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Zippo
John said; 'I had this dream. I'll tell you about it: I'm standing in a bar with some friends and we're talking, drinking, it's Friday night and the bar is pretty full, there's loud music playing. The beer is making me feel good, but not falling-down good, and the vibe is there and all the girls look pretty. I have enough money in my pocket to keep it going like this all night so, you know, everything is fine.'
He wound down the window and took a deep breath before continuing.
'It's my round and I go to the bar and there's a huge crowd but I get served right away. As I pass out the drinks and turn back to get my own beer I brush against this girl, I mean, she brushes against me. And smiles. Real eye contact. I think to myself, "This is going to be a really good night" and if I'd woke then I would have woke up laughing. You know how it is with dreams, good dreams, part of you knows it's all fake but if you are really lucky you don't wake up. Everything works alright.
'Then this kid walks into the bar, I don't see him first, but my dream sees him or maybe I just remember it afterwards. He's just a skinny kid, wired up though, real angry looking, and in his hand he is carrying a bucket full of petrol. It sloshes about as he pushes through the crowd.
'I look up to see him standing in front of me just as he throws this bucket of petrol in my face. Next thing I'm standing in a crowd of one as everybody backs away, except the kid who is grinning at me, and I am soaked in petrol. My eyes sting as it runs down my face. It is clotting in my beer.'
John looked at me and smiled, a wry smile.
'There I am, standing alone in a puddle of flammable liquid, the stuff is seeping through my clothes; it feels clammy and scratchy. I know what is about to happen and I think to myself, "Why me? What have I done to deserve this?" Like it just isn't part of any of my plans to be burned alive in a pub on a Friday night.
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'The kid reaches into his pocket and pulls out a Zippo, holds it toward me and smiles.
She was born in the Marinette Marine Company yard in Wisconsin when her plates were cut. She was one of sixty five ordered for the United States Navy. Her War service life began in 1965 when designated for landing duties as an ATC, armored troop carrier, in Vietnam. As with most of the sixty five built she would be abused, and at times miss-handled, in the hands of others during her service.
John is a cowboy and as with all cowboys, their lives all revolve around the horse. While he is at home at his grandfath...
Montag, Beatty and the rest of the firemen expected it to be just another burning. They did not expect an unidentified woman to commit suicide along with burning her books. As the firemen attempted to save the woman, she told them to “go on.” Within a moment, “The woman on the porch reached out with contempt to them all and struck the kitchen match against the railing.” On the way back to the firehouse, the men didn’t speak or look at each other. While Beatty began showing the knowledge he has gained from books, which along with the death, firemen begin to show that they are thinking and showing emotions. While listening to Beatty, Blackstone passes the turn to the firehouse, while Montag is amazed at his intelligence.
John’s confusion in destiny stems from the fact that he believes that anything is possible in life and that it is not one big blueprint of the world. Owen Meany never gave John the chance to decide for himself in what he believed in because Owen disproved John’s belief by confirming to John that life is destiny.
John's eyes fluttered open and he cautiously surveyed his surroundings. Where was he taken? Who knocked him unconscious and carried him from his solitude at the lighthouse? He did not have to wait long for his answer, when he saw his friend standing over him, shaking him to awareness.
The picture opens to a close up of an eye with a peculiar long eyelash. The camera fades back onto the face of a young gentlemen, he begins to narrate: "There was me, that is Alex. And my three droogs (friends), that is Pete, Georgy and Dim. And we sat at the karuba milk bar trying to make up our plans for the evening…"
First, Montag appears empathetic towards his fellow citizens, while the Captain is bent on burning literature and expects the same characteristic from his cohorts. Before the firemen could burn a woman’s collection of publications, she instead set himself - and her whole house - on fire rather than relinquish her literature. The incident sank deep into Montag’s heart and he questions the tactics of his peers. Over a game of cards, Montag confided to Beatty, “‘I’ve tried to imagine .... just how it would feel. I mean, to have firemen burn our houses and our books.’ .... ‘Was─was it always like this? The
Dreams are extremely realistic imagery or memories depicted by the brain to seem like reality while you sleep, or in some cases, while you are awake. In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, the author uses Connie’s experiences, foreshadowing, and Arnold Friend’s character to reveal that the short story could all be a simple trashy daydream.
On that night, Dewey Dell’s got a weird dream. “I rose and took the knife from the streaming fish still hissing and I killed Darl. She remembers a dream where she killed him. But it was only a dream. ” When I used to sleep with Vardaman I had a nightmare one I thought I was awake but I couldn’t see and couldn’t feel the bed under me and I couldn’t think what I was I couldn’t think of my name I couldn’t even think I am a girl …
That night I couldn't go to sleep.Every inch of me was wide awake and full of excitement.Holding onto every sign of morning I drifted off.Before I knew I was
In the course of human history, man has managed to do some really dumb things. Whether it’s because we lack sufficient knowledge, make a mistake, or are just too stubborn to use sound judgement, dumb decisions are made every day by everyone. However, none have a greater level of stupidity than the choices made by the man in Jack London’s To Build a Fire. This is a story of pride, ignorance, and stupidity, which ultimately leads to the downfall of its main character. This short story is a caution against over confidence and unpreparedness, showing the harsh effects of both. Ultimately, it is an issue of man’s pride versus the harsh conditions of nature. It shows that one cannot simply overlook nature, because doing so can lead to the destruction
...ing as they die in the flames while the melted fat is scooped up and tossed back over them to make them burn faster. The heart wrenching terror is portrayed so intensely that while you want to look away, you can’t help up keep looking and part of you might be hoping this is just an exaggeration and you know it isn’t.
In “To Build A Fire”, the main conflict throughout is man versus nature although it would be inaccurate to say that nature goes out of its way to assault the man. The fact of the matter is, nature would be just as cold without the man's presence regardless of him being there .The environment as a whole is completely indifferent to the man, as it frequently is in naturalist literature. The bitter environment does not aid him in any way, and it will not notice if he perishes. In the same way, the dog does not care about the man, only about itself. Ironically enough though, as the man was dying he was getting upset toward the dog because of its natural warmth, the instincts that it had, and its survival skills and those were the elements that the man lacked for survival. It is ironic that the man had to die in order to find out that man's fragile body cannot survive in nature's harsh elements, regardless of a human’s natural over-confidence and psychological strength.
Oprah Winfrey once said, “The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” But, what actually is a dream and what do dreams really have to do with one’s everyday life? In essence, a dream is a series of mental images and emotions occurring during slumber. Dreams can also deal with one’s personal aspirations, goals, ambitions, and even one’s emotions, such as love and hardship. However, dreams can also give rise to uneasy and terrible emotions; these dreams are essentially known as nightmares. In today’s society, the concept of dreaming and dreams, in general, has been featured in a variety of different mediums, such as literature, film and even music. While the mediums of film and music are both prime examples of this concept, the medium of literature, on the other hand, contains a much more diverse set of examples pertaining to dreams and dreaming. One key example is William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While the portrayal of dreams, in general, plays a prominent role in Shakespeare’s play, the exploration of many aspects of nature, allows readers to believe that dreams are merely connected to somewhat unconventional occurrences.
There I was, sitting on my bed at 2:30 am. Wondering about the dream I