preview

Mark Twain's 'A Hole In The Ceiling'

Better Essays
Open Document

This piece follows a young man who spends the first two decades of his life at the bottom of a well with only a fire and an educational device for company. He learns new words and concepts each day, but never has experienced the outside world. He therefore believes that all of existence is confined to his own experience, just as the average man is certain that existence is confined to his knowledge of the universe. The young man soon finds himself ascending into reality, which allows him to see the true expanse of the massive and colorful world.

A Hole in the Ceiling I have finished the day’s lessons, and now revel in the quiet of early evening. The Walls stretch upwards into the White Oblivion above me, that circle of light far away in the …show more content…

I write now in the time between breakfast and the exposition of the day’s lessons. The screen that preaches knowledge to me is likely to awaken within the next few minutes, to warble its electronic voice soon animatedly to me. It shall then introduce me to new words by projecting a dancing display of letters and reciting the syllables aloud. I am then to repeat with my voice, and then to write, to scribble the letters on the screen with my fingers to the best of my ability. The weight of my own digits is somewhat cumbersome, and I cannot help but marvel at the fine print that the screen produces, seemingly without any effort at all.
~~~
I have encountered a dilemma. My evening meal has not come. I have never before felt the sensation that fills my limbs now. It is as if the neurons have grown tired of their duties, leaving the muscles slightly weak. Every few moments, my stomach lets out a low moan like the shifting of hole-pocked and disintegrating wood in the flames. I scan my memory for words to describe it. I scan my lesson screen for words to describe it.
And yet, and yet…No word comes that accurately describes what it is that I am feeling. Am I tired? Yes, that must be it. I feel tired, but the tiredness is combatted by a desperate want for another meal. Perhaps it is something that …show more content…

Their tips have gone white from gripping and cold, and my palms have become slick with the crimson fluid that excretes from the slits that have appeared all across them. “Agony, a noun. An extreme and generally prolonged pain; intense physical or mental suffering.” “Cold, a noun and an adjective. Having a relatively low temperature; … feeling an uncomfortable lack of warmth…” “Blood, a noun. The fluid that circulates in the principal vascular system of human beings…” I am climbing, or so the lesson screen tells me this is called: pulling myself upwards hand-over-hand. Every minute, every second, the White Oblivion grows nearer and brighter. Steadily now I rise, though it pains my hands and my limbs. Steadily I rise; fiercely and with excitement. The air begins to feel different, to move across my skin in a new and peculiar way which I have never before experienced. That is not, however, the strangest occurrence as I climb. I begin to realize that the White Oblivion is not white. Tufts of white are scattered across it, but is primarily…“Blue, a

Get Access
Related
Get Access