South Carolina Monologue

“GOD DAMMITT”, a chilling power filled voice echoed throughout the mansion. The rain suddenly began to pound against the roof, as the sound echoed off of the marble flooring.

Within seconds of the bite I could feel the poison slowly start to spread through my veins, it didn’t hurt, but it was ice cold. I could feel it course through my body, tingling as it inched closer towards my heart; feeling as I had always imagined being bitten by a rattle snake may feel. I hadn’t known what to expect, after all, no one had ever been bitten by a zombie and lived to tell the tale. I was scared but accepted my fate almost immediately – after all, I had survived unscathed in this cruel version of what the world once was, much longer than ever would have been imagined. The end is finally here, were my final thoughts before I collapsed, hitting the floor hard, relieved of the escape from this awful nightmare that had become my life.

When darkness consumes you and the pain becomes unbearable, you look to the light, to perseverance to guide you through the nightmare you face. In Ruta Sepetys’ Salt to the Sea, one of the protagonists, Emilia, faces a myriad of emotional and physical hardships throughout the novel. With calamitous tragedies and bone-chilling circumstances, what does Emilia do? Bruised and battered, she perseveres through her hardships, showing how much a person can endure when they persist. Sepetys takes the consequences of Emilia’s pain and emotional damage to new heights with her war-themed novel; as a result of this, perseverance is articulated amongst many other traits that this character possesses, showing how imperative of a quality it is. A theme that is profoundly emphasized in Salt To The Sea is that in order to face the emotional and physical hardships life opposes you with, you need perseverance.

It was an early December morning. The roads were slick with a thin layer of ice. The air was crisp with a winter chill and there was a slight drizzle falling from the sky. I was riding in my dad’s truck to my grandma’s, who babysat me while my parents were at work. My little brother Kaden was also with us. At the time I was four and Kaden (my brother) was 4 months. The day started off normal, Kaden was sleeping as usually and I was looking out the window watching raindrops race each other. At that moment I remember feeling happy and content just ready to drift off to sleep, when Suddenly the tires started Squealing. My mind was then cast into a sea of darkness that seem to have no escape.

The door slams shut. A dry breeze follows me into Ryan’s Fourth Ward Polls as I escape the cold October night. An eerie group of men eye me up and down as I walk to the bar for my evening dose of cognac. As I shake their stares off, an old bartender greets me.We indulge in some light conversation about the upcoming Election Day as he pours me my smooth glass of cognac. Thanking the Sir, I grab my glass and sit down to relax but find myself in a slight state of paranoia. A muffled scream is heard and I see some silhouettes dragging a figure towards a room. Thinking nothing of it, I return to peace taking slow sips of my drink. That peace is broken as I feel two strong men grab me, and someone else covers my mouth with some sort of fabric. Before I can even struggle, I feel my heart ache in pain and my body gives up drifting into a state of sleep. I wake up in a room full of liquor and 3 buff looking men. The worst thoughts go through my head and I realize where I am.

Henry Bailey suffered from bronchial troubles. He would cough and cough until his narrow face turned scarlet, and his light blue, derisive eyes filled up with tears; then he took the lid off the stove, and, standing well back, shot out a great clot of phlegm – hss – straight into the heart of the flames. We admired his for this performance and for his ability to make his stomach growl at will, and for his laughter, which was full of high whistlings and gurglings and involved the whole faulty machinery of his chest. It was sometimes hard to tell what he was laughing at, and always possible that it might be us.

That day I decided to follow them and it brought me to a apartment building’ its walls were cracked and there seemed to be no doors on their hinges, out of nowhere someone grabs me and I start to struggle to get loose but it 's to late they have knocked me out. I’ve woke up laying on a tattered up old looking bed, my feet were freezing

Jonathan had lost breath after a few minutes that felt like hours. He ran into a bush and ducked down whispering to himself, "Help me.. help me.. Please.". Jonathan heard a faint growl and moved around the bush. He began to make a loud sound of pain as a thorn stuck itself into his shoulder. The creature sprang near an area of grass nearby the bush. It began circling the bush as Jonathan attempted to shield his mouth from making more sound. Jonathan bolted out of the bush running quickly, attempting to push sticks in the way of the creature. He caught his leg on a stick he was trying to push into the way and fell. Silence fell as Jonathan looked around Terrified. A scream escaped Jonathan's mouth as the creature began leaping at him. He had

I am surrounded by darkness, confined in a paltry room its contents limited to a bed with a thin mattress and pillow. The air is dense and smells of blood. The brown walls smothered in writing reek of mulch. The only way to get in or out is through a small metal door that is locked from the outside. I feel like a caged animal, my every move being watched. I curl up in a ball on the floor, panic, worry, and uneasily drift in and out of sleep. From what I can tell I am in a mental hospital. The Bella Vista mental asylum, the place where nothing good ever happens. I tremble uncontrollably and hear queer voices in my head.

The Book of Negroes has a clear message about racism and slavery against Africans. The main character called Aminata Diallo was abducted from Africa at the age of eleven and sold into slavery, where she spends the majority of her life. Age is such an important fact in the message of this book, due to the fact that she was a carefree girl until she was caught and as a consequence, she had to grow up faster and had to deal with slavery for the majority of her life, dealing with racism against black people on a regular basis. The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate and analyze the main causes that make the different ages of Aminata throughout the book as one of the most important factors for its development and also the evolution of her as a character.

4. Rewrite one of the eleven sections of Alejandra Pizarnik in The Bloody Countess to convey the horrors of Bathory’s torture chamber

I very rarely think in words at all. A thought prevails and I may try to express it in words afterwards, but the words are never there to begin with. But sometimes if I’m lucky, I can identify the thought bubble almost instantaneously with what I like to call “special transmitters”. You see, each thought shape has a different feel – sometimes the thoughts are quiet as a mouse, and sometimes it is loud and thunderous. Sometimes it sounds like it is close by, and sometimes it sounds further off.

Albert Einstein once stated, “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” I remember that quote from Jeopardy, but I never actually thought of anything of it. The category was transcendentalism and I remembered that pretty clearly because Alex Trebek was complaining about how long the word was to fit in the box. So when transcendentalism was introduced in our class, I felt a familiar wave of nostalgia hit me. I was pretty excited to start my essay, but I didn’t have time on the weekdays, so I decided to work on it during the weekend. It wasn’t until Sunday morning, the day before it was due, that I forgot to do it. I had that guilt in the back of my head and I sat straight up in my bed at around 4 am, pondering about the essay. I

Tomorrow is the day that my family and I go to North Carolina to meet my dad’s sister that he has never met. Everyone is really excited that the whole house is going crazy. In the Rosenboom house hold you can never get any peace and quiet other than when everyone goes to bed because my younger brother, Mason, and my two younger sisters, Maddie and Brooklynn, are little fireballs full of energy. Everyone already has their bag pack and they are all ready to go, but I can’t find anything to wear for the next week. So I had to have my older sister, Marika, help me find some clothes and she couldn’t find anything either, so she just gave me some of her clothes. My dad is getting the truck ready for the trip because we are leaving at 1 a.m. so that us kids can sleep for most of the ride because the ride is 15 hours long.

“C’mon honey” I said to Devin, my baby. We were at Stepping Stones Day Care. It was my little boys first day. I wanted to drop him off early, at 6, so I could make it to my job at school as a teacher. “Hello, I’m here to drop of my son,” I told the Daycare women. “We are glad to have him,” she seemed to quote back at me. “I’ll pick him up at six,” I told her. “Have a nice day!” she called as I drove off.