AQWF- WR#4

The news came late. We sat at the hospital waiting for answers. We fidgeted our fingers, tapped our feet, and nibbled at our nails. The agony of unanswered questions. The doctor walked out of the room, a blank look on his face. When he reached us, a smile crept from his mouth.
"She will be alright," he said. "Everything is going to be fine."
I jumped out of my seat with excitement. I scrambled to my friend and gave her a smile from ear to ear. I touched her hands with a soft touch and gave her a hug. It was all just a scare. Everything would turn out fine, life would go on the way it should. We were all going to be alright, and I was fine with that.

"I wet his temples with a moistened finger and give him a swig" (71).

AQWF- WR#1-3

When we're young, our dream is to grow up. We want to feel the freedom, the power of adulthood. But then, once we get there, our views change. We no longer want to be an adult. Instead, we want to go back to childhood because we then realize things were much easier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, she tries to explain through diction that when the soldiers were growing up, what they really wanted was to just go back to when they were young.
At first the idea of being an adult was mesmerizing; they wanted to grow up so fast. But once the adulthood came, they all wanted to crawl back into their childhood state where life was much simpler. The text explained a situation where, "The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom" (n/a). They wanted the authority, the feeling of being an adult, but once the feeling came, they no longer wanted to be an adult. The idea of becoming an adult is so exciting at first but once the time comes, they long for what they had before. In the end, they're never satisfied. All they really wanted was to be happy, but they then realized that happiness was what they wanted, not what they actually had.

AQWF- WR#2

When we're young, we try and think of all the possible things to come in the future. No matter how big or small, our imaginations envelop this view where everything will be handed to us. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque makes it prevalent that the soldiers are ready for war, but they may not be ready to work for it.
The boys don't know what's to come or what's to happen next. They go into the war as boys and they have yet to know what's to happen. They need to mature and grow into men to fully understand all that is around them. It was said that, "When we went to the district commandant to enlist, we were a class of twenty young men, many of whom proudly shaved for the first time before going to the barracks. We had no definite plans for out future. Our thoughts of a career and occupation were as yet of too unpractical a character to furnish any scheme of life" (21). The whole idea of the soldiers growing up into men shows through this. Nothing will be handed to them. They need to earn it all. They were new to the war when they first came in but in order to understand everything they needed to mature into men. It may not have happened at first but the boys would have soon needed to turn to men.

AQWF- WR#1

Despite the horror of all the events that occurred during WW1, Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front managed to convey a sense of beauty. Throughout the first chapter, there were parts where the author subtly mentioned death and how it rarely phased the soldiers. Then when they went out in the field and relaxed for awhile, their minds drifted to better thoughts. It was said that, "There it can only be hygienic, here it is beautiful" (9). To other people, it could have been just an ordinary field. To them, it was much more. They realized the actual beauty the field had without overlooking it. War causes people to not take things for granted, and the soldiers did just that. They didn't take the beauty of the field for granted.

Never Good Enough- JH 4

Author's Note: In the last chapter of Jekyll and Hyde, I noticed towards the beginning that Jekyll mentioned how he had such high goals for himself and then when he didn't accomplish them, it was hard for him to handle. I feel like this happens with a lot of people in their everyday lives. For example, at school someone might study extremely hard for a test and then expect to get a good grade, but then they would get the test back with a lower grade than they would have expected. They had such high hopes and expectations for themselves that they were crushed when they got the low grade. This was the one of the reasons why Jekyll needed to transform into Hyde- because he thought he wasn’t good enough. He thought his evil side was better than his boring, good side.
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            The gun felt heavy in her hand. She didn’t actually know how much one weighed; she never in her 16 years of life thought she’d ever need to hold one. She focused her gaze on the trigger. How could such a weak drawback cause fatal consequences? She was amazed at the thought. To her, this was art. Mesmerized by the design, she was at a loss for words.

            She walked to the old run-down shed standing in her backyard. The door creaked open revealing large cobwebs and thick dust. The sunlight shone through a broken window almost making the shed look appealing. She held the gun tight in her hand ready for the next decision she was about to make.

            She was never satisfied with herself; she always felt like a failure. Her grades dropped since she started high school. She really did try her best but nothing was ever good enough. She didn’t feel like she belonged there. She made the varsity tennis team freshman year. Even though she was just 1 match away from the state championship, she thought she was awful. She blamed herself for everything that ever happened because she didn’t know how to cope with her feelings. She found it hard to reconcile with the imperious desire to carry her head high. Her life was slowly falling apart.

