This story was told to a friend of mine by his father. My friend was 10 years old when he first heard the story and is 20 years old now. He grew up in northern Oklahoma and his family moved to Maryland when he was eight. His father, his younger brother and he were on a road trip and my friend and his brother asked their father to tell them a story to help them pass the time. My friend does not recall what his father said about where he heard the story from, but it goes more or less as follows: Once upon a time (chuckles), there were two brothers. These two brothers loved to play outdoors and one day, as it was getting on into evening, they wandered into a graveyard and met another little boy who wanted to play with them. So, they played with the boy for a while and eventually the little boy asked if the brothers would like to [see] the castle. The brothers agreed to go along and off they went following behind the little boy. The boy took them to a castle in the middle of the graveyard and took them inside to a room with big mirror on one wall. (In a really weak and timid voice:) “Follow me,” said the boy. “Let me show you where I live.” (Begins speaking more intensely:) At that, he stepped through the mirror and into the castle on the other side and disappeared around a corner. The two brothers shared a concerned look, but in the end stepped into the mirror and came out the other side. Whereas the castle they had been brought to at first seemed abandoned for centuries, this castle felt and looked as though it were currently inhabited. (Speaking with a sense of awe or wonderment:) They wandered out of the bedroom and after a time found them selves in a dinning room with a table set for many people and food laid out like a feast. At that table sat a number of ornately dressed adults. Some in very fine robes or very flashy dresses, all enjoying the feast and each others' company. (Changes to a concerned or anxious tone:) The brothers tried to ask the person nearest them what the occasion of the feast was , but the person utterly ignored [them]. In fact, when one of the brothers tried to tug at the adult’s sleeve he found that his hand went straight through it.
I found myself in the dining room observing everything and everyone. The dining room was set up to have an intimate feel to it. There were fresh flowers on every table and each table had some privacy. The
Daniel Boone was a 16 year-old boy who lived in Pennsylvania, which at the time still belonged to England. He always loved hunting and exploring. They moved to Yadkin Valley, in North Carolina. Daniel and a friend of his discussed over a campfire the beautiful land of Kentucky, and how it was full of rich farming soil and lots of deer, black bears, and other small animals for skin and food. They decided to travel there. Daniel brought 5 men with him to hunt and collect skins. One day while hunting, Daniel and his brother-in-law got captured by Indians. They told them to leave Kentucky and never come back. They weren’t scared, but the other 4 men were, so they went back to Pennsylvania. Two years later, they decided to go back to Pennsylvania to sell the skins they had collected, and when they were almost home, they got attacked by Indians and got their skins stolen. In the end, they were just happy they got to explore and live in the wild for 2 years. Two years later, Daniel decided he had been away from Kentucky for long enough and brought his family and six other families with h...
This story took place on the frontier, in the summer of 1768, in Maine's woods. Matt Hallowell and his father stake a claim in Maine territory. Once they find the perfect place, they build a new cabin. There were many trees around and a river close by where they could get water and food. There was even enough room to plant corn. There weren't any other settlers there. After Matt and his father got the place ready, they both decided that Matt would stay to guard the new cabin while his dad went back to Massachusetts to get the rest of the family including Matt's mother who was going to have a baby and his sister. Matt is only twelve years old and he has to stay by himself in the wilderness. He is scared but knows he can do it.
In this touching, non-fiction memoir by Jeanette Walls, The Glass Castle recounts the story of her vagabond upbringing in the 1960‘s. Walls notes her parents lack of conformity while also showing their unconditional love, in rather unconventional ways. While touching the bases of alcoholism, poverty and child neglect, the author still maintains the point of a passionate determination to preserve the alliance with her siblings through it all.
But first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. These were seven—an imperial suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight vista, while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different, as might have been expected from the duke’s love of the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of stained glass whose colour varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example in blue—and vividly blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with orange—the fifth with white—the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But in this chamber only, the
The legend I collected was one that I had heard before, although this version differed a little from the way I remember it. The storyteller was a 19 year-old male first year student at the University. He’s from Columbia, and his dad works in business while his mother is a homemaker. The telling of this story took place at the diner after we had finished eating:
Once all the invited guest were inside safe away from the red death ( so they thought) entertainment of all types was provided by their host Prince Prospero , a masked ball was thrown in honor of great entertainment. In this grand castle there were seven great halls each decorated a solid color: the first hall which was in the most Eastern part of the castle was painted blue with blue stained glass (Poe defined this hall to represent the beginning of life) as we continue westward in the home we travel upon the second hall which was painted purple with purple stained glass, the third hall ...
