Long weekend

Well after a long weekend of running round and job hunting I had a bit of free time. No I didn't use this time to write another story or poem. I actually used the time to play The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite. I wasn't feeling very inspired so I figured I would play these two games that were rated very highly by almost everyone. Now after beating both games, and going through their amazing narratives, I can say I an very inspired to even try to write something enjoyable as those stories. I'm not sure what I'll come up with, but I think I'll be writing/drawing as much as I can for the rest of the week, and hopefully have several stories to share. Also I'll probably post a picture of the wall in my apartment I've been working on. Well, hopefully you'll hear from me soon.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Alright, well this is one of the last papers I wrote in one of my writing classes for college. This isn't the final draft exactly, since my computer got wiped shortly after graduating, and I lost a lot of my papers, but this is me going through one of my rough drafts I had and editing a few mistakes that I remembered fixing. Hopefully I got most of them. 

Animal Within

            I often find myself laughing when I hear people use the word humanity, or humane, in a positive context. It is almost like these people believe that humanity means to aspire to a greater principle, or ideal world, when these words really mean, “the fact or condition of being human; human nature”. Why do we assume that human nature is a positive thing, when so many things around us tell us differently? Wars are waged all around the world, greed and envy slime the inner walls of our hearts, genocide openly happens, as the world watches, and we believe word humanity can be anything but negative or hold anything but negative implications? Dr. Jekyll’s and Mr. Hyde’s story is just a reflection, gazed through the shroud of fantasy, of what we deal with in our daily lives. Dr. Jekyll wasn’t a bad man, just a man, a man who was looking to strive forward in science, not for the betterment of every other man and women, but instead to stroke his own ego. I can’t say he was any worse than any other ambitious man, or woman, who was looking to make a name for themselves. This story is more than just an entertaining piece of fiction; it’s a story that’s meant to make us question what this bag of skin we inhabit would do if our conscious, forced on us by the rules, and their consequences, of society, if we didn’t control it.

            Mr. Hyde is an enigma in society, for he represents the animalistic side of humans, one that doesn’t belong in society, but rather out in the fields running with wolves. Even when describing Hyde you hear, “he is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn’t specify the point” though no actually physical traces can be seen to single out Mr. Hyde, other human beings naturally frown and find distaste at his presence. The reason the citizens find distaste in Mr. Hyde's existence is because that can feel that he is different from the rest of them, without even realizing that he is the part of them that they suppress from the rest of the world since they were old enough to learn right from wrong. Though they recognize the feeling, it is hard to place something that is usual internal in one’s mind, and think of it manifesting in a being that stands in front of you. So people hated him, though they did not know why. Were they justified? As justified as you could be for running a bear or wolf out of town. You know they can be dangerous, and a threat to yourself, or your loved ones, so the line between right and wrong fades in instances like this, and all you know is survival. Survival for the citizens with Mr. Hyde is to push him away, or at the very least, to be far away from him. These people are settled in the society, but he isn’t, so they can simple push out of their territory.  There are often stories of people learning to befriend animals, but that isn’t because we find a way to compromise with them, as much as we find a way to bend them to our needs, and our liking, to domesticate them. Mr. Hyde is the side of animals that won’t bend to our needs, and thus, looked at as an enemy of the people.

            The internal struggle of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is all but hidden from us in the first half of the book, though as a reader you should know about, since most know a bit about the story,at least the internal struggle that is being had between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, before reading the book. We only really see what was happening behind the scenes when we read the notes that were left in Dr. Jekyll’s laboratory. This battle between yin and yang, one raging inside every being since before humans spoke their first words, is confirmed when we hear, “the powers of Hyde seemed to have grown with the sickliness of Jekyll”. These two sides can only coexist when both have equal influence on the conscious, and in this type of society, men and women can only coexist if the yin, Dr. Jekyll, remands in command of the yang, Mr. Hyde. Of course, many people will say that there are plenty of bad people in this world still, and if anyone with who let their Mr. Hyde out would instantly be ostracized from society, we would be in a utopia, or at least that we’d have empty streets. While it is true that our world would be a much different place if this was the truth, the difference between the Mr. Hyde we see in the novel, and the evil we see in people every day, is that most people know how to hide their dark actions, or work around them. What I mean is that people learn to avoid the repercussions of the law, by choosing their fights, when to fight, and how to capitalize on opportunities. You don’t just walk down the street and bash someone’s head in, as we see Mr. Hyde do. No, people know how to reason in our societies, so they will do one of two things, if they are choosing to pursue the path of violence. Either they will find a less public place to kill this person, that has somehow irked them, and try and get rid of the body. Or in a less extreme case, though equally inappropriate, take it out on someone else. They don’t have to kill the person, but they might beat them, rape them, mane them, just to get their frustration out. It could be a random person, or a family member. Most people know, or have heard of someone in a relationship with someone who just wants to hit them, or anyone else who will take the abuse from them. Though it isn’t right, this is how they release their Mr. Hyde’s, in the confines and privacy of their homes.

