The quote “the silence said so” which is on page 117 relates to the bigger picture in the sense that the whole scene is about the fact that he has lost all hope and has accepted he is going to die. I believe that “the silence said so” is contradicting itself as if something is silent then it cannot say something. Even though this quote may not seem a big deal when you first see it, if you look deeper into the quote you will see that by using personification the author has made many things in the book sound lifelike. He has done this because we can relate more to something that is living rather than something that isn’t. The constant personification metaphors are all building towards something. It gives us the impression that he is so alone that the silence is his only company.