Importance of Earthquakes

In "Earth, Speak," Dee is horrified when Fellis savagely beats Daryl, and compares Daryl's flailing on the ground to what it would be like if the earth communicated through earthquakes. The imagery symbolizes Dee's relationship with violence and the modes of communication it brings out in people. Just as an earthquake speaking for the earth would seem to misrepresent the earth as its most violent, inhospitable version of itself, the violence he watches Fellis enact strikes him as a misrepresentation of the person he has come to know. So too does Daryl's inability to communicate strike Dee as sorrowful.