History Main / DumbStruck

* In ''The Secret Voice of Gina Zhang'', the eponymous protagonist develops a form of selective mutism, where she's able to speak normally in some environments (namely, when she feels safe) but is completely incapable of speech in others, a situation which is further complicated because she's also learning the English language for the first time. Somewhat unusually, she still struggles with this through end of the book, but is able to communicate in writing to start forming connections with her classmates even though she can't speak.

* Pilika in ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'' is rendered mute for most of the game due to her parents and village being killed by [[CompleteMonster Luca Blight]] and nearly suffering the same fate herself. She eventually recovers.

* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'', Sousuke was shown to have temporarily become mute when he was 3-4 years old, during his backstory. This being after he watched his mother (who died protecting him, telling him that he must survive no matter what, and "fight") fall to her death. He ''does'' end up being able to talk after he sees Kalinin (who had been constantly visiting him, trying to cheer him up and coax him to talk) slip and fall. Sousuke finally asks him if he's okay, and Kalinin is overjoyed.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Onmyoji}} Onmyōji]]'': In the first side story, Kurodōji suffers from a case of this after a certain traumatic event, which greatly concerns his friend [[LivingEmotionalCrutch Shirodōji]] who tries to help him recover. Kurodōji eventually slowly regains his speech ability again, but only then, it is barely a whisper.

* ''WebComic/SlightlyDamned'': Kieri stops speaking after being traumatized by the [[RapePillageAndBurn sack of St. Curtis]]. Eventually she learns to [[TalkingWithSigns communicate in sign language]] with her boyfriend Buwaro.

-->--''Fanfic/TheirBond''

* A villainous example in ''VisualNovel/MysticMessenger''. In the Secret Ending, after [[spoiler: Saeran fatally shoots V in a fit of hysterics, [[BigBad Rika]] snaps out of her DarkMessiah mindset and realizes that he's really about to die, and [[VillainousBreakdown breaks down screaming and crying.]] After he dies, she loses the ability to speak and is medically diagnosed with aphasia. She only manages to get two words out to anyone, and with great effort, before Zen and Yoosung ship her off to Alaska in secret.]]

* In the ''Literature/KnownSpace'' story ''The Defenseless Dead'', a brother and sister were kidnapped by [[OrganTheft organleggers. When they were released, the sister couldn't speak because of psychological trauma inflicted by the kidnappers]].

* Helen, the unspeaking young woman in Hitchcock's ''Film/TheSpiralStaircase'', is considered mute but has not spoken since childhood due to early trauma. Her silence is an essential part of the film.
* In ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' after Odin greets Loki as his son despite all their quarrels, Loki does not dare to say a word [[spoiler:until his father's death.]]

* In the Creator/LarryNiven story ''The Defenseless Dead'', part of the Literature/KnownSpace series, a brother and sister were kidnapped by organleggers. When they were released, the sister couldn't speak because of psychological trauma inflicted by the kidnappers.
* In ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'', Spartan-III Lucy-B091 was one of two survivors of a ''300''-soldier mission. At [[HarmfulToMinors age]] [[ChildSoldiers 12]]. She hasn't spoken a single word in the 7+ years since - "Post-Traumatic Vocal Disarticulation," they called it.

* [[spoiler:Bill Cipher]] undergoes this in Chapter Seventeen of ''Fanfic/ATriangleInTheStars'' after Steven asks him an ArmorPiercingQuestion, mostly because he wasn't expecting Steven to stick around long enough to ask. It's temporary though, but he describes it as a computer going BSOD.

* Billy in ''{{WesternAnimation/Annabelles Wish}}'' seems to be suffering from this due to his mom dying in a fire. He speaks at the end of the movie when Annabelle asks Santa to give Billy her Christmas voice.

