,
tangled and uncombed
hairs in white coat, who is
shown either mixing
colourful chemicals in test
tubes or scribbling highly
incomprehensible
mathematical equations on
a blackboard. I find it
highly unfortunate that the
adjective ‘mad’ is often
used with the word
‘scientist’ in today’s world. Curiosity of a scientist to know about nature is often
depicted as madness. I through this character analysis want to break the prejudiced
depiction of Scientists.
I can not only relate with the character but I can also relate to the obsession of a
Scientist which has been described in the story. Klausner in the story had an
obsession for sounds. I also started feeling the obsession when I reached my 8th
standard and developed interest in the field of theoretical physics. When a scientist
has an obsession for something, he cannot invest himself in anything else than the
study of the field of his interest. Unraveling the mysteries of nature is of the greatest
pleasure to a scientist. The story also talks about conservation of environment and I
strongly believe that conservation of environment is more necessary in today’s
situation than industrial, economic or scientific development. Money and
conveniences are insignificant without our lives.

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 Introduction
The Sound Machine is a famous short story by Roald Dahl which was first published
on September 17, 1949 in the American weekly magazine New Yorker. Roald Dahl
(13 September 1916 to 23 November 1990) was a famous British Novelist, short
story writer, poet and screenwriter in English Language. Interestingly he was also a
very competent wartime fighter pilot in the Royal British Air Force and fought for the
Allied Powers in the Second world war. Dahl's short stories are known for their
unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, macabre,
often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child
characters. His children's books champion the kindhearted and feature an
underlying warm sentiment. His famous works for children include James and the
Giant Peach, Charlie and the chocolate factory, Matilda and The Witches.

The Sound Machine is a story which is a mix of science fiction and environment
concern. The protagonist of the story is an amateur scientist named Klausner. The
story talks about the attempts of Klasner to invent a device which can be used to
detect sounds inaudible to the human ears due to either their extremely low or
extremely high frequencies. Klausner using his machine hears to various sounds
including the high pitched shrill voice emitted by plants when they are hurt. Klausner
tries to share his discovery with Dr. Scott his physician but fails to do so when a
branch of tree falls on the machine and the machine breaks and leaves the readers
on a cliff hanger. The story tries to convey to us the fact that plants too are living and
one must not hurt them.

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 Body
Klausner the protagonist of “The Sound Machine” is an amateur scientist. He has
been described by the writer Roald Dahl as a small frail man who is nervous and
twitchy. His large head was always inclined toward his left shoulder giving anyone
who sees him the impression that his neck was not strong enough to support his
head rigidly. His face was smooth pale, almost white. He possessed pale grey eyes
which blinked and peered from behind a pair of steel spectacles. His eyes were
bewildered, unfocussed and remote. He always wore a nervous, dreamy and
distracted expression on his face. Dr Scott in the story tells that when one saw him
it seemed that his mind was far away from his body. This implies that he was always
deeply lost in his thoughts, thinking about various types of sounds and methods of
detecting them and converting them into audible waveforms.

Klausner was obsessed with sounds. He had discovered that there were many
sounds which were inaudible to human years. These inaudible sounds had either a
very high frequency or a very low frequency which made them imperceptible .Dr.
Scott in the story tells that due to his obsession for sounds, Klausner hides himself
in the wooden shed every evening and starts working with the various components
kept on his workbench trying to invent a machine which resembles a radio with
headphones attached to it that can make these inaudible sounds perceptible.
Klausner’s obsession for these inaudible sounds is portrayed by his expressions
while working on the machine. Klausner’s fingers keep working swiftly deftly and
incessantly in the box of the machine and his mouth keeps on twisting into what the
author describes as “curious shapes”. The obsession for sounds in him gives rise to
immense concentration which is visible in the features of his visage which twist and
turn into various expressions while he works on the machine. His mutters to himself
in a voice which is breathless and has an air of strong urgency. His tone of speaking
shows a feeling of triumph and suppressed excitement. When Klausner explains to
Dr. Scott about the Sound machine, his tone has the impatience of a child talking

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about his new toy. All this points to his immense obsession for sounds. He has the
same obsession in him which a sportsman has for sports, a chef has for his dishes
and a singer has for songs.

Klausner is not only obsessed with the study of sounds but possesses immense
scientific knowledge on the subject of his interest. He apart from knowledge also has
pedagogical skills to explain even a layman about his field of study as he does with
Dr. Scott. He begins his explanation by stating that what he is going to explain is not
complicated which is what every ideal teacher does before teaching to make his/her
student believe that he can understand a topic. He very well explains how his
machine works with example of a bat and musical notes. This shows that Klausner
has a great knowledge of sounds as only then he can provide a satisfactory
explanation to Dr. Scott.

