Memory Lane Short Story

Suddenly he felt the ground shake and a gust of wind come from the huge gaping doors of the maze along with the loud, rumbling sound of what sounded like a horn. He noticed that the opening to the maze was getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller, until it was closed. “What’s going on?” he asked.

His body isn’t ready for the direct sunlight and his mind cannot comprehend the world in comparison to what he felt he knew. In time, the man is able to see that all of the previously “known” information he had was completely false but also that he must start a different journey in order to find himself as the way of life he was previously use to, in which guessing was the way of judging knowledge, is ineffective and useless to him now. Finally, the prisoner returns to the cave with a new base of knowledge. He tried to share this information with his fellow prisoners but after hearing about his travels and that they were in fact wrong the prisoned men said to him that “up he went and down he came without eyes, and that it was better to not even think of ascending” ("The Simile of the Cave." Republic, 1974) . He is then met with resistance in offering them help and freedom from their binds. They threaten “if anyone tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender and put him to death”, it is as if they feel that his “loss of sight” is death to them and they are perfectly happy with the information that they know to be true ("The Simile of the Cave." Republic, 1974) .

Everybody has experienced the innocence of the childhood mind. Whether you see it in another child or experienced it yourself, everyone at some point has come across a kid who is figuring out their way in this world. Many kids are curious and adventurous and these tactics are usually motivated from within. The constant push to have more adult behaviors is usually self started, beginning with the child wanting to be treated more like an adult. In the stories “Through the Tunnel”, “The Passage” and “The Intruder”, all of the children push themselves into being adults instead of being pressured by others. Instead, they have all of the pressure on their own shoulders. Therefore, in the following stories, the author utilizes key symbols to exaggerate a young child's own motivational push into adulthood.

He led the way across a dark courtyard, into an even larger cave, set up like a dining hall. The top of his enormous head scraped against a candle-filled lighting fixture that hung from the ceiling. Pictures of dragons dangled against the dark plum-colored cave walls.

I was standing in front of the cave's entrance. Around the cave, there were seven different signs warning people to keep out. I wonder what could be in there I had a flashlight so might as well go in.

they are only able to see nothing but shadowy figures move on the wall of the cave. They perceive that as their true reality. A prisoner breaks free from his shackles and is blinded by the light of the sun. He realized that his reality in the cave was not real, he sees people and understands what reality is now. The prisoner goes back to explain to the others what he has seen but they don’t believe him.

The air is so thick with anticipation that it seems to weigh our voices to all but a whisper. Our heads turned outward, eyes open and wanting, searching for a place to settle on the fast moving terrain. The road ahead stretches on for miles, disappearing little by little under our feet at a pace that seems like walking. The time on the clock seems to strain each minute, trying to hold on to the present as long as possible; so slowly it changes, one might think it to be broken. The walls around our bodies seem to close in with every mile, driving us closer to each other ‘till our shoulders brush in rhythm with the bumps on the highway. Slowly, as time moves on, the miles melt away and our voices begin to rise; pushing the stuffy air away and

After some time, he admitted to himself, “I’m lost.” Suddenly, he realized he forgot his way back!

Walking on the balls of his feet, cutting through the grass before him appeared to be the cave. Its exterior old – extremely old with cobwebs surrounding the base of the caves. Looking around on the left side of the medieval looking door appeared a handle.

Forgotten. Colt is ten years old, sitting on a bench outside Casey’s General Store by himself. He was in the bathroom when his parents left. Colt was feeling sour, because it was the third time this month his parents forgot him. He would use a phone to call them but he doesn’t have one. Then a guy walked up to him and asked, “Do you need a ride Colt?”

Mason felt that he was done for. He didn’t get any gumdrops and more importantly, he wasn’t sure if he would ever see his home again. But then, Mason saw that Larry had not completely shut the back door. He had a chance to escape! Mason busted out the back of the truck and landed on an isolated road somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Mason was as lost as a needle in a haystack. He decided to walk back the way he came from to see if he came across any familiar areas.

everywhere he went he was thinking about it. So one day he was at his house and he

Darian calmly sat to scan his surroundings. The first subject of his eyes’ examination was a figure which he had felt close to him from the moment he woke. His eyes had landed on a familiar face, that of a man Darian remembered well, yet he didn’t know who the man was. Darian remembered this place, too; he remembered being here

I remember sitting there for a moment in shock, watching everything crumble. Waiting for something to fall atop me and release my soul to some magical place. Nothing did, when the building finished it’s roaring I picked up my steak knife and stepped over the wall beside me. Forgetting to look back and wonder about the

'There's a small cave inside the entrance, just to the right,' Mosaic said. 'It's where me and my sister played when it rained.'