Lac Daumesnil: A Short Story

I left Novi High School on a bright yellow school bus full of student council members. We passed large houses with gorgeous manicured lawns, and multiple cars in each driveway. I looked down to send a text to my friend, and before I knew it, the bus looked like it was in a whole different world. Everywhere I looked I saw abandoned houses covered in graffiti so thick you coundn’t see the brick. Boarded up buildings and neighborhood streets with houses so packed together you could reach out and touch your neighbor… if only every house was occupied and safe. The streetlamps were burned out, and every store had bars guarding their windows and doors. I was so involved in the scenery passing before my eyes, that I didn’t even notice the bus coming to a complete stop.

The lights of the town were veiled in darkness, a mere inverted shadow amidst the gloom of the night. Distant thunderings, as those brought to mind with Dies Irae or the distant chattering of a great blaze could be heard, drawing nigh upon the trembling hands of the people frantically seeking a shade for the lights that would soon propagate should their brilliance stretch to the skies, but found difficulty locating even their hands at arm’s length, due to the cloud over the town, in the streets, as real and thick as the blanket of golden and crimson extending toward the town at a propeller’s rate, silencing the natural beauty of the countryside amid the sounds of death and destruction.

In addition to mirroring life, the Sea of Flames sets the stage for Doerr’s most pervasive yet inconspicuous analogy. When asked what he wants readers to take away from his novel, Doerr replies “that war is more complicated than they [the readers] might have thought, that there were civilians on both sides making really complicated moral decisions, [...] [that] little miracles” sprouted in the least expected of places (Schulman 27). The Sea of Flames is a central messenger for this theme at individual points of the novel but also in its overarching structure. The reader is first introduced to the Sea of Flames when it is housed at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, marked only by “an iron door with a single keyhole,” a series ending with a “thirteenth [...] no bigger than a shoe.” (Doerr 19-20). All the Light We Cannot See is partitioned into fourteen fragments- but it is labeled zero through thirteen. Just as passing through each door brings one closer to the gem, Doerr seeks to guide his reader through the locked gates of compassion and conflict to arrive at his own gem, which is revealed after passing through the thirteenth gate, into the last chapter of the novel, as Marie-Laure contemplates all the invisible electromagnetic waves, “ten thousand I miss yous, fifty thousand I love yous” passing “over the scarred and ever-shifting landscapes.” Transient messages connecting ephemeral people who eventually fall away, like the Sea of Flames, and “rise again

As the story progresses, it became evident that the setting was a post nuclear apocalypse in New York City. The author utilized descriptions such as “high towers of the gods” and “great caves and tunnels” to describe skyscrapers and subways respectively.The author’s selection of the location highlights the complete difference of the

The Laches begins with Lysimachus saying, “You have seen the man fighting in armor, Nicias and Laches” (Laches, 178A) to his two friends Nicias and Laches with his third friend Melesias. He has invited these men to his home to ask them what they think about training their sons, Thucydides and Aristides, with this method so as they are “concerned about the sort of training that would make the best men of them.” (Laches, 179B). Lysimachus and Melesias are worried about how their sons are perceived in society as they have no achievements or merits of worth yet while Nicias and Laches are noted generals that are held in high esteem. Nicias is “ready to take part in it” (Laches, 180A) and so is Laches but he recommends that they bring Socrates

“Beneath the gore and smoke and loam, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow. In the end it is a story of the ineluctable conflict between good and evil, daylight and darkness, the White City and the Black.” (xi) This shows the contrast between the White City and the Black City. One, perfect, beautiful, magical, the other dark, filthy, evil. The two work together yet against each other in the battle to win over the hearts of the people who visit, and those who decide to stay

