The Raven of Nevermore
Monday, October 25, 2010
Week of October 25th--Gothic Literature!
Directions: Each member of each blog group must write their own Gothic Literature short story using their understanding of the tenents of Gothic Literature. For this week only, you have to write and post your Gothic Literature stories for your members to read and discuss. Good Luck!
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As I opened my eyes, all I saw was that bird outside my window, it looked at me with its dark lidded eyes, a raven, a symbol of death, but I was not dead. I got up from the hospital bed, stood up, stretched, and then went out the door. People on both sides of the hallway did not look up it was, like they could not even see me. What is wrong with them? There is nothing wrong with me. That annoying raven decided to settle on my shoulder. The strange thing is, the people were not whispering to each other about the bird on my shoulder, they were whispering about me. I could just faintly hear them whispering to each other, “That poor boy in Room 1A, someone so young, what a pity.” “Yes, that poor boy’s mother, she must be heartbroken.” “Well, that is happens when you are ejected out of your seat and through the windshield of a car.” What are they talking about? I am right here, and I am safe. I do not even remember getting into my car today. They must have me mistaken me for someone else. Then that raven decided to nip my ear, as if it was trying to tell or show me something. That bird must be the reason why no-one can see me! I tried to knock the bird from my shoulder, but to no avail. It just dug its claws further into my shoulder. I turned around and sat on a bench, and I finally took in my surroundings. I was in a hospital, but how did I get there? I do not remember getting hurt. After a few minutes the raven then decided to fly behind me, and tried to steer me towards the stairs. After many minutes of fighting with the bird I gave in, and went down the stairway. Once I exited the stairway one floor down I saw my mom and dad crying on a bench at the end of the hall. I walked over to them, at the uncomfortable urging of the bird. My mother looked up, but like the other people in the hospital, did not appear to see me. She just looked straight through me. I turned and tried to run away, away from her unseeing eyes, but that horrible raven stopped me, and steered me into the adjacent room. I tried to close my eyes, but somehow the raven was able to pry them open with its beak. On the bed was a body, the skull had been smashed open, and the limbs had been ripped off.
ReplyDeleteComment By: Leah Eisenberg
Part 1
As I starred at my body in shocked, I thought to myself, “That is not me, all of this must all be one bad dream, and all I have to do is wake up,” Suddenly, I wanted to leave the room, for that unfamiliar body seemed very familiar. When I tried to leave the room to escape that mangled body, that unsightly raven blocked my way. It was standing in the doorway, staring at me with those horrible black lifeless eyes. I turned and tried to throw the book that was lying on the table, in the room, but my hands went right through it. Since I was distracted, the raven took the opportunity to spin me around so that I was looking in the mirror, I so no reflection, I could see myself, but I could also see the wall and body behind me. As I looked into the mirror, I saw that the clothes the mangled body was wearing were identical to the ones I was wear. “This is just a coincidence, many people wear white t-shirts and jeans, just a coincidence,” The raven who had perched itself on the mirror turned, looked at me, and said, “Do you honestly believe that? The answer to your predicament has been given to you.” Just as I was about to open my mouth in retaliation, my girlfriend, Sandra, walked in the room, took one look at the body on the bed, burst into tears, and screamed, “No! No! No, Reed!” Then she promptly collapsed, and cried on the floor. I stood frozen, and once again, that horrible bird steered me in front of the body, to which I fought valiantly, but like last time failed to stop the raven. Now I recognized the body as mine, from what skin was left, I recognized the scar I had on my stomach, and from what little hair was left on that shattered head; I could see my signature auburn hair. “I, I’m dead…” Right after I finally came to terms with what had happened, the raven swung one of its mighty wings over my head, and vanished with him, for the land of the living is no place for the dead and guardians of the dead, like the raven.
