Auscultation Analysis

Sound a Sign of Life

Five year old John nervously roams around the crowded store scanning for his mom. He shouts for her but gets no response. After 15 seconds he hears that familiar voice that he has heard all throughout his life, and gets the sense of hope and relief. The story Auscultation by Steven Church connects scenes of trapped miners communicating with rescuers by sound. As well as scenes of stethoscopes functioning on humans listening for the sound of life. Sound is a form of communication between one another which helps identifying and perceiving the condition of life. In severe times such as the six miners missing by the Cave in at the Crandall Canyon coal mine in Utah, sound is an effective way to know the existence of the miners.

“They pound and pound, but background noise on the surface interferes... The men write notes to family members, seal them in a metal lunch box, and wait to die” (Steven Church 240-245/14). When you can't be heard you get the sense of death. Although when you hear sound and are heard, people get the sense of life. “He listens, his hands on the machine, until he finally hears or feels the rhythmic noise of the trapped men hammering at the steel. Above them, on the outside, the expectant wives and mothers rejoice” (Steven Church 264-269/15). The operator hears the fair sound of steel getting hammered on and realizes that it was the alive trapped miners. The miners pounding on the steel gave hope to the drill operator and the miners families that the miners were still alive. If the miners did not pound on the steel, the possibility of them getting saved would be low because the people on the surface would know if the miners were even alive. Therefore, sound being used as a form of communication to know the condition of life is