What Comes After

Content Warning: This section contains references to domestic violence, sexual assault, death by suicide, murder, and animal death.

What Comes After presents silence as multifaceted and powerful. Isaac insists on silent reflection both when he attends Quaker meetings and when he makes important decisions. However, he acknowledges that his silence can be a weapon against those he loves—a weapon that allows him to feel superior in his calm while passively harming those who care for him. Jonah feels calm only when at meetings, where he can sit in silence and allow himself to exist. The many questions that hang in the air between characters (but are rarely voiced) further demonstrate the power of silence and the power of breaking a silence.

Silence is a primary tenet of Quaker worship. Meetings are silent unless a member is moved by the spirit of the Divine to speak. Isaac embraces this silence beyond meetings and uses it as a tool to manage his emotions and insist on space for decision-making. However, his reliance on silence is complicated because he speaks more often at meetings than anyone else and reveals in the process of his clearness committee meetings that he isn’t really moved by any Divine force.