            Looking down at the gun clutched tightly in her hand, she stepped into the shed. She found a thick rope and attached it to the trigger of the gun. She tied the end of the rope to the door making sure it didn’t move the trigger quite yet. She stood approximately 10 feet away from the gun. She stared at it for a long time. Her mind wandered to her family and friends who didn’t have a clue what was about to happen. She thought about her mom and dad. They were divorced and never spoke anymore. She thought about her older sister. She had always looked up to her for everything, but soon she wouldn’t need to anymore. She then thought about her best friend. Maybe she would be happy, she could now spend all her time with her boyfriend and she wouldn’t need to worry about her anymore. She needed to stop thinking. She didn’t want to convince herself to change her own mind.

            Taking deep breaths, one after another, she picked up the other end of the rope lying on the floor. Slowly closing her eyes, she let a small tear slide down the side of her cheek. She held her ground and stood up tall. Letting out one last breath, she pulled the rope towards her and the gun went off in the serene silent shed. The only noise after the loud pop was the sound of a limp body hitting the ground.

No way out- JH 3

Author’s Note: As Jekyll and Hyde is coming to a close, I think the idea that people are enslaved by their own responsibilities was being portrayed. The carpenter that was breaking into Jekyll’s cabinet was having a hard time getting it open, but he had to do it. Opening the cabinet for Lanyon was his job and he was forced to fulfill it. In this short response I am writing about a lawyer whose client was a murderer. Even though the lawyer knew the murderer was guilty, he still had to do his job to try to prove him innocent. He was enslaved by his own responsibility which then caused the murderer to be let free.

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All was silent. The only noise was of the hushed breathing inside the courtroom. All were waiting to hear the verdict of the case. “Please be guilty, please be guilty,” were the only words running through her head. “Please be guilty, please be guilty.”

The judge nodded to the head police officer of the courtroom. At the approval, the officer opened the envelope containing the few words the court room was dying to hear. He glanced at the paper, than looked at the judge.

“We find the defendant not guilty.”

Her client grasped her hand. He leaned over and whispered something she wished she'd never have to hear.  “We did it. You did it. With all your help, I got away with it.” He gave her a crooked smile which sent icy chills down her spine. Her face went white, her body numb. She let a murderer go free. The feeling left her stomach turning in tight little knots.

What could she do? She had to do her duty. Her job was to defend her clients if they were accused of any crime. The lawyer vowed she would have great trouble and have to do much damage; she was in despair. There was no way out if she played her cards right and managed to convince a jury that a guilty man was innocent. Unfortunatley, she succeeded. She wanted to tell them all the truth- her client was a murderer, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t do anything. Her hands were tied. All she could do was to go on to the next one, hoping that she wouldn’t have to do deal with the same situation again. The thought haunted her. She gathered her belongings and left the courtroom, never looking back.

Better off Oblivious- JH 2

Author's Note: While reading chapters 4-7 of Jekyll and Hyde, I noticed that people were really eager to find things out even if it was in their best interest to not know things. In this creative piece, i wrote about a girl who finds out how her mother dies even though it was in her best interest to not know how, but to just know that she would no longer see her mother again.
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She was sitting in English class on the Friday just before Spring Break. No one in the class focused on reading because their minds were already wandering to the tropical places they had yet to go in the coming 24 hours. While talking to her friends about everything she was going to do over break, she was called down to the office.

“Can Gabriella Brown please come down to the office immediately?” The voice sounded serious and stern. She had no idea why she was being called down to the office. She knew she wasn’t in trouble because she never did anything to break school rules. Reluctantly, she gathered all her belongings and trudged down to the office.

She walked through the doors cautiously, not knowing what to expect. She saw her older sister sitting down in a slouched position. She walked slowly over to her sister and sat down in the chair beside her. They waited for what seemed like forever until finally their dad sauntered into the office. His face was red, his eyes puffy as if he had been crying.

“Dad, what happened?” she asked slowly. “Why were you crying? What’s going on?”

“She’s gone.” Their father replied. “She, I, your mother, she’s gone.”

“What do you mean she’s gone?” questioned her sister.

“She was on her way to work when there was an accident. She didn’t make it out alive girls, your mother is dead.” were the words their father managed to choke out.

“No.” her sister’s voice cracked. “No, not my mom.”

“How?” she asked. “How did she die?”

“It’s best if you don’t know” replied their father.

“Tell me!” she screamed angrily. She didn’t mean to scream at her vulnerable father. She had never seen him cry before, she just needed answers. How could her mom leave them? They needed her. They were leaving for Florida the next morning. It was a family vacation. Their mother had to be there. How could she have died? How did she die? The questions swarmed around her brain like a million mad mosquitoes.

“There was an accident. She died in an accident.”  

“What happened in the accident dad? Tell me how she died!”

“She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” 

“Dad, how did my mom die!? Please tell me, how did she die?”

“She was shot Gabriella.” her father sobbed. “She was shot walking into work in a drive-by.”