ReplyDeleteComment By:
Leah Eisenberg
Part 2
It’s currently 8:15...on a fine summer morning. But guess where I am. I’m in summer school. And what makes it even worse is that Billy Bullard is in the seat directly behind me, breathing down my neck. I got myself into this situation though. Billy bothered me my entire freshman year. He found joy in shoving me into lockers, knocking my books from my hand, and stealing my clothes while I was in gym. I hated going to school, I hated seeing his face and I hated the fact that I hand every single class with him. I got so sick of his charades and his bullying. Billy took the time to find me in the halls; he would go out of his way just to see me suffer. I went through my entire freshman year trying my best to avoid him, stay out of sight, and keep my head down. This also caused me to miss a few of my classes here and there. I mean, when I skipped classes he didn’t know where I was or what hall I was in. It threw off his daily schedule of harassing me. Last month I decided I was going to get him back and make him suffer like I had to suffer. After weeks and weeks of thinking I came up with a brilliant master plan. I knew that on the last day of school we had 3 tests in English, Spanish, and History. I knew where each of my teachers kept their answer sheets for all their tests. I also knew Billy’s locker combination from pulling his file in the office. On the last day of school I had everything planned out. While my English teacher Mrs. Brooks had a free period I told her that she was needed in the office. While she was gone from her desk I took the answer sheet to the test we had that day. I did this to both of my teachers for Spanish and History. By lunch time I had all of the answer sheets and I only had one task left. I had to carefully place two of the three answer keys in Bullard’s locker and then I taped one of them to his locker. After that I walked to Art class, smiling to myself. When I arrived to class I saw Billy sitting in my favorite seat. But I didn’t let him phase me. I simply smiled and found another place to sit. When class was dismissed it was time for us to begin our summer! However the only way to freedom was past our lockers and next to the high school office. When we arrived to the lockers Mrs. Brooks Mr. Delgado and Dr. Green were all standing there waiting for Billy. I slightly smiled anticipating his demise. Billy was accused of stealing the papers and then taping one of them to his locker as a way to show off his accomplishment. I stood by watching him. His face showed fear and confusion. They sentenced him to one month of summer school. Seeing that I had got my revenge I turned to leave. But as I was leaving I was stopped by my assistant principle. She handed me my report card. I guess I was so excited with pranking Billy I forgot to go by the office to pick it up. When she handed me the report card she looked concerned and shook her head but I didn’t know why. I didn’t care I was just ready to get home and prepare myself for a fun night. When I got home I gave my mom my report card and as soon as she opened it her face and attitude changed dramatically…I was absent in the majority of my classes and my grades were horrible. On the bottom of the report card it said that I had to attend two months of summer school to pass to the 10th grade. So im here now, with my dear friend Billy, his month is almost up. I have one and a half to go.
ReplyDeleteIt’s currently 8:15...on a fine summer morning. But guess where I am. I’m in summer school. And what makes it even worse is that Billy Bullard is in the seat directly behind me, breathing down my neck. I got myself into this situation though. Billy bothered me my entire freshman year. He found joy in shoving me into lockers, knocking my books from my hand, and stealing my clothes while I was in gym. I hated going to school, I hated seeing his face and I hated the fact that I hand every single class with him. I got so sick of his charades and his bullying. Billy took the time to find me in the halls; he would go out of his way just to see me suffer. I went through my entire freshman year trying my best to avoid him, stay out of sight, and keep my head down. This also caused me to miss a few of my classes here and there. I mean, when I skipped classes he didn’t know where I was or what hall I was in. It threw off his daily schedule of harassing me. Last month I decided I was going to get him back and make him suffer like I had to suffer. After weeks and weeks of thinking I came up with a brilliant master plan. I knew that on the last day of school we had 3 tests in English, Spanish, and History. I knew where each of my teachers kept their answer sheets for all their tests. I also knew Billy’s locker combination from pulling his file in the office. On the last day of school I had everything planned out. While my English teacher Mrs. Brooks had a free period I told her that she was needed in the office. While she was gone from her desk I took the answer sheet to the test we had that day. I did this to both of my teachers for Spanish and History. By lunch time I had all of the answer sheets and I only had one task left. I had to carefully place two of the three answer keys in Bullard’s locker and then I taped one of them to his locker. After that I walked to Art class, smiling to myself. When I arrived to class I saw Billy sitting in my favorite seat. But I didn’t let him phase me. I simply smiled and found another place to sit. When class was dismissed it was time for us to begin our summer! However the only way to freedom was past our lockers and next to the high school office. When we arrived to the lockers Mrs. Brooks Mr. Delgado and Dr. Green were all standing there waiting for Billy. I slightly smiled anticipating his demise. Billy was accused of stealing the papers and then taping one of them to his locker as a way to show off his accomplishment. I stood by watching him. His face showed fear and confusion. They sentenced him to one month of summer school. Seeing that I had got my revenge I turned to leave. But as I was leaving I was stopped by my assistant principle. She handed me my report card. I guess I was so excited with pranking Billy I forgot to go by the office to pick it up. When she handed me the report card she looked concerned and shook her head but I didn’t know why. I didn’t care I was just ready to get home and prepare myself for a fun night. When I got home I gave my mom my report card and as soon as she opened it her face and attitude changed dramatically…I was absent in the majority of my classes and my grades were horrible. On the bottom of the report card it said that I had to attend two months of summer school to pass to the 10th grade. So im here now, with my dear friend Billy, his month is almost up. I have one and a half to go.
ReplyDeleteKirsten Webb
The story is really good, a lot less morbid than my story, yet still a little sad. I like how the main character or protagonist reflected on his “fall from grace” which can be clearly seen in plot of the story. But, I am not sure how the setting reflects the internal emotional world of the protagonist. Moreover, I am not quite sure how the antagonist, who I assume is Billy Bullard, represents the repressed emotions of the protagonist. But, I can see how he is more powerful than the protagonist, which is the case in all Gothic Literature, so good job.
ReplyDeleteComment By:
Leah Eisenberg
Okay, I have made one main change to my original comment, since I read the story again; I am still putting parts of my original comment. The story is really good, a lot less morbid than my story, yet still a little sad. I like how the main character or protagonist reflected on his “fall from grace” which can be clearly seen in plot of the story. However, unlike in my last comment where I said I could not see how the antagonist, Billy Bullard, repressed the protagonist’s repressed emotions; I can now sort of see how he represented them. Billy Bullard might have represented the fact the protagonist had to go to summer school, or the protagonist’s failure to live up to the school’s expectations. So now I can see him more clearly as the antagonist and how he is more powerful than the protagonist, which is the case in all Gothic Literature, so good job.