This conflict we see isn’t one that working out in the gym can help you with; it is a battle of the wills and of our own self-control, for each one of us has a Mr. Hyde in us. A side that wants to be free of our societal restraints, and would probably feel good to let free. Reason being, it is an innate part of our human nature to be violent and savage, and to naturally want to hurt one another, or see someone hurt other person. Still, from a young age we have been taught to suppress this side, to see it as dark and evil, and to shun it. Society was built in order to keep this side suppressed, and so that anyone not abiding by this rule would be pushed out of society. Today we see people who can’t live by these rules and end up rebelling against society. Serial killers are the greatest example of this. It isn’t that serial killers are that different from us, for all of us have it inside of us to become what they are. Still, the majority of us will keep that side suppressed, not because we know it is good to, but rather we do not want to face the consequences that society will throw at us if we do. Like I mentioned before, in this story we see Mr. Hyde club a man to death, with no remorse, and walk away, like it was the natural thing to do. In society, we sentence these people to life in prison, or to death. The reason isn’t to make them better, but rather to get people, who obstruct the rules we set for our society, away from people who do follow our society’s rules. Also, this is done to set an example for the citizens, so that they will remain law abiding citizens and keep themselves on a short leash.

How can people who follow the rules of society fight against a person who doesn’t? People who follow society’s rules aren’t prepared to face these monsters, and will be run down in the streets by the Mr. Hyde’s out there. This is the reason we have the police force, which isn’t a force made to fight off foreign threats to our nation, but a force that is meant to maintain the laws, and catch the people who disobey them. Some rule breaking might be more extreme than parking tickets and speeding tickets, and might requires the intervention of specialists, like private detectives, criminal profilers, forensic scientists, swat teams, and all other types of specialists. So many different people are needed to help upkeep our laws, and our social laws, because we make so many to chain ourselves with. Also, most citizens don’t even know what laws and rights they have, when they are being taken away, and the ones we take for granted. That is why the profession of lawyers exists. If law abiding citizens don’t know many of our own laws, if regular people break so many laws every day, that so many different types of professionals are needed to keep them in line, is it strange that an animal, like Mr. Hyde, couldn’t adjust to our society? Therefore, Dr. Jekyll, being a man of science, and society, knew the only way to stop the Mr. Hyde was to kill him, and in so killing himself.

            Dr. Jekyll’s struggle is one that will be eternal, even after he has long since passed away in this story. The reason being, is that society will always have to fight with the animal instinct it was created to control, and the people who do not wish to control it. While most people aren’t as obvious as Mr. Hyde, there isn’t one person on this planet that hasn’t succumbed to their Hyde side to help better themselves, or just out of anger or passion. Some people hide it better than others, learning to release this pent up aggression through exercise, hidden violence, sex, or drugs; all to satisfy those violent urges. Therefore, Mr. Hyde will never truly be dead, not as long as humans have free wills.

Moving Foward

Alrighty, after taking a break from everything related to writing/school for the last three months, besides finally being able to read a few books for pleasure again, I've finally got the itch to start writing again. I figure I'll try and write something once a week for this blog, and post it on Friday's. I might come out with more then one piece a week, but at the very least one piece a week will be posted. This week I'm actually going to do something a bit different and post a paper I wrote in my last semester on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. I should have the post up tomorrow, so check back then to read it. 

