3 min fiction

I sat humbly at the bus stop on Western and Diversey. I was heading home on a nice Sunday spring afternoon, excited to play the new video games I bought with money from my Mom's purse. This was the first time I actually took money from my mother, whether stolen or not. But it wasn't I like I wasn't going to pay her back. I mean I had a job, but I didn't make enough to buy the games I wanted. I couldn't wait for the west bound bus to come. The intersection isn't as busy as it usually is. Even when cars passed by, they went at a slower pace. Disturbed by the slowness of the traffic, I checked bus time arrivals through my phone. Four minutes from 4:11PM until my bus arrived. I looked at the GameStop bag in my left hands; Call of Duty: Ghost, Assassin's Creed and a brand new Xbox controller were my new treasures that I purchased. School was almost over and I could care less about schoolwork. Gaming was one of my greatest hobbies and now I can satisfy myself with it. I checked the bus time arrivals again. 3 minutes from 4:19PM until my bus came. It looked like it was behind schedule, no big deal. Suddenly I heard a flapping noise behind me. I turned around to find a card sitting on a window. It was well decorated card. I peeked inside the window and assumed nobody was home. Out of curiosity I skimmed the card. It was lovely, all the colors ever imagine was splattered all over it. And in the back there seemed like a drawing of a family: a boy, father, and mother. I found this the most disturbing part of the card. It wasn't even finished. The mother had no colors, left blank as if it was a color in activity. Also there was an unfinished sentence at the top of the page. It read "HAPPY MO" and was cutted off from there. Mo? Is that the name of the boy? The perfect card I thought wasn't even in the perfect condition. I saw dried drops of water after the letter O. Then I realized what was wrong. Today was the second day of May. I thought I could come home with games that I bought with stolen money. I checked the bus time arrivals again. Bus is approaching at 4:25PM. I saw the bus coming from the lake. I crossed the street  and took the bus away from home and back to the store. 

Thankful (for a classmate)

Thanksgiving is coming up, so why not write about being thankful for a friend in my British Literature class. Honestly, the class is already interesting enough to keep me awake, but having a friend can sometimes give me a laugh. I am thankful for my classmate, Stephanie.

Stephanie, the girl that sits next to me, is such a sweet friend, always laughing when Milton and I are goofing around. If had to do some sort of group work activity, she is one of the few people I would go to. To be honest, we haven't met before I transferred from the 1st period class. But I'm glad that I found some friends within 2nd period, such as Stephanie.

It isn't fair just to write about just one of my classmates, so how about another? You can't forget Milton Woods, the mischief. Always trying to throw garbage wrappers into my bag. Always pointing out the window at some stranger to get my attention. Saying the most ridiculous stuff, that sometimes I just want to hit him with a book (just kidding, too extreme). But all of these things are things that a friend would do.

You guys better write about me. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Then he is dead?

Towards the end of Macbeth, we had to decide if whether Macbeth's actions to obtain all of his title and glory were worth the troubles. We can easily identify the process in which Macbeth has been completely transformed into a different human being, more so a monster. Since the beginning of the play, where he was someone that others would look up to as a role model to someone that would commit horrendous actions to fulfill to meet his content in the end. At one point of the play, Macbeth hires a few henchmen to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance, to keep the prophecy alive. A question occurred to me while reading this scene, "Why didn't Macbeth kill Banquo himself?" A theory I came up with was that Macbeth did not want to kill Banquo himself because he did not want the blood of his closest friend on his hand. He could have possibly had some lurking feelings. This supports the idea of how slowly he transformed. Towards the end, he lost most of his friends and family in the process of being a king. Not only that, but his mentality has completely reversed. Macbeth carries no feelings, morals, or emotions that he once had. Even though, he reached his goal, struggles continue to add up on his shoulders. Ultimately, all of this leads to the takeover of Macbeth. Is all of this worth it? In my opinion, definitely not.