She looked at her sister. They were both pale; and there was an answering horror in their eyes. Her sister broke down immediately. Before they knew how her mother died, their faces were blank. They didn’t know how to react to such a thing. They saw on the news and in the newspaper how kid’s parents died but they never thought it could actually happen to them. She was better off not knowing how her mother died, and hearing it left a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

That was that. Gabriella didn’t have a mom anymore; neither did her sister. Their mother was gone, and their father no longer had a wife. Knowing how their mother was killed made it worse. They would have been better off oblivious, but she didn’t listen.

The Secret Evil in Everyone- JH 1

Author's Note: In the first three chapters of Jekyll and Hyde, I noticed that the motif or idea that there is an evil inside of everyone showed up. Jekyll was a nice man who everyone in the city liked but at night his evil side, Hyde, came out. Although some people don't like or want their evil side, everyone has it.

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With a smile on her face, she walked down the crowded halls. Everyone thought she was a happy girl, one that was always optimistic and never angry. In every class, she always participated with a certain joy in her voice. She was one of the smartest kids in her grade who always managed to get the A. People thought she had it all. Her parents seemed nice and she got along with both her brother and sister. No one knew what could actually become of her.

After school one day, she had to pick her brother and sister up from school. When she pulled up to the middle school where both her brother and sister attended, her brother opened the passenger door and climbed in. Her sister opened the back door and threw her backpack across the seat.

“Hurry up and get in you little brats. You’re lucky I’m even picking you both up. If it were up to me you could sit here and rot all night. No one likes you two anyway.”

“Why do you always have to be so mean to us Francesca? What did we ever do to you?”

“You were born.”

“Whatever.”

Constant bickering; that’s all Rebecca did to her family. She was never satisfied with anything she got at home. Her personality transformed into something evil, something the exact opposite as what people saw at school. No one knew about the other side of her. They thought she was always a happy person. They had no idea a secret evil lie within her.

            The three siblings got home from school that day only to walk into an even bigger mess. Their parents were both sitting at the kitchen table. They had concerned looks on their faces as if something important was on their minds.
            “Francesca, we need to talk to you” squeaked her mother.
            “What do you want now?” Francesca shrank back with a hissing intake of breath

“You need to be more respectful at home. The whole family doesn’t appreciate how rude you always are. Is that too much to ask?” questioned her father.

“Yes family” she spat with hatred dripping from every word. “It is. Now if you would excuse me, I have better things to do than to talk to you inconsiderate people.”

            With that said, Francesca strut upstairs as if nothing she said hurt her family, even though it did.

            A secret evil, one that not many people knew about, but haunted the home of Francesca and her family. No matter how happy she could have seemed at school, as if nothing was wrong, she held a secret feeling inside of her. It was one that not many knew about and one that was hard to control. She tried to stop, she really did. She wanted to be nice to her family, but the evil inside of her always seemed to lash out. She couldn’t control it; that was life. She knew that there was always an evil inside of everyone, she just wished she didn’t have it. She wanted to be happy like the image she portrayed at school, but she couldn’t. She would always have that inner evil, no matter what she did to try and get rid of it.

short story

Author's Note: It was required for me to write this piece for my Honors English 10 class. It's about a woman who dreams of everything in her life being perfect and when it isn't she tries to make it perfect fast.
Short Story- The Perfect Family

            She planned for her marriage to be perfect: a husband, wife, and child. She never thought this image of a perfect family could be phased. Her dream, the one she waited for her whole life, was supposed to work out. Her thoughts were meaningful and harmless, her heart unbroken. Their family would love each other unconditionally until the last day of existence. There would always be trust, because trust was a main factor in a functional relationship. This was how she wanted her family to turn out; this was the way it was supposed to be.  

            The wife’s name was Rebecca, the husband’s Andrew. The two met in college during a never ending lecture on Biology. Rebecca knew she was going to marry Andrew from the moment she laid eyes on him. Andrew had a way with words, and he knew how to make a girl laugh. He was also very good looking, which made it easy for any girl to fall for him. The two dated for a year and a half before they said their vows. The wedding, along with everything leading up to it, was exactly what Rebecca had wanted. It was all going perfectly.

            Rebecca got pregnant with their one and only child a few months after she and Andrew got married. The two ended up having a baby girl named Callie. Rebecca and Andrew adored their new child, but unfortunately Rebecca’s job requested her return to the usual monthly business trips and many meetings. Shortly after Callie was born, the couple hired Lydia, a nanny, so they could have more help with taking care of Callie. Lydia was young yet reliable, still in college, but very mature. Andrew, along with Rebecca, knew they could trust her.  