* The character known as Grace in ''Film/DeadAgain'' starts the movie only able to talk in her sleep, but not at all while awake. It turns out she's having an issue with PastLifeMemories and once she starts to work through them she regains the ability to speak.
* ''Film/AGoodWomanIsHardToFind'': Sarah's son Ben hasn’t spoken since witnessing his father's murder. A therapist says that he can speak, but that his brain, as a defense mechanism, pushed the memory of that violence into a dark corner, and unfortunately his speech went with it.

* In ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'', ever since Peter and Judy's parents died, the former apparently stopped speaking except when he screamed when the bats chased him down the stairs, but he talks around his sister.
* Cam from ''Film/MovingViolation'' stops talking and becomes almost catatonic after [[spoiler:she, Warren, and Eddie are all shot, Warren dies, and she mistakenly thinks Eddie has died as well. She starts talking again when she is reunited with Eddie]].
* ''Film/NightworldLostSouls'': Elson Garret went missing eight years ago, the same time two local children were murdered. He showed up a few days later and has been withdrawn and mute ever since. This leads Victor to think he was the killer. [[spoiler:He was in fact traumatized by witnessing the murders. He didn't commit them.]]

* Helen, the unspeaking young woman in Hitchcock's ''Film/TheSpiralStaircase'', is considered mute, but actually has not spoken since childhood, due to an early trauma. Her silence is an essential part of the film.

* In ''Film/UncleDad'', Debs has apparently not spoken since her mother died.

* In the Creator/LarryNiven story ''The Defenseless Dead'', part of the the Literature/KnownSpace series, a brother and sister were kidnapped by organleggers. When they were released, the sister couldn't speak because of psychological trauma inflicted by the kidnappers.
* In ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'', Spartan-III Lucy-B091 was one of two survivors of a ''300''-soldier mission. At [[HarmfulToMinors age]] [[ChildSoldiers 12]]. She hasn't spoken a single word in the 7+ years since - "Post-Traumatic Vocal Disarticulation", they called it.

* In ''Literature/{{Mindblind}}'', Nathaniel's normalcy-obsessed dad forces him to go to a WildTeenParty, where he drinks punch that turns out to be spiked with vodka. The vodka interacts badly with his medications, rendering him almost catatonic for days. Eventually he recovers enough to communicate by typing on his computer, but it's another few days before he can talk well.

* Rosilda in Swedish author Maria Gripe's ''...och de vita skuggorna i skogen'' (translated to Spanish, but not English), after her mother commits suicide. [[spoiler:Or is [[FakingTheDead believed to have done so]].]]

* ''Literature/TheSilenceOfMurder'': When Jeremy was nine, he sang in the car and said that he got the song from God. His mom slapped him in the face and screamed, "God don't sing!" Jeremy hasn't spoken since then. He could still communicate by writing, but since Coach Johnson's murder he won't even do that.
* This is the plot of the Creator/ELKonigsburg book ''Literature/SilentToTheBone.'' The character who's silenced is accused of dropping his little sister and nearly killing her. However, this seems out-of-character for him, and his best friend tries to work with him to make him speak again. [[spoiler: In fact, it was a negligent nanny. However, I believe the boy had a crush on her, so he kept silent.]]
* Marina in John Marsden's ''Literature/SoMuchToTellYou'', who stopped talking after a disfiguring acid burn. The only time she speaks is at the end when she gives the TitleDrop to her father. This is continued in the POVSequel ''Take My Word For It'', although she gets more dialogue after the above has occurred.

* ''Literature/WhenMyHeartJoinsTheThousand'': Eleven-year-old Alvie was so badly traumatized by her mother's death that she was catatonic and unresponsive for four weeks. Even after she regained the ability to move voluntarily, she didn't speak for months. The staff at the mental hospital thought she'd regressed and lost all her language ability. In fact she still understood everything, she was just traumatized. Eventually she recovered enough to ask a nurse for a book on quantum physics, to the nurse's shock.

