Fire

1472 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: An essay on child abuse

The first time I killed, I was sick at myself, cried even, thinking I would never be worthy of forgiveness, but how could I help myself when killing was bound to me by nature? I was eight then. I had never intended to hurt my brother's scrawny, street-born dog. No matter how much I despised it. Toby named him Paris, a suggestion from Maura who claimed it used to be a big city from the Old days. Even now I still remember him with lively accuracy, the coal black color of its short fur, and its long brawny body with disproportional short legs. Especially I remember how he ran away from me, whimpering whenever I walked into the room as if he was... scared.

One afternoon, when the cold of the winter was starting to settle upon the edges of the village like a silent shadow, my brother left with Maura to the market for some groceries. Little Mathias was asleep in his bedroom, and I had already bored my mind off with no one to play with. Then I heard him. Paris had come into the room, barking mad as soon as he laid eyes on me. His loud howls hitting at my nerves like needles. I stood up warning him to be quiet, but he would not listen. I remember my temper suddenly slipping off. He was almost as big as me, but when I knelt down to scold him, accumulated anger in my eyes, I couldn’t stop myself. I wrapped my hands around his neck as he tried to run away and for a second all I saw was terror before I watched life drain out of his body. Maura and Toby arrived just minutes later to find me sobbing uncontrollably in the floor, not being able to look at the dead body a few feet away. The terrified expression in Maura's eyes and the bitterness underneath, still seem to haunt me, her thoughts clear to me as glass, monster. Besides that I cannot...

... middle of paper ...

...eath in an intimidating way. I gulp. Custodians permanently guard the gate ensuring no one enters or passes without authorization. Glancing down I look at the metallic device shaped like a diamond ingrown on my right wrist. This thing constrains me to the hell this nation has become. Its name is S.D.T. for System Device Tracker; or tracker for short. Every person within the boundaries of anything owned by the Republic has the same device, connecting us all to them. Its purpose is to protect us and to control us. Tracking our every movement and sending signals whenever we make something we shouldn’t do or go somewhere we shouldn’t be. But even the Republic makes mistakes. There is a flaw in the system that allows the user to access an Emergency Option menu with the right code or an illegal home fix that can shut the device from 1 to 3 hours. I already took care of it.

Show More
Related

  • The Black Plague Historical Fiction

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Separate from her family Alice dragged her feet against the dark deathly street and saw death all around her, ghastly corpses piled up in heaps and strewn for miles. Houses were grime and gray, all boarded up tight, shunning away sunlight. Her blonde hair gently hitting her blank face, dancing with the wind, her dull blue eyes gazed at the faces of the dead bodies in front of her and saw an image of herself; helpless, desperate, and a puppet to the plague.

    Read More

  • Lizzie Borden

    1697 Words  | 4 Pages

    I woke up at John Morris’ house, on his coach. As I knocked a flyaway hair out of my face I noticed my face was wet, with tears, and then it all hit me at once that my Dad and Mrs. Borden were dead. Suddenly I couldn’t breathe. I heard John Morris ask if I was alright, but that seemed like a completely different world, I responded with a meek okay, so Mr. Morris wouldn’t see me like this. That didn’t work though, I saw his tall shadowy figure ducking under the door frame with tea. As Mr. Morris sat down and put the tea on the coffee table in front of us, I turned my head and quickly wiped the tears from my eyes in hopes he wouldn’t see.

    Read More

  • barn burning

    383 Words  | 1 Pages

    As "Barn Burning" opens, an adolescent boy named Sartoris Snopes is in court, hoping he will not have to testify in the arson case against his father -- a charge of which Sarty knows Mr. Snopes is absolutely guilty. The judge, whom Sarty perceives as kindly, is nonetheless Sarty’s enemy because he is his father’s enemy, and Sarty has not yet separated himself from his father.

    Read More

  • Violence in “Hunters in the Snow” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

    1154 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ours is a violent world where even the most common folk can find themselves faced with unspeakable horror through little or no intention. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the characters find themselves at the mercy of armed men because of a faulty memory and a few wrong turns. In Tobias Wolff’s “Hunters in the Snow,” a young man winds up shooting his friend in an apparent accident which culminates in a debate between saving that friend or whether it is more important to preserve the self. The stories work together to explore what humans will do when faced with terrible violence.

    Read More

  • Style of The Fire Next Time

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    James Baldwin is one of the premier essayists of his time. He draws on his experiences in a straightforward, unapologetic manner, which helps achieve his purpose in The Fire Next Time. His style elucidates his arguments for racial harmony and for the understanding of other religions.

    Read More

  • The Crossing By Cormac Mccarthy

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through powerful visuals and specific vocabulary, Cormac thoroughly portrays the main character’s sorrow that was prompted by the loss of the animal he highly respects. The protagonist seeks to find a suitable burial site for the wolf, hoping to uncover and reveal the perfect place from Night’s blanket of darkness. Detailed descriptions establish a sense of deep respect as the main character “cradled the wolf in his arms and lowered her to the ground and unfolded he sheet. She was stiff and cold and her fur was bristly with the blood dried upon it” (McCarthy 5-8). The main character’s actions reveal great care and love for the wolf. It is difficult for an individual to cope with the death of an animal he/she places high regard for. Although wolves are often seen as brutal and deadly animals, McCarthy uses elaborate details to portray wolves as majestic and brave creatures. Such contrast is also achieved through a precise use of diction. He touches the “cold and perfect teeth”. The wolf’s “eye turned to the fire gave no light,” until the ...