“It was a large, beautiful room, rich and picturesque in the soft, dim light which the maid had turned low. She went and stood at an open window and looked out upon the deep tangle of the garden below. All the mystery and witchery of the night seemed to have gathered there amid the perfumes and the dusky and tortuous outlines of flowers and foliage. She was seeking herself and finding herself in just such sweet half-darkness which met her moods. But the voices were not soothing that came to her from the darkness and the sky above and the stars. They jeered and sounded mourning notes without promise, devoid even of hope. She turned back into the room and began to walk to and fro, down its whole length, without stopping, without resting. She carried in her hands a thin handkerchief, which she tore into ribbons, rolled into a ball, and flung from her. Once she stopped, and taking off her wedding ring, flung it upon the carpet. When she saw it lying there she stamped her heel upon it, striving to crush it. But her small boot heel did not make an indenture, not a mark upon the glittering circlet.
The Elizabethans thought that ghosts were real and that they existed. They thought that ghosts were known to walk around the streets at midnight. Either the ghosts would not speak to anyone unless they had been challenged, or then only to those who they had a message to deliver to. They also believed that crossroads, where back in Elizabethan times, criminals and suicidals were commonly buried, were the most haunted spots. In green and marshy areas, if a traveller was hanging around there, he would be sent to his doom. A large number of roads were frequently walked along by horses without heads or deadly packs of demon hounds.
I walked into the tent and I was blindsided again with the beautiful chandelier hanging from the top of the tent. But wait was there a decoration on the chandelier, I saw two crows sitting on the sides of the chandelier, it was if, wait, there real. Must of been a hole in the tent and I just looked around to see how my wedding was going. The tea looked so delightful but I just never got accustomed
I arrived at my grandma’s house in bewilderment. The smell of flavored pork and freshly made red sauce wafted out of the windows and rose with the sound of laughter. The family was already there: all four of my aunts elbow deep into bowls of chicken, pork, sauces; my cousins and a couple of uncles with rolled up sleeves spreading
There a number of urban legends from where I live in Cleveland, Ohio, but one struck me more than others. The man who told me the story had attended the same high school as I, St. Edward High School, an all-boy high school, in Lakewood, Ohio. Lakewood, Ohio is a suburb of Cleveland located directly on Lake Erie. It is a small town that does appear to have anything special about it. It was very hard to find an urban legend concerning this small town where I attended high school, but my friend’s father knew the perfect story. He was born and grew up in Lakewood, and so knew the area very well. He had not heard the legend before attending St. Edward, but heard it during his first week of high school. After that, the story became so common, that it did not seem weird to him. The students of the school simply seemed to acc...
It is commonly believed that the only way to overcome difficult situations is by taking initiative in making a positive change, although this is not always the case. The theme of the memoir the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is that the changes made in children’s lives when living under desperate circumstances do not always yield positive results. In the book, Jeannette desperately tries to improve her life and her family’s life as a child, but she is unable to do so despite her best efforts. This theme is portrayed through three significant literary devices in the book: irony, symbolism and allusion.
I chose to write about the comparison of two of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories. The two stories that I chose to write about are “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Both of these stories create and have a gothic mood to them, which draws you in as a reader. The story of the masque of the red death is written about the black plague that was spreading across Europe at the time, and the story of the fall of the house of usher is written about a sickness or a disease that affects the characters of the story. In Edgar Allen Poe’s story of the “The Masque of the Red Death “, it is narrated by an unknown onlooker within the castle itself. In both stories with the narrator being an onlooker or as an unnamed friend as in “The fall of the House of Usher” forces or draws the reader to feel a part of the story itself. “The Masque of the Red Death” is about a prince who is rich that invites a thousand of his close knights and people of nobility to his castle where he has it sealed up to keep the plague from reaching his guest and his self. Edgar Allan Poe made the rooms of the castle in this story to be bazaar with all seven chambers of the castle different colors that went in one direction from east to west representing a life cycle. The last chamber was colored black with red stained windows that represented the final stage of life or death. The prince and his guest did not dare to enter this chamber because they feared death and were terrified of the idea of it (2012). In this story the prince and his guest think that they are safe and have a masque ball, while at the party they drink and are having a good time not thinking of the plague that is ravishing the country around them nor the poor that are being stric...
Shakespearean works are well known for their depth, symbolism and philosophical view upon different aspects of life. Mirroring is one of Shakespeare’s favorite tools. Mirroring is used to emphasize the contrast and show differences between the sides of the society and ways of living of the characters. The Merchant of Venice is no exception. Just like all other plays of Shakespeare it has many of antagonisms and it portrays the most important and hot conflicts that used to be popular at that time just as much as they are now. Exploring this multi dimensional play is exciting, because the more you think about it, the more hints and tints you discover. The play takes place in two main locations – Venice and Belmont. These two places portray two different lifestyles. One of the most important and essential themes of the Merchant of Venice is wealth. Shakespeare has a special view of this subject; he sees love as a form of wealth (Milton 34). Venice represents earning of money, accumulating it, protecting it, fighting for it; and at the same time Belmont demonstrates having money an all other life’s pleasures, this is why life in Belmont is so happy, slow and peaceful, and the whole location is so dreamlike. Being rich and having nothing to worry about is a dream of most people. To my mind, Belmont and Venice present two different sides of wealth.