Character Foils

  Throughout reading the book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, two characters came out to me as character foils. Although not quite sure if these characters were combined as one or not, they really came off as two complete opposites. The book describes Jekyll as tall, sophisticated, and handsome.   Now if you think to yourself, what is the exact opposite of that, that would perfectly describe  the character Hyde. Although being portrayed as two complete opposite people, they actually come together representing a whole, and spilt personalities. Yes it would be correct if you were to say that this "person" had an alter ego, but don't we all? Well, maybe to not these extremes but we all have different sides of us that do come out at the worst of times. But the fact of the matter was why did Jekyll want to bring out Hyde? Why would he want him self to be a 50% evil, and rather ugly side? Maybe Jekyll secretly liked this evil side to him. Maybe he fell in to the temptation rebellion. This just shows to us that although it might be perceived like one person is something, they can be totally different than what thought to be. This falls perfectly under the quote "Never judge a book by its cover."

Story of the Door

Authors Note: in the short story "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson each door symbolizes change from when enetered or exited. Weather if it is from personality, appearance, or spiritual, everytime someone walks through a door in the story, something changes.
She was on her everyday schedule, getting coffee, driving to work, then coming home to workout and relax. She had moved on from her past into a new, better, rich lifestyle from what she was haunted and raised in, throwing everything to the back of her head. She was beautiful, well saturated with goods and luxery. She went from rags to riches and god forbid she would remenice. The door flew open at her like a brick wall. Being dragged against her will into the darkness yet once again was what she dreaded, through that one dark, demolished lifestyle. Here she was nothing, worthless. She sat there sobbing in the cold cement room as anger flooded throughout her body. Everything she had ever worked, dreamed, and pleaded for was ripped out from underneath her in a heart beat. In all hope she prayed to see that beautiful door again. she would kill for it. The one back to her heaven. But for now she sat in hell. While her memories of luxery and peace ate away at her day to day. A week later she saw her door again. behind one of the walls she tried to reach and open it. her fingertips were just one inch from the knob, she was just one inch from relief. The more she tried the farther she got. She was on cloud eight, desperation to get to cloud nine. And there she sat, on cloud eight, for the rest of her life.

Temptation

Author's Note: In the first three chapters of Jekyll and Hyde, I noticed that the motif or idea that there is an evil inside of everyone showed up. Jekyll was a nice man who everyone in the city liked but at night his evil side, Hyde, came out. Although some people don't like or want their evil side, everyone has it. This is a poem of the temptations of evil, and resistance to it.

Intoxicated and blessed with love, innocence, and good environment
she was different. She had a twist.
 Whispers haunted her at night. Sitting on her right shoulder, the temptation was there.
 The whispers of the voice on her left shoulder soon started to fade as the right grew louder and louder.
 She fell through, doing the un spoken.
 But yet this burden satisfied her in such a displeasing manner.
 Although tearing her apart, she still fed the demon.
She fed it to the point where she was turning into the demon, to the point where it had taken over.
 Still having hope, she reached out for her left conciousness,
 who was devestatingly not there.
Falling into the temptation,
 she was now his.
 

Jekyll's Drug

    We all know that drugs are very dangerous, harmful and life threatening. The question is, why do people use these harmful substances if it is garunteed to ruin your life? that temporary high you get is enough to feed the craving until it ultimatly destroys you. Weather the drug is mental, or physical we all have those quilty pleasures and weaknesses. This much relates to the character Hyde from the book Jekyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenon. Jekyll being a well mannered man, clean cut, and sophiticated doctor noticed another side of him, a demonic violent figure. Afraid of this side, he still yet decided to bring it out fully. Once it was realized that he was masked with another body (Hyde), Jekyll found the pleasure of doing these satan like acts and getting away with it and still maintaining his other sophisticated persona. Much like a drug, hyde soon takes over, scaring Jekyll and forcing the decision of to keep feeding this demon, or killing it by ultimatly killing himself. Unfortunatly the only way to kill Hyde is to kill himself. So just like drugs, everything strated to crumble before him when it was too late to make a stop to the killing source.

Creative Piece

AUTHORS NOTE: using a defense mechanism, (Being far from a personal expeerience) the short story is about a girl who doesnt realize that her life is crumbling before her and refuses to do anything to get out of the mess. It only pushes her so far to the point where she attends her own funeral.

Free

“It’s simple” they encouraged me. “Put your mouth against the tip and inhale as much as you can, hold it in for about 10 seconds then release.” I could feel the thick smoke fill my lungs as my brain started to feel uneasy. As soon as I released my breath the windows fogged, a nauseating aroma of skunk filled the sealed car. My nervousness soon started to fade away as my muscles relaxed and everything started to move in slow motion. My heart slowed down into a heavy slow thump that tingled throughout my body every time it beat.  The heavy bass of Kid CuDi rattled my brain, my whole body vibrated to the rhythm. My thought process, my reflexes, everything, started to fade right then and there.

            Ever since that night I knew I was corrupted. The lying, drinking, partying, it all began. I ran blindly, without intention, in fear such as I had never known in my life. I soon lost innocence of everything I’ve ever known. Grades were dropping, and the carelessness had been triggered. I needed motivation but I had absolutely nothing. Everything was dissolving at that point. I looked up to my parents, but that came to an end when my father went to prison when a party of the police came, very unexpectedly, into the house, and proceeded again to make rigorous investigation of the premises, which was quite lovely; and my mother was so mentally unstable she was not there for me anymore. I knew right from wrong, it was the fact that I didn’t really care; I started not to give a **** and stopped fearing the consequences. My life was unbelievably good. I had everything a teenage girl could want: my friends, and the night.