    Read More

  • Barn Burning

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    Barn Burning Throughout the story “Barn Burning”, author William Faulkner conveys the moral growth and development of a young boy, as he must make a critical decision between either choosing his family and their teachings or his own morals and values. The reader should realize that the story “Barn Burning” was written in the 1930’s, a time of economic, social, and cultural turmoil. Faulkner carries these themes of despair into the story of the Snopes family. Faulkner opens the story, “Barn Burning” in a southern courthouse room of the during the Civil War reconstruction era, also a time of social, cultural, and economic instability.

    Read More

  • Barn Burning

    1118 Words  | 3 Pages

    Barn Burning "You’re getting to be a man. You got to learn. You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you." This quote from William Faulkner’s "Barn Burning" does reveal a central issue in the story, as Jane Hiles suggests in her interpretation. The story is about blood ties, but more specifically, how these ties affect Sarty (the central character of the story). The story examines the internal conflict and dilemma that Sarty faces. When the story begins, Sarty and his family are in a courtroom. Sarty, known in a proper setting as Colonel Sartoris, which in itself gives an insight into the families mentality. Sarty’s father, Abner Snopes is being accused of a barn burning. Right away, as Sarty is called to testify, you get an idea of what is going through the boy’s head, and the mentality that has be ingrained in him. He thinks to himself, Enemy! Enemy!, referring to the people that his father and his family for that matter are up against. Sarty would later discover that things are not always the way that his father leads everyone to believe they are. Sarty, somewhere deep down wants to just do what is right, but being roughly 10 years old, I don’t think he quite has that figured out yet. His sense of right and wrong has been biased under the tyranny of his father. We also get a good idea of the personality of the father, Abner, by the way Sarty describes his physical appearance. Abner is...

    Read More

  • Sweat By Zora Neale Hurston Analysis

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    The story began with the picture of Sunday's night after church, at eleven o'clock in the evening. Delia was still working. As a washwoman, Monday's morning was important for her because she would return all the clean clothes and earn her money. That money was to pay for the house, her food, and the pony which Sykes, her husband, had gone with. After 15 years of marriage, Delia had lost all hopes in Sykes. The countless beatings and painful acts of Sykes had brought her to her limit. Sykes had gotten home, and as usual, the fight happened between two former lovers. Sykes's appearance by a scary scene was like the ev...

    Read More

  • Xander Dialectical Journal

    466 Words  | 1 Pages

    The void in his hopeless eyes was immediately filled with anger. "I didn't kill anyone!" he yelled and tried to lunge at him but the boy was held back by the chains, "I tried to save them but I was too weak to do it on my own! You all left my friends to die..." he lowered his head as tears welled up in his eyes and flowed down his cheeks. "I begged and begged," his voice

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: The Plague

    278 Words  | 1 Pages

    This whole village reeks of death. The next door neighbors' mother passed away after seven long days of battling

    Read More

  • Barn Burning

    1878 Words  | 4 Pages

    Every person reaches a point in their lives when they must define themselves in relation to their parents. We all come through this experience differently, depending on our parents and the situation that we are in. For some people the experience comes very early in their lives, and can be a significant life changing experience. In William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” Colonel Sartoris Snopes must decide either to stand with his father and compromise his integrity, or embrace honesty and morality and condemn his family. This is a difficult decision to make, especially for a ten year old boy that has nothing outside of what his father provides. Sarty’s decision to ultimately betray his father is dependent on his observation of Abner’s character and the conflict he feels concerning Abner.

    Read More

  • Comparing A Pocket Full Of Rye And A Dog's Purpose

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    Succeeding pity, there came anger-- anger against a heartless killer.” This entire story is intense and constantly keeps the reader thinking and suspecting all the characters. It is almost impossible to put the book down since events and clues come one after

    Read More

  • Fire-Starter

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    Protagonist- Charlie McGee is a girl with pyrokinesis (a power in which someone can light fires with a glance). She is 8 years old. She is short, has blond hair, and brown eyes. She doesn’t like her power very much because she can’t control it. When she was about 5 years old, she was in the kitchen with her parents when they were trying to help her control her power. They gave her a test on a piece of toast, she burnt it to a crisp, and then she accidentally burnt her mother’s hands. The next day, when her dad came home from work, Charlie and her mother were nowhere to be found. Her father, Andy McGee, found his wife, dead in a closet. Charlie was still missing; “the shop” had killed her mother and kidnapped her. Both Andy and Charlie’s mother had telekinesis, (a power in which, someone can make a person think that something is what its not, or make them think what that person is thinking). Andy drove to a neighbor’s house, and used his power on the two agents that had kidnapped Charlie. He and Charlie drove of and were in search of for a few years. Charlie can’t stand people that are after her, or mean, or especially lie to her.

    Read More

  • Creative Writing: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    It was witching hour. The female’s heavy breathing was breaking the silence of the night. She could hear the thundering, rambunctious footsteps of the lingering creature. Trying to be as silent as the darkness, she laid awake. Eyes wide open, praying to the gods that she’d make it through the night. Suddenly, she felt something lay gently on her shoulder. Her eyes enlarged, for her daughter’s hands were not that massive. She rolled over. A piercing scream disturbed the whole village.

    Read More

More about Fire

Open Document