Top Full of Direst Cruelty

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth read a letter from her husband and found one of his statement intriguing; three witches have foretold his future as being king. Upon her encounter with a messenger, she receive enough evidence to convince her that royalty was sure to come. Immediately, she has a soliloquy where she basically tells the audience that she will do anything within her reach to obtain the crown. If it was possible, she wished to remove all kindness and replace it with cruelty so that it would not cause her to feel guilt for actions to come. To emphasize this, she also states "From crown to toe." In this scene, Lady Macbeth takes the qualities of a traditional woman and completely reverse it. Usually, a woman would have characteristics such as being heartwarming, generous, obedient, etc., but Lady Macbeth rids herself from these traits and cover herself in greed and ambition. More so, she takes on a masculine position rather than a feminist one. Lady Macbeth is depicted as a character that takes on any available opportunity for power and fortune, as she is willing to sacrifice everything in doing so. But the setting, "Macbeth's Castle", implies that she is already in good standing with her husband and the idea of seeking even higher position supports her characterization. This description of herself may lead to possible influence on Macbeth's actions.

No New Tale to Tell

"Greed is the root of all evil." Though this statement is debatable, negative traits such as, hate, jealousy, or anger can be traced back to greed. The original quote is "For the love of money is the root of all evil," which is stated directly from the Bible. This shows that this notion is present in the Christianity world, but also in the Buddhist society. During one of my Sunday Buddhist studies, there was a specific lecture on the three poisons of mankind with Attachment (a.k.a. Greed) as one. The teacher specifically stated that greed was the prominent poison as it led to the other two.
My definition of greed is the ultimate desire for a particular thing, whether it is materialistic or not. Like I said, it can also lead to other evil traits. For example, if one were to seek gold, he/she would remove all obstacles in front of him/her in order to obtain it, possibly creating anger or commit unholy actions. In the Pardoner's Tale, the story itself depicts the epitome of greed. As the three men come upon gold, they remove all prior intentions and sought after it. Ultimately, greed, in the form of "Death", kills all of them. This story and its theme has already been told in different versions making it a "No New Tale to Tell."

Truth

What is "truth"? Is it something that is based of evidence? Or how one perceives truth? The theme of "truth" reoccurs throughout Grendel and can sometimes be ambiguous. Grendel's knowledge is undeveloped and unsure, thus leading him to believing anything to become true. In his first encounter with the Shaper, he and Hrothgar's people have been exposed to the Shaper's songs. Because of the Shaper's ability to recite stories in such a mesmerizing way, those with lack of knowledge or understanding are susceptible to regard these stories as the "truth". Are these stories and songs actually true? Maybe? Maybe not? Throughout time, oral traditions are passed down from generation to generation, slowly changing its original context. Perhaps, they have changed so much, that they evolve into complete lies, just to satisfy kings and heroes. One of the Shaper's apparent feature is that he is blind, which emphasizes this idea of his stories as being unoriginal or possibly inaccurate. Later on, Grendel goes to the dragon for answers to his questions. Upon this encounter with the dragon, Grendel's view of the "truth" complete changes. The dragon explains how human's perception of the world is consisted of small individual knowledge that links up to a larger understanding. Sooner or later, this bigger picture will become nonsense and this is where the Shaper comes into play. The Shaper uses his ability to develop his own idea of from these nonsense into something real for others. But like the Shaper, why does Grendel believe the dragon? The dragon's controlling and authoritative tone may have frightened Grendel into believing him. In the end, Grendel seeks his own "truth" of the world.

Modern Day Grendel

Throughout the epic of Beowulf, the antagonist, Grendel, is depicted as a unrelenting and murderous savage. However, this description is derived from the perspectives of the people of Herot. To them, Grendel committed countless of murderers in order to satisfy his devilish desires. These are only assumptions, disregarding what Grendel's true motive. Maybe he thought his doings would compensate for their actions. Maybe he sought revenge for something that has occurred in the past. Maybe he doesn't have one at all. It seems apparent that this poem is one-sided, masking other ideas. When I think things being one-sided, the idea of terrorists come into mind. Americans have created this image of Muslims of the Middle East as being terrorists. However, they based this stereotype off terrorist attacks. Not all Muslims use violence; there has been benevolent protests. They don't conduct these actions just because they resent America. The prominent motive of this is to avoid being part of globalization and losing their distinct culture. Most Americans don't take account for the Muslims' viewpoint because of their arrogance. Perhaps, Muslims depict Americans as being the modern day "Grendel" for expanding this idea of globalization into the Middle East. Our modern day "Grendels" exist only because we imagine them as that.