* In one episode of ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'', Kathy is [[AfraidOfDoctors afraid of an upcoming doctor visit]], and has to be cheered up before she can talk.
* The hybrids which control the Cylon ships in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' appear to (at least some extent) show this phenomenon. One of the original Cylon models (Leobin aka 2) theorizes that their seemingly nonsensical rambling is actually highly complex and coded prophecy. Later, Baltar and Diana (and later still Baltar and Rosalin) interpret a random statement about 3 seeing 5 as Diana (model 3) seeing the final five. Eventually, this is proven true.

* One episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' has a victim who is physically unable to speak due to having her throat cut by her attacker. She doesn't yet know how to write either, so she communicates with hand motions and pantomime. At the end of the episode, she musters a whisper to relay the last words of her friend, who had just committed SuicideByCop.

* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', Ezio's mother Maria goes mute after witnessing the deaths of her husband and two of her sons and being abused by the city guards who arrested them, and spends much of the next 20 years praying beside her bed. Should the player gather 100 feathers she begins to speak again, and by the time of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'' has recovered.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles: Ring of Fates'' this happens to Chelinka after the twins survive a monster attack that kills their dad. [[spoiler:She eventually recovers from it, and is able to speak again.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', Lulu is so distraught over the theft of the eggs she laid that she is largely unable to speak or sing. Due to her being the lead singer of the Indigo-Gos, this required the band to cancel their scheduled performances. Summoning the Turtle with the New Wave Bossa Nova is enough to snap her out of it.
* A villainous example in ''VisualNovel/MysticMessenger''. In the Secret Ending, after [[spoiler: Saeran fatally shoots V in a fit of hysterics, [[BigBad Rika]] snaps out of her DarkMessiah mindset and realizes that he's really about to die, and [[VillainousBreakdown breaks down screaming and crying.]] After he dies, she all but loses the ability to speak, and is medically diagnosed with aphasia. She only manages to get two words out to anyone, and with great effort, before Zen and Yoosung ship her off to Alaska in secret.]]

* In the third chapter of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', Kiyotaka Ishimaru becomes so distraught by [[spoiler:his best friend Mondo's execution]] that he goes totally mute. Interacting with him will only provoke VisibleSilence and a [[ThousandYardStare gloomy, dissociated stare]]. [[spoiler:He recovers from this when [[BenevolentAI Alter Ego]] pretends to be Mondo to cheer him up, which makes his personality [[LargeHam louder than ever]].]]

* Halfway through the 2003 ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' anime, Edward reunites with [[spoiler:Rose]] after not having seen her in over 20 episodes. For whatever reason, she can't speak and needs an interpreter. When telling Ed why he can't let the military off easy, Scar tells Ed that [[spoiler:Rose]] was taken by a group of soldiers during [[spoiler:the conflict at Liore]]. [[RapeAsDrama What happened]] was so traumatic that [[spoiler:Rose]] came back [[RapeLeadsToInsanity unable to speak]]. [[spoiler:Rose]] eventually recovers from her mutism.

* At the beginning of ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'', Mizuki Okiura becomes mute after [[HarmfulToMinors discovering her mother's dead body]]. She gets better after either Agent Date [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind explores her Somnium]] or she gets comfort from her CoolTeacher.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' story "Sounding Off" (''Creator/CartoonNetwork Block Party'' #37), Blossom gives Bubbles and Buttercup the silent treatment as a means to make them solve their own problems. But during a battle with a monster, Blossom is suddenly rendered mute when the monster grabs her.

%%* Pilika in ''VideoGame/SuikodenII''.

* [[spoiler:Nessiah]] lost all of his functionality and wound up an EmptyShell for quite some time as part of the long process of recovering his health and sanity in ''Roleplay/DeptHeavenApocrypha''. Although he's been improving steadily, his ability to speak has been the last to return. As of this writing, he's in speech therapy.

* The main character Shion from ''Anime/ShionNoOu'' was rendered mute after witnessing the murder of her parents prior to the series. She communicates by writing her thoughts on a notepad to show others.

* Helen, the unspeaking young woman in Hitchcock's ''Film/TheSpiralStaircase'', is considered mute, but actually has
not spoken since childhood, due to an early trauma. Her silence is an essential part of the film.