Happiness Falls

Mia’s narration includes numerous references to music, describing experiences in terms of notes and tonal qualities. Mia has perfect pitch, so she thinks of everyday sounds, like a dial tone, as notes: “the dissonance of the almost-A-and-F quasi-chord” (60). Music thus functions as her unique and visceral way of experiencing the world.

Mia uses music to order and analyze the experiences of her otherwise hard to understand brother. Impressed by Eugene’s “splaughs,” or repetitive vocalizations, she remembers “being awed by Eugene’s stamina, his ability to sustain such amplitude for so long without getting hoarse; our choir teacher would go crazy for his vocal technique and the precision of his rhythm” (164).

Music also functions as a symbol of liminal states between uncertainty and understanding. For example, Mia imagines complex emotions, such as hope mixed with grief, as symphonic works: “our collective hope became this palpable thing [...] I heard it in my head, this anthem in G major, could already feel the tears of joy and relief, of sadness too, for Dad” (273). Within the imagined piece of music, both positive and negative possibilities exist. Developing the theme of Language and Silence, the novel’s uses music to complicate readers’ ideas of what can be conveyed using non-language modes of communication.