            While Rebecca was away at a business conference across the country, Andrew was at home on a conference call and Lydia was in the kitchen taking care of Callie. Lydia, being a single college student, had the slightest crush on Andrew because there was not much of an age difference between them. While on his lunch break, Andrew took Lydia to his favorite restaurant. They ate and talked about anything and everything. The conversation ignited and it didn’t take long for their connection to spark into something more.

            After the first incident occurred, Andrew promised himself it wouldn’t happen again. He knew what he had done was wrong, and he wanted it all to be in his past but it did not stop.  Rebecca went on her monthly business trips as usual, and her meetings kept getting extended to later and later. Andrew’s one accident kept repeating itself, and after awhile, he began to feel no more remorse. He found more and more reasons to start seeing Lydia, even outside of taking care of Callie. He thought he could hide his relationship from his wife forever, but forever did not last.

            Rebecca thought her relationship was perfect. Even though she went on her business trips and to her meetings, she trusted Andrew to stay faithful like a normal husband would. Rebecca would have never found out about Andrew and Lydia’s relationship if it was not for the little mistake. Andrew left his cell phone out on the kitchen counter while he was upstairs getting ready for work. The phone went off, and Rebecca absent-mindedly looked at the screen to see what it was for. The screen lit up with a little envelope representing a text message. It was from Lydia saying, “Can’t wait for tonight. Meet you at the usual place at 5. Becca won’t be home ‘till late. Already talked to her about it. Long meeting with the boss. See you tonight! <3 Lydia”

Rebecca did not have a reaction. Her marriage was perfect, it had to be. Nothing could possibly go wrong. She loved her husband and her husband loved her. That is the way it was supposed to be. She believed nothing was going to happen that night, so she put down the phone, walked upstairs, and began to get ready for the day.

Just like Lydia said, Rebecca had a meeting with her boss until late that night. She came home at about ten, went straight upstairs and went to bed. She was mentally and physically exhausted. She ignored the fact that neither her husband nor Callie was home yet. She climbed into bed and began thinking of the text she read that morning. Could it be true? Was her husband really cheating on her? She laughed at the thought, closed her eyes, and went to bed.

The next morning, she awoke to her husband lying next to her. She smiled to herself and got up, pondering the fact that she and Andrew’s marriage was perfect. She was in such a good mood that she made Andrew’s favorite breakfast: French toast with bacon and black coffee. Andrew came downstairs, slightly surprised at the scene before him. He ate anyway, happy that breakfast was made for him. When he took a sip of coffee, he spit it back in the cup. Rebecca confused as to what happened asked him what was wrong. He told her he liked cream and sugar with his coffee because Lydia made it that way. Plain black was just too bitter for him. Rebecca nodded and quickly finished her breakfast.

The signs kept showing up to Rebecca that Andrew was cheating on her. Rebecca, oblivious to the fact that marriages are able to fall apart, ignored the signs and thought that everything was perfectly normal. Unfortunately, Rebecca’s job crumbled to pieces and she became unemployed. Since she could always be home now, she talked to Andrew about firing Lydia as their nanny. She told him they did not need her anymore since she could always be home. Andrew reluctantly agreed, so they let Lydia go.

Even though Lydia should have been deleted from the picture, Andrew still managed to see her. Rebecca finally put together the clues that had noticeably been put in front of her, and had a slight bit of conviction that made her believe her husband was indeed cheating on her. Rebecca questioned him as to why he still kept in contact with Lydia even though she was no longer their nanny. Andrew did not have a definite answer, so Rebecca finally realized Andrew was actually cheating on her. It felt like knives with tingling edges stabbing her into an unknown feeling.

Rebecca still wanted her perfect family and she thought she could still have it. She was a kind-hearted person, not at all violent, who liked to work circumstances out. But in order to save her marriage and her family, she completed drastic tasks to get it back fast.

While Andrew was in the shower one morning, Rebecca took his phone and sent Lydia a text message saying “Becca is running errands all day, come for breakfast at 9?” Lydia immediately responded with a yes, so Rebecca put the phone down and went to the kitchen. Andrew left for work at eight which gave her an hour to wait for Lydia to arrive. Lydia came at exactly nine, and Rebecca was hiding behind the counter, kitchen knife in hand. She heard the creaking door in all the silence with a small step of caution. Lydia rounded the corner of the counter and was astonished to see Rebecca crouched down before her. Without a second thought, Rebecca jumped up and stabbed Lydia in the chest. Lydia collapsed to the floor without making a sound.

Rebecca examined Lydia’s dead body lying before her; the blood rapidly oozing out of her wound. With no regret, she smiled to herself. Now that Lydia was gone, Rebecca’s family could go back to the way it should have been all along. Their family would now be perfect; nothing was going to stop the reformation of her beautiful fantasy. That was the way it was supposed to be.