Short Story: The Barn

I see myself lying there, waiting for the roos to come out, it’s an empty night, and all I can smell in the air is the grief and sadness. That’s when I hear something bashing in the grass around me. It’s a wounded roo I can see its head above the grass, must have not completely killed it.

Oliver explains how she found herself thinking of summer fields and felt like lounging on the sand before the owl’s dark wings opened over her. This symbolizes that before death, one is in temporary bliss until their time has come to an end. Oliver pictures herself free and content, staring into the cities of roses before death comes knocking on her door. This shows that death is an “immobilizing happiness” before it rips you from the world for good.

Asher’s desire to investigate and live within darkness ultimately aids him in discovering his own purpose because it enables him to recognize his own placement in the struggle between light and dark and thus motivates him to continue the healing work of his travelling ancestor. When he was a young child, Asher was encouraged to draw pretty birds and flowers, such as the ones he and his mother Rivkeh had observed during their many pleasant outings. However, Asher was also often reminded often of his mythic ancestor, a Jewish man who made a despotic Gentile lord rich; a man who travelled in order to atone for aiding the gentile in his greed before receiving an axe in the skull from an anti-Semitic peasant on the eve of Easter. This familiarity

Dwelling about my own feelings led the direction of frustration and anger as I grew older, feeling for anybody’s feelings or situations, almost non-existent; don’t miss-understand, I had marvelous times and a caring person to an extent. Growing slowly into a person whose true character lived in a cage, confined to prison and when released, it was madness, not intending to only injure, I wanted to see blood, tasting this flavor in my mouth before a confrontation. Choosing who I wanted to associate with and if others left me alone there was no problem, although, at the end of the sixth grade the nestling soul fell asleep. There was a boy in school that began tormenting me every day walking home; undesirable name calling. Eventually deciding to

He is even angry at the birds for having a safe home and mother who takes care of them. After hours and even days of lying on the ground, “Cole’s perspective begins to change. “Cole made a simple decision. He wanted to live.” (pg 119)

They hadn’t deserved to die… This haunted Cole.” When he first saw the sparrows, he envied them. Cole was jealous that the birds had a mother figure that actually cared for her kin. The sparrows also had a home that was comforting, which Cole Matthews did not have. Thereafter, Cole cared for the birds and felt bad for them, as they were

I threw closed the backpack and sprinted, catching up with Megan and the boys in no time. Looking behind me, I saw just how close we were. The Rotters had just reached the car, and were still coming after us.

Yet no one intervened in any way to prevent Roof from allegedly committing a mass killing. His uncle didn’t — even though he noted that, at 19, Roof was mostly staying in his room and hadn’t even gotten a driver’s license. His roommate didn’t, even though he has been quoted as saying that Roof was “planning something like this for six months.” His black friend didn’t, even though Roof reportedly outlined his murderous plans to him a week before he carried them out. Neither did a white friend who said he was so concerned when Roof went on a drunken rampage recently that he confiscated his

Adnan Sayed, a kind-hearted and intelligent Muslim, had everything to lose. He was unfortunate to lose it all and was played. This story unfolds with this Muslims everyday life, the high school life of Adnan. He was a very caring, intelligent, and religious teen and had a relationship with a girl named Hae. Everything seemed normal and they seemed like a loving couple but then one day it changed, the couple allegedly broke up and there was disbelief about this everyone believed they were so nice and innocent. Then soon after Hae went missing, and who was left to question Adnan because he was the ex-boyfriend and was immediately a suspect. Soon after going missing, her body was found and she had been strangled and Adnan was tried

Death has interested humans since the origins of humanity. It has spawned copious different coping mechanisms to help us come to terms with our own mortality. Anthropologists claim this contributed to the creation of religion and by extension, the use of specific, strict burial rituals across different cultures around the world. These rituals are comforting in the face of the darkest philosophical questions ever posed. On a more individual scale, coping mechanisms vary drastically between people. Edgar Allan Poe is known for the questionable coping mechanisms he used throughout his life. He suffered many tragedies and expressed his pain through alcohol abuse, gambling, and most importantly, his disturbing writings. Poe is particularly known

"Maybe we should wait until tomorrow when it's lighter outside," said Jacob nervously wiping his palms on his pants, then firmly taking hold of the steering wheel. The car lurched backward, halting as if something solid lay behind them. Suddenly, the headlights dimmed, flickering light against tall grass and without reason, shut off. Panic opened the door to his fears, forcing adrenaline to shoot and expand throughout his

Once upon a time, in a far-off kingdom, there lived a lonely poor farmer. You see, he was a foster kid as long as he can remember with no family or friend.

As I was writing “Barn Burning” I took ideas from the upbringing of my family to its violent encounters, run in with the Law and constant migration. My families Legacy became my inspiration, especially my Great grandfather William Cuthbert Faulkner or as we call him “The Old Colonel”, a civil war veteran and a writer but most important to me a role model. Old colonel and other residents of Oxford where I grew up especially the struggling farmers inspired my imagination and helped me create background for my fictional tales.

Immediately, he feels as if pressure is being removed from all over him, and he can move freely once again. All the doubts, worried, and fears vanish from his mind as the world comes back to life around him. He realizes in astonishment what he had been missing, which was a sense of hope and a purpose in the world. Adam now realizes his purpose, which is with the teenage boy that is now using him gladly and with excitement. Hope spreads throughout his body and the sadness clears because of the realization that he is not actually

The many deaths of the Irish and how they were buried remind me of the Holocaust and how those people were buried. The dead Irish people were buried in “famine pits” (Daly 6) where the dead would be buried in “mass graves” (Daly 6). Many of these graves remain unmarked to this day. In some areas, the sea washes ashore some of the bones of those who died in the famine. The Irish people use this as a reminder of the hard times in the past.