Death For All and For All a Good Night (Prediction Piece)

Before I make my prediction, I must say this, The Shining is a Steven King novel, I very much doubt that the main characters are going to walk away and think “Oh that was quite an adventure, I feel up for a scoop of ice cream.” The author is renowned for his sick twisted unhappy endings, which I feel are very likely to strike again. The mode of literature is clearly irony, with the nightmarish setting and the weak and tormented Jack Torrance. I predict death for almost everybody except maybe young Danny. I believe this is the best prediction because perhaps Danny’s foresight may save him from demise.

The Basement

Authors Note: This is a short demented little irony I wrote for the district assessment, its a little weird but, I think it's pretty good

Mommy was disappointed when  the owner told her about the hyenas. I looked up at the house, it's royal paint scheme contrasting with the surrounding woods, with smoke rising merrily into the dark sky, it looked inviting compared to the gloomy fall day. Mommy and Daddy talked for a second, then said "We'll take it, it's a good deal."

Over the next week, with much hard work, we moved into the house. Mommy warned me not to go into the basement because it was a big and scary and no place for me. She said that I shouldn’t even look through when they opened the door. Daddy, agreeing with her, told me that we were going on a big shopping spree to make the house look however I wanted.

The next day the house was shades of bright blue and pink paint splattered all over the old finely patterned wallpaper. The carefully embroidered carpet and rugs were ripped and broken. With Mommy and Daddy laughing as I splattered paint over the walls of the kitchen I attacked the fine drapes of the windows in happiness tearing them up and yelling, laughing, screaming. I tore and painted every fine part of the house until all that was left was neon blue and torn cloth.

The thing that scared me about the house was the door to the basement, old and beaten with rusty hinges that creaked and groaned every time Mommy and Daddy opened it. The door never took paint; it would only runoff into an undignified puddle on the ground. So Mommy and Daddy had the frame painted with as much paint as it could take, so it wouldn’t scare me so much. The door looked as if it had been there for one hundred years and it would remain there one hundred more. 

One day I heard a loud grinding noise coming from the basement door. I tiptoed over to see what it was, It was a… a thing, rippling with muscle that moved as if it had a life separate from its owner, eyes as red as blood, a bald ugly head, and a growl filled with malice I screamed for Daddy at the top of my lungs,

He came racing down the stairs gun in hand. Turning the corner he shot the thing he shot it again and again and again the grabbed the body and threw it out the window. turning to me he said “It’s ok it’s ok there was no monster, it’s ok not one monster left that basement.”

            I remember this as I stare at the basement door turning my favorite yo-yo over in my hands. I turn it and turn and I remember how that fake thing had scared me and drop it. It rolls, disappearing under the basement door, down the stairs. I scream, but Daddy says no. I push him, I open the door, and I grab the yo-yo. My sleeve gets caught - and I fall…and fall…and fall until I hit the ground.  Then eyes open, nasty eyes, evil eyes, eyes bigger than I remember - and I scream

Speak essay

Melinda Sordino, a picture of bad situation, she’s gone down too many long hallways, before too many judging eyes because of too many bad incidents. She wanders down the hallway silent, angry, sarcastic and bitter. Her world consists of her, her closet, and her bitten, scabbed lips. In her time in the closet, she thinks, I wish, I wish that maybe I would be more popular, at least in school, if my parents, angry and separated would have let me go to that end of the summer party.

This is almost a certain picture of Melinda in a “happy” timeline where she for one reason or another is not allowed to go to the party. Many of the given clues and symbolism and in the book points toward the fact that despite Melinda’s current circumstances she would have it just as bad, even worse if she had not gone to the party.

In the book, most clues can be found in Melinda’s thoughts on her social situation. At one point, she thinks, “Our clan the Plain Janes splintered last year and was absorbed by other factions.” Plain Jane is a completely ordinary woman, without distinguishing characteristics. This shows that the other girls, who may of not had strong personalities then, have realized them and moved in directions to pursue their desires.

Other scenes, involving Melinda alone, such as one that shows when ever Melinda eats alone at home, she flips the couch cushions over to the side that she eats on, showing that she can’t truly express herself when she was alone.

It was may even have been for the better for Melinda to have gone at the party.

She didn't go so.....Her ability to speak at home would have been at least slightly better, but, that would most likely have her parents lose most of the reason in staying together, prompting the end of  their marriage. As well as that, her status as an outcast at school would likely have never come to an end, due to the fact that there was no rape to reveal.

Melinda Sordino: a picture of a bad situation. Her only hope is more long hallways, before more judging eyes, and worse situations. If only she had gone to the party, she thinks, if only, if only.