Klausner is also blessed with the quality of feeling empathy, a quality which has
utmost importance in human life but is also the rarest quality. If there is one feeling
which can solve all the conflicts present in today’s world it is empathy. Klausner’s
high level of empathy is can be seen in various instances throughout the story.
When he tests his machine in the story for the first time, he hears the shrill shriek of
a rose plant in his neighbor, Mrs. Saunders Garden which was caused by Mrs.
Saunders cutting the stem of the rose plant with scissors. He later in the story
apologizes from an inanimate tree for having struck it with an axe. He after his failed
demonstration of his invention to Dr. Scott asks Dr. Scott to stitch the wound of the
tree caused by the blow of the axe delivered to the tree by him. Dr. Scott calls
Klausner silly. Klausner feels the immense pain the tree is in and threateningly grips
the handle of the axe and asks Dr. Scott to stitch the wound of a tree in a soft but
threatening tone. Dr. Scott says he can’t stitch through wood and at the end
Klausner persuades Dr. Scott into applying Iodine solution over the wound of the
tree. It is his empathy which makes Klausner ask Dr. Scott to come the next day to
put some more iodine in the wound of the tree.

We also come to know in the story that Klausner is caring towards environment.
This observation is confirmed by the empathy Klausner feels for plants which are
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inanimate living things. Everyone knows that plants are living things but most don’t
consider it “living enough” and end up not just hurting it but also hampering their
growth by plucking leaves and flowers from plants. Through the character of
Klausner Roald Dahl shows us the affection for nature and the care for environment
which all of us must possess which is very much needed in today’s world which is
on its way to apocalypse due to the selfish deeds of human beings.

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 Conclusion
Before judging a character we must always understand the reason behind why the
author has given that character his traits. Every story has some message to convey.
These messages are often conveyed in stories through the medium of personality
and are generally delivered in the end of the story. The personality of a character
helps the character reach the ending and the character’s traits deliver the message.
The same lies true for the story “The Sound Machine”. Thus character and its
personality are an integral part of a story. Roald Dahl in this story presents us with
Klausner an amateur scientist full of curiosity. But scientist always possesses great
curiosity for his subject and so this trait is very common. What makes Klausner
different is his empathy and care for environment. This trait distinguishes Klausner
from most of the people as these two qualities are not found in most and unless we
build these qualities in us we are doomed for extinction. This extinction will be
caused not just by humans harming plants but also by humans harming other
humans. It is said that “The Evil’s power for spreading hate and enmity is great,
and we must fight back evil with an equally strong bond of friendship, trust,
loyalty, love and empathy.” If we humans look above all the differences and
respect every life form around as a living entity, only then we can save ourselves
from this apocalypse of hate and insensitiveness. We often come across entire
communities which hate each other over religious differences. In such moments of
hatred one must remember these words of Mother Teresa “If you cannot love a
person whom you see, how can you love God whom you have never seen?”
We have discussed a lot about science and it will be an injustice to our discussion if
we don’t mention the great Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein once said, “Mankind
invented the Atomic Bomb but no mouse will ever invent a mousetrap.” And
these lines explain a lot about the end we are destined to meet if we don’t mend our
ways.

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 Learning Outcome
Doing this project was a wonderful experience and I learned many things from it. I of
course learned about the importance of the positive values exhibited by the
protagonist of the story Klausner but apart from that I also learned about the
importance of environment conservation. Environment conservation is the need of
the hour and this fact need to be understood by everyone be it young or adult, poor
or rich, strong or weak. Doing this project also improved my writing skills and
reading skills. This project also helped me sharpen my skills of writing a story and
specially developing the plot of the story because I had to read the story multiple
times.

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 Bibliography
1. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&
cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiWhfL1l-
ftAhULXSsKHTbeAxoQFjAAegQIAhAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffanyv88.com%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fwww
.litcharts.com%2Flit%2Fthe-sound-
machine%2Fcharacters%2Fklausner&usg=AOvVaw0mFTv-
f9Afg2jBKUBVJHNF
2. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&
cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiWhfL1l-
ftAhULXSsKHTbeAxoQFjACegQIAxAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffanyv88.com%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fbrain
ly.in%2Fquestion%2F17685183&usg=AOvVaw2sQgA3kUdMKeJRtV
f3CGIv
3. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&
cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiWhfL1l-
ftAhULXSsKHTbeAxoQtwIwA3oECAEQAg&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffanyv88.com%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fw
ww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxD_61QYGfsI&usg=AOvVaw3
LJSKqjBRJ4T6C63-p72W3
4. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&
cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiWhfL1l-
ftAhULXSsKHTbeAxoQFjAIegQIDBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffanyv88.com%3A443%2Fhttp%2Flingual
lyspeaking.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F09%2Fthe-sound-machine-
by-roald-dahl-outline.html&usg=AOvVaw1C3nu-yk5CbiijCbCDx4It
5. Echoes , a collection of stories for ISC by evergreen publications.

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Internal Examiner External Examiner

______________ ______________

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