Books were marching together to bring the knowledge lost long ago. Rebirth of life can occur with the progress of freedom. They faced the city covered in ash, and full of curiosity. Montag thought of nothing but hope for brighter days; To accept what’s in the past. His mind running rapidly at full capacity, yet there’s still a fog. The aftermath? Montag and his group of once book burners continue into the distance wondering about every little detail of the rebirth. The city looked of nothing but motionless. It was silent. The only thing making noise was the winds from the bomb that went off hours ago. There were pieces of metal from the bomb lodged into the dirt in every direction. Montag slowly pauses af the sounds of foot

“But a deeper terror immediately gripped me: I couldn’t remember where I was. A warm bed, darkness, the sound of traffic. What country is this? What is this house, and who am I with. I reached out a hand; there was no one else in the bed. Was I alone because I had no partner, or because my partner was far away? I floated in the dark, anonymous to myself, lost in the sensation that the world existed but I was no longer a part of it” (130).

“The Prodigy has put on a show tonight!” the announcer says, when the 18 year old all star center scored his third goal of the night. The kid’s got everything going for him, a nice house outside Toronto, Ontario, parents who both have money, and a god given talent on the ice. He’s out there for the final minute of the game, up 3-2 after his third goal gave them the lead. His job, protect the lead and win the game. He wins the face-off, gets the puck back from his linemate, and cuts in over the blue line. As he approaches the net, he dodges a hit, but the defender falls on the outside of his knee, collapsing it as he took the shot. The tv broadcaster yells “OTTERS GOAL! What a play by Laflamme!... Uh oh, he’s having trouble getting up folks.” Laflamme gets up slowly, favoring his left leg as he skated back to center ice to finish the last 12 seconds of the game. His coach, however, called him to the bench to sit him down. “Great job bud. You did what we needed.” Coach Wilson said. Thomas replied, hiding his

Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See, is a beautifully written story capturing the lives of two ordinary children growing up in the midst of World War II. Doerr’s novel is told by a young French girl, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, living with her father, a master museum locksmith, in Paris. By the time Marie-Laure is 6 years old, she is fully blind. To help her learn to navigate around the city, her father creates a miniature version of Paris. He carves intricate houses so her fingers can trace along the streets.

In the city that never sleeps, silence fell upon the people. A memorial covered with flowers was transfigured from the steeple. Standing still, staring in complete disbelief, Our hearts were torn with instant grief.

A hot and blistering day, no clouds insight as the sun beams my face. So excruciating, my face smells like burnt trash. As I am waiting for the bus to pass by, there are several children playing on the swings across the street. The bus arrives and off I go heading to a town known for "Hope". As I arrive to the town of Plateros. I marched like wild fire to the temple. The journey, not an easy journey because I had to push and shove people out of the way just to get to the temple. It seems if I was back in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Finally, as I stand at the front gates which happens to be massive? So massive they appeared to be touching the sky. I strolled through the gate and notice all the stairs just to get to the top. I remember the time of the Aztec 's pyramids where they would do human sacrifices for their Gods. As I make my way up the stairs like a captive. Once at the top of the stairs I stood this beautiful temple and what caught my eye was the outer structure.

Moving into the house at One-Saint-Léger was quick and simple; all they had to move in was their clothes and a few toiletries. Thomas promised to have servants there within a few days- “Until then, we’ll eat at your grandparent’s house or one of the nearby restaurants,” he told Allie.

My name is Marchelle Dye, and I attend Vestavia Hills High School. AUM is my top choice, but I have a dilemma. My highest score on the ACT is a 17, but my GPA is a 2.2. I’m trying extremely hard to raise it to a 2.3. So, I was wondering if I would still qualify for the bridge program? I feel as if it would help me out tremendously.

Over the years the concept of an afterlife has been perpetually questioned by many authors and philosophers including the French playwright, Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre questions the known layout of hell and instead offers a new idea of people, in fact, being each other’s hell. He creates a fictional story about terrible people who must spend the entirety of their afterlives suffering with each other. In, “No Exit,” a play written by Jean-Paul Sartre, the act of self reflection and it’s consequences are shown through the egocentric characterization of main protagonists Garcin, Estelle, and Inez and the seemingly bland setting.