This story is about a man who went to war and feels overwhelmed by every sound for this reason. His wife helps him get over it with the help of some pills but eventually she passes away. This man's life is basically his work at a toy factory which gave him the chance to work at a silent house away from the factory but everything changes when the boss' daughter took the leadership of the toy business and the silent house is selled to improve the factory.
I thought it was very interesting the focus of this story in particular. Arlo felt like he was in war with the whole world all by himself, and eventhough he knows there is no chance of gaining victory he stills fights for what he wants and thinks is the right thing to do. He is a good man, he didn't asked to be in war but he was still paying the price by its own. This story describes life as it is, it doesn't tag people as evil or saint, they are just people who push too far and people who make wrong decisions.
Sometimes the right thing to do is not what you think is the best but the one who answers for the common interests. Arlo was very affected by sounds but that didn't gave him the right to destroy the things so many people had fight for. But he had the right to be very upset because he had been afected by war, a thing he didn't asked for and that was for the interest of everyone, and when they had promised peace, when all he asked for was silence thay ripped that away from him.