Illusion

Author Notes: When monsters turn to insects and life becomes confusing you feel scared and a bit crazy! But that is only when its written from the crazed point of view. What if its in a bystanders point of view? That's exactly what I showed in this piece. 

Thrilling Story’s and fictional objects make Edgar Allen Poe’s, Tales of Mystery And Terror,  perfect for a complicated and exuberating read. At first many of these stories didn’t make sense to me; Sphinx being a prime example. It’s children’s story demeanor and “Scary Monster” cliché make this story seem far from what it is. A man seeing a monster that is bigger than an elephant but it’s actually known to be the size of an insect? Maybe he has problems that are much bigger then they seem, or anxiety problems, or maybe he’s just plan crazy. But more importantly what is his friend thinking? What is this story like in a different point of view? That is what I want to demonstrate…

The friends version of Sphinx:

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Finally, I had found the opportunity to get away. Finally, I got to free myself to a cottage with my friend for the weekend. Finally, I got to sit down and read a classic book. Until I hear my friend stand from his chair and peer intensely through the glass window. Close and opening his eyes, as if trying to get rid of an image. Weird? I wait for him to turn; instead he falls to the ground. As impulse I jump to his aid! Maybe he's ill? Maybe just passed out? Maybe different air pressure in the woods? No, definitely passed out. I poke him a bit before he has awoken, dizzy and confused.

“What happened?” I questioned. With no expression he shook his head.

“Th-there was a thing,” he stuttered, “it ran over the naked part of the hills.” He gives a scarce description of the beast that I presume is just a dream. He retrieves his book, which may I say looks like one from my library, and goes to his room. I sit pondering the thought of this creature.

Within four days my friend sits in the lounging chair near the window where he first saw this creature; without notice he screams in absolute terror. Failing to use his words he rambles and points.

"What?!" I yell in annoyance.

“Right there! Its running up the hills!” I step closer to see nothing and come to the realization that my friend either- one, had too much to drink or two, has gone mentally insane. Either way he is hallucinating; I see no beast in the distance. I decide that I will ignore my insane friend, but he will not shut up about this so called "monster"  so I pull out my synopses of Natural History. As we flip through the pages we only find one animal that fits his description- thick as the body of an elephant,  immense black shaggy hair at the root of his trunk, 2 tusks, wings, metal scales. Only could be classified as the Sphinx. Although, it turns out to be a bug. My mind tries to wrap itself around this problem. The only place to go is where his screaming attacks frequently happen.

I look through the window he first discovered this monster and find an insect dangling on a web right in front of my eyes. Could this huge monster turned out to be an insect a sixteenth of an inch? It's Nowhere near the size of his description. Obviously this is only an optical illusion playing tricks with my friends mind! But does this mean much more?

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A cold heart

Authors Note: Theme is a big part in every book./novel, that's exactly why I wrote an essay providing the importance of theme in the book A Christmas Carol while comparing it to two other wonderful books. 

Complete and utter loneliness is the life Ebenezer Scrooge walks in. He can’t saunter down the icy street of Great Britain without people giving him weird looks and straying far away from him. A normal human would feel disowned by this, but Scrooge was far from normal. This rudeness made Scrooge pleased that he didn’t need to come in contact with such idiotic pedestrians. Even during the merry time of Christmas! His cold heart wouldn’t warm one degree during the cold harsh season! That was until the night three phantoms haunted him; sent from his dead pal Marley. The ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Changing his misery to jolliness just in time for Christmas day. Although Ebenezer Scrooge changes he still has the past of his lonely life growing up and running his business. That is why I consider Loneliness a large theme in the book “A Christmas Carol”.

Ebenezer grew up in a family that found him as a disgrace. He lived most of his childhood years in the lonesome boarding school, not even taken home for the Holiday Season. Obviously making Christmas a spiteful time of the year for old Ebenezer. Even the poorest of people had felt the warmth of Christmas, but Ebenezer felt nothing. It’s quite sad and a tragedy that Scrooge as a boy never received the unconditional love that every young child should. Making him envious of the people who did.

But that envious attitude didn’t end there, it went through his adult years as well.  Once Marley becomes desist he spends each day alone. Accompanied by his underpaid clerk, which he would not consider a friend.  Scrooge lives a solitary life keeping each door double locked, separating himself from the world outside. But once in contact with peaceful pedestrians he becomes irritated and cold. No one chooses to talk to him because of his negativity. Making him the most solitude man in town.

Having a solitary life wasn’t the result for only Scrooge in  A Christmas Carol  but, also many other books. Speak being one of those.  A adolescent girl becomes an outcast due to a huge misunderstanding. No one knows her true story and what she’s been through. Although, the kids at her school still end up giving her rude glares and ignore her completely. Just like the people on the street do to Scrooge. No one knows their stories. Along with Pictures of Hollis Woods. A lonesome orphan runs away from every family she’s been with, never feeling wanted or loved. Just like Scrooge as a boy. As you can see each book illustrates the theme of loneliness and demonstrates it quiet nicely.

Life for the lonely is bitter and cold. Only the heartless can deal with that and Ebenezer Scrooge, although it may seem otherwise, had a heart. A heart that just needed to find a purpose and thanks to the three phantoms Ebenezer found that purpose right in time for Christmas. Along with the girls from Pictures of Hollis Woods and Speak. They just needed that purpose and at the end of each book that purpose was fulfilled. Making loneliness sometimes turn in to a, cliché, but very happy ending.