ReplyDeleteComment By:
Leah Eisenberg
Leah, your gothic story is very detailed. It gives a very clear image to imagine. I'm guessing the protagonist is the boy Reed and the protagonist is the raven. There were a few run on sentences and verb tense errors but other then that it's a good story!
ReplyDelete- Kirsten
As I reminisced on my past, I looked at all of the people that I have hurt. I asked myself the following question: is it worth it? I’m here to tell all of my glory and my story, while I sulk in my sorrow through the isolated barriers and thoughts in my lonesome. It was a musky Friday afternoon in the fall time, maybe around noon when I noticed that my clock’s alarm was set half an hour later than the time I was required to leave to head to my destination. I stopped and called my friend. I asked him if he could drop me off to my destination because I was already late and he agreed. During our ride, the first three hours were smooth. My friend and I talked about relationships with people in our past. I said “Hey Brian, have you ever thought that you’ve messed up in the past, and you only acknowledge it after your wrongdoing has occurred?” He replied “Yeah, I sort of do. It’s a feeling that re-occurs with me a lot. I’ve always thought that situations were in my control to the point where I lost control of them completely and I watched relationships shatter like glass falling off of the highest balcony. It’s an almost beautiful sight, but yet so depressing to watch it shatter.” I replied, “I know what you mean, is it possible that we can drink a little, and catch dinner at a bar?” He said, “Yes, I know one across the street that’s great.” We stopped at the bar and we drank and talked. We ended up drinking so much that we could barely would. I started to stand up as the room started spinning and I started to imagine: “what has this man done for me? What has this man done to ruin relationships with people?” I finally had my question answered. Brian started to yell swear words to me and got very violent, very quickly. It seems that he had completely lost control over himself after having one too many drinks. The lights dimmed down and the mood darkened completely. He cracked his bottle open from the same drink I offered to him that tipped off his climax of drunkenness, and he started chasing me with the bottle and he finally tripped me. He asked me “Why did you do this to me? WHY?????” I had no recollection of what he was talking about. I pleaded with him and begged him to calm down but he insisted on damaging me. He slowly transformed into a demon and cutting my skin. I tried to take actions into my own hands and reached for the knife across from me. As my blood ran down my leg and slowly dripped, I stabbed him in the heart in the midst of the night, still shocked. His dying words were “you can’t escape him.” Only on one foot, I left out of the isolated bar, and dragged myself out to the street. On the street, I saw a man who was warning me not to go to the police stations as the events after that are bad. He advised me to take action into my own hands. I ignored his statement (keep in mind I was tired, scared, and shocked during the middle of night which happened to be very foggy and cloudy that night). I continued to the police statement to tell them what happened. Later that night, a man masked, dressed in a cloudy colored black started running towards me with a knife and screaming at me, and told me I was going to pay for my wrongdoing. That was the night I was murdered in cold blood. There was no evidence left behind in the crime scene, the man’s name was never found out, and absolutely no remains of my body were left, everything was gone. The truth is, as I tell you this story right now, I want to tell you that you can’t escape fate no matter what. You can’t hide from what’s going to happen, so don’t try to take situations into your own hands. I am writing this from the gates of hell and I will stay there for eternity to show that my actions of wrongdoing shall never be repeated.
ReplyDeleteThe story is really good; however, I think that a lot of the words used were synonyms of the original words you had typed in the story. I can see who is the protagonist, and who is the antagonist, but I cannot see how the antagonist represents the repressed emotions of the protagonist. I have to assume that the masked man was the murdered friend; this sounds a lot like The Black Cat. If this is true, then the friend or antagonist is stronger than the protagonist. I also have to take a guess that the bar represents the protagonist’s clouded drunken mind. Then finally, the protagonist’s fall from grace is when he first starts off all hunky dory with his friend in the car, and ends with him being murdered by the masked man.
ReplyDeleteComment By:
Leah Eisenberg
The story is really good; however, I think that a lot of the words used were synonyms of the original words you had typed in the story. I can see who is the protagonist, and who is the antagonist, but I cannot see how the antagonist represents the repressed emotions of the protagonist. I have to assume that the masked man was the murdered friend; this sounds a lot like The Black Cat. If this is true, then the friend or antagonist is stronger than the protagonist. I also have to take a guess that the bar represents the protagonist’s clouded drunken mind. Then finally, the protagonist’s fall from grace is when he first starts off all hunky dory with his friend in the car, and ends with him being murdered by the masked man. In the last entry I forgot to mention two things. First, I do not know what that stranger represented. Secondly, I do not see the protagonist willingly or unwillingly isolated. I am sorry this is a bit harsh, I am just going through the elements found in gothic literature and trying to find them in your story.
ReplyDeleteComment By:
Leah Eisenberg