            “Where were you?” My mother said strictly as I entered the door. “Out.” I said as I walked straight into my room and closed the door behind me. We didn’t talk for the rest of the night. That night I also heard distant silent sobbing from upstairs. I knew my mother was crying. “It’s probably one of her mood swings” I convinced myself, she’ll be better in the morning. This daily routine of hanging out with my friends and participating in illegal activities, not doing homework and coming home at 10 PM continued for months. I found no problem with this what so ever. I could catch up with my homework later, and do my chores later. My mother was doing just fine and I was living the life to its full potential.

            It was a clear day, and yet there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark. The room was silent. Nothing but the faint sound of the heart beat monitor. I sprang up from my bed when I had a dream that I was falling off a bridge, about to hit the sharp rocks below that had death written all over them. As I awoken realized I was not home. As beads of sweat dripped down my forehead as I looked around. It was pitch black in the small quarters and my hazy vision couldn’t make out where I was. Feeling nauseous, dizzy, and baffled I tried to feel around for my phone, to get some recognition of the night time and date. Trying to get up to go to the bathroom, I was jolted back from a sharp yanking pain from my right hand. I started to panic when I realized that I was in a hospital gown as soon as my bare, weak feet had hit the chilly marble floors of the hospital. Where was I? What had happened to my friends? What did I do last night?

            “Was this overdose intended?” I was questioned, I felt confused, overwhelmed, distorted and sleep was the only thing on my mind. “No, it was an accident.” I convinced her. I wondered who would do this to me. Who would want me to overdose? Was this intentional? Who would try to hurt me like that? Millions of questions overflowed my brain all at once. “I must have underestimated my pill tolerance.” I told them. “Then what are these marks on your wrist?” I looked down to see deep cuts. Startled I told them “I have no clue” I stated with honesty. The woman looked at me with a deceiving glare as she marked me down for and accident and not a suicide attempt. Relieved, I got back in my mother’s car to have a completely silent ride home. I wondered what troubled her. She was scared, that’s all.

            Still confused on what had all happened. I pushed it to the back of my head. I was not going to let a little incident like this prevent me from living my life. Like I said, I had my friends, had the night, and I’d be alright. Because I had nothing worry about, everything was just fine.

            Sitting down at my therapy classes I did nothing but day dream and look at the clock. Every second seemed like an hour. Plus, I’ve heard this bull shit a million times “You need to open yourself up and share your feelings.” “Marijuana is a gateway drug.” Did they not think I knew that? What do people not get when I tell them that I know and I still don’t care. Saying that marijuana is a gateway drug is the same damn thing as saying “Learning how to walk means you’ll be running from the cops in no time.” I thought. They had no clue what they were talking about. I appreciate their help but I was sure, did not need it.

            It wasn’t until I was sitting at my own funeral when I realized I had gone too far. I’ve officially fucked up. Looking down at my mother sobbing and stuttering trying to give a speech, I’ve never felt such pain. I should have done something when I had the chance. I made her miserable and I knew she was throughout this whole process. My whole family and friends were there. I never actually realized how many people were there for me, and how many people loved me. How many people I could have gone too when I needed help.  But it was all too late now. Weakness filled me as I soon realized that now I could never get married, have kids, go to college, graduate. What have I done to myself and everyone that had loved me, what have I done.

                       

An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

            “On cloud eight” is a common used phrase to demonstrate that feeling of always being one step behind perfection and satisfaction “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” written by Ambrose Bierce, demonstrates how a man can have all his valuables torn away from him even when he is so close to achieving that personal satisfaction and perfection. By having his beloved family at just at finger tip’s reach, his death is pure torture when revealed to him to what he can never have again.

            Sentenced to death, the main character Peyton Farquhar relives all of his happiest moments in his head with his family, trying to make the crucial punishment not so brutal. After succeeding his nearly impossible escape he finds himself back into the arms of his beloved family once again. He had finally reached that cloud nine. Shouting with relief Peyton “Ah, how beautiful she is! He springs forward with extended arms. As he is about to clasp her, he feels a stunning blow upon the shock of a cannon – then all is darkness and silence!” (198).

To be that close to the one thing you love, then getting shot down right after must be agonizing. To be one inch away from that cloud nine. Luckily, Peyton did not have to go through the pain of the downfall due to such a quick death. Hopefully he will die with the memories of his last sight being his wife.

Black Cat

Black Cat

. The man in the short story “Black Cat”  by Edgar Allan Poe showed that the abuse of alcohol can change oneself; from a once was warm hearted person to nothing better than soulless man. Throughout the story, it portrayed how he finally unleashed his inner beast and did not look at the outcomes till he had gone too far.

Denial was mans fatal flaw throughout the story. To escape reality he used alcohol for a better vision for life. Although sugar coding his life with alcohol seemed to be helping, he did not realize the troubles of his life and the utter hell he was going through. It takes him a couple of days after to realize some of the trauma that he’s actually caused. Being in denial can be a huge problem till it gets pushed over the edge. When you end up murdering your wife you know you have pushed your limit. That is when you know you have lost control of your true persona. Unfortunately people often do not know their limits, they get too caught up in what they think is their twisted, version of reality.

Although man had transformed into inhuman murdering beast, he still had that soft inner core. The core that cared, loved and treasured others. As the story begins the man states “In their consequences, these events have terrified- have tortured- have destroyed me.” It was unfortunate when the man had not realized what he had done, until the end when he looked back on everything.

Although you can get caught up in a moment, everyone knows deep down who they really are and what their morals are, no matter how much you try to deny yourself. Knowing the pure truth is always beneficial.