Comparitive Essay

Authors Note: I once read part of a strange dystopion novel by Aldous Huxley called Brave New world, which has a sort of similar backdrop to Fahrenheit 451, which made it the perfect contender for a comparative essay. Ultimately I think the it turned as ranting and meaningless as it's subjects.

You get home from school, exhausted you sit down and read the boring book that dumb teacher of yours assigned you. All you wish you could do right now is to just grab a cola or sit down and play video games, just kicking back and enjoying your self right? Wouldn't it be great if we could do that all the time? According to the central themes of two notable examples of dystopian fiction Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World the world would be hell.

The two books detail a future where everybody is happy, anything sad is meaningless, and society lives in an eternal state of blissful ignorance to the outside world. But, according to the authors a life without sorrow, pain, and sympathy, is a life without meaning and a life not worth living. In both books the protagonists begin to question the emptiness of their current surroundings. Amusing and angering the masses, who react simply upon their wants, which is to either gawk at them or hate them, both are driven near insane ending in either exile or suicide.

The world painted by Bradbury, is a world where society has began to follow it's desires, conquering neighboring countries, killing each other, and burning books seems to be a mere foreshadow of the society painted by Huxley. In Brave New World everything a person does is driven by his preconditioned desires, every person is genetically altered to be of a certain caste which fills it's only desire in life, which is to meet the needs of the class above it, which is then left open to meet it's own wants.

There is more then enough evidence to conclude that both these author wanted us to think of how empty meaningless we all our without showing humanity to someone in need of it.  

Figurative Language Response

Authors Note: This piece, in case you didn't read the title is my figurative language response, I notice that the book plays kind of like a movie, so I refer to parts a scenes. I thought it may be a stretch to call this figurative language but I decided to write anyways. A final possibly unneeded note is that this is on page thirty-seven. (Possible Spoilers )

"She made the empty rooms roar with accusation and shake down a fine dust of guilt that was sucked in their nostrils as they plunged about." This quote, taken from the scene where Montag and his fellow firemen answer the call to the old woman's house, is one of the many uses of figurative language in this novel.

The sentence seems to add a chaotic edge to the entire seemingly orderly operation, setting an undertone of confusion and foreboding that seems to follow books throughout the story. As the woman simply sits there in accusing silence, she shows the heroic side of the seemingly cowardly sort of passive resistance used by the persecuted minority. Bradbury's most likely intent was probably just that, to cast positive light on the escapees.

This quote is pivotal in Montag's stealing of the book, blending in the background of other uses of personification, such as the bird metaphor, is one of the more overlooked moments in the book with importance. With much evidence to support this it's clear that this sentence was used by Bradbury to start certain themes of the book.

Lit. Club Response

Authors Note: I am doing a response to prompt two, Describe the metaphor for some of the horrors that Pi witnesses. I am trying to "translate" some of the animals into my opinion of their meaning.

You, a complex sentient being, surviving in your small lifeboat  of your creation on the ocean that is life, 

are constantly assailed by a variety of problems always chipping at your thoughts,  threatening your fragile lifeboat to transform into a floating tomb. As your life continues to float along on its due coarse you find that many of these problems will establish dominance in your life, even controlling your actions to focus solely upon them and deny you small times of merriment.

These problems manifest themselves in many ways in Yann Martel's Life of Pi. Pi, thrust from the comfort of the womb that is the Tsimtsum finds himself thrown into the beginnings of his lifeboat. He already finds himself facing several problems. First of which being the one that manifests itself in human nature more times then we can admit, ignorance. It seeks safety from the supposed battle against it; it finds a host on which it proceeds to manifest itself into the worst parasite. One that posses a something to pity, well it slowly destroys you from the inside.  Just as the zebra seeks safety on Pi's boat, breaking it's leg, and therefore in Pi's eyes becomes something to pity, well in reality its scent is driving the hyena to a frenzy. Which brings us to our next symbolism, the hyena.

"I am not one to hold prejudice against  any animal, but it is a plain fact that the spotted hyena is not served well by it's appearance, it is ugly beyond redemption." The hyena is the most noticeable and fearsome of Pi's assailants. The hyena represents the underlying problem that is the stem of all your troubles. With the Zebra representing ignorance, it's very presence is a danger to Pi as it is the usual prey of the hyena, and even worse wounded, as ignorance allows problem to grow to uncontrolled. When the hyena finally kills the zebra, it represents the shattering of ignorance, as the problem is allowed to grow out of control, until finally the problem can be ignored no longer, and runs rampant in your mind. Once the problem has shattered your ignorance the "tiger in you" you will jump to the task and destroy the problem.

These problems will assail you throughout life, so the lesson to be learned from this is to never let ignorance become your parasite, or your hyena will become out of control.