Graduation

Well I haven't really touched his site while finishing up my last semester. Now that it is finished though, and I'm done moving from my families house into my own apartment, I figured it would be a good time to start writing and posting on this blog again. I'm not exactly sure what I have in store for my writings in the near future, but hopefully something will come to me and, whoever is reading this, will see what I make.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey anyone who sees this, hope you enjoyed your thanksgiving. Haven't really kept up with this, with having to find an apartment to live in, work, finding new work, and school. going to try to get a few post out this week, and start posting more regularly after December 1st (my move in day).

Father Tree

Father Tree

            Sitting placid and sweating on a bench, I wonder, “What am I going to do with my life?” That very moment, I see my father walking down the park road. Tall and sturdy, he walks down the path, wearing his black wool overcoat, the complete picture of cool and collected thought, even on a scorching summer morning like this. With a hot black coffee in one hand, and pitching out dried pieces of bread to the birds with his other, he looks to me the ideal image of a man’s man.

            I stand myself up, walk over to the hazel tree that shades my bench, and look for a branch that’s just at the full length of my reach. I break a twig off from that branch; quickly rush up to my father, and plunge the jagged broken edge into my father’s eye. I dig and grind the twig all the way to the back of his skull, feeling the splintering edges mesh and grind till it my hand is doused in cold blood. My father stands there for a moment, staring out of his one good eye, but then makes a plummeted fall backwards, as I yell, “Timber!”

            I kneel down next to my father, and reach into my pocket to produce a small vial. I open it, and I let slip onto my father’s still warm corpse a few of my mother’s death bed tears. I stand up, bush off the gravel and dust from my knees, and let him lay there in peace.

            I walk that bumpy road everyday now to my new job, feeling the small pebbles press up against the soles of my shoe. I tip the top of my hat to my father’s corpse, walk towards the right of the path, always making sure not to step on my father. People do look at him from time to time, but never long enough to stop and break the pace they are walking.

            By next summer, all traces of my father’s body are gone. By the time next spring came, the twig I planted in his eye slowly pulled my father into itself, and became a fully grown hazel tree. Right in the middle of the road stands my father’s tomb, right there for everyone to see and mumble complaints about, right where I can look up to him every day, nod the tip of my hat, and tell him how much I love him. 

The Eye of the World (Book One of The Wheel of Time series)

I just finished the first book in The Wheel of Time series, The Eye of the World. I actually listened to this one as well on audio book, and it took me quite awhile to get through, since it spanned twenty-four cds. The book really is great, and since a lot of people of our generation have really enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and have more recently gotten into The Song of Ice and Fire Series, aka Game of Thrones TV show, I figured a review on a epic fantasy story would be a good idea.

This story is a lot more like Lord of the Rings, then Game of Thrones, because it has strong fantasy ties right off that bat, and less political. This story if a heavy fantasy tale that goes through the classic, set out from a small village on a great adventure, type of story. The town we start in is called The Two Rivers. It's a very small town on the fringes of a kingdom, with one inn, and mainly produces tobacco and wool. We come into this town with Rand al'Thor, the main protagonist, and his father, Tam al'Thor. The town is a bit worried at the moment because winter seems to be lingering longer then it has in year, making it difficult to start planting crops. Rand runs into his friends Matt, Perrin, and Egwene. They're all childhood friends, and you can tell right off the bat that Rand and Egwene are looking to further that friendship, since both of them are sixteen and have that classic "he's/she's my childhood friend" that fall for each other vibe. Everything seems pretty simple and calm in the two rivers, and there is even a festival to look forward to tomorrow. They actually have a gleemen, basically a bard who also does tricks and stunts as well, performing at the festival. The two rivers people are overly excited about this, since they rarely have anyone come to their small town. 

That night though, after Rand and Tam return home, their house is attacked by Trollocs, which are giant monsters with the heads of animals like wolves, eagles, panthers, etc. Rand and Tam manage to make it out of the house, but Tam is injured, and Rand has to carry him to the town. Rand arrives at the town to find that it was also attacked. Rand finds out that an Aes Sedai, which is basically a female wizard, named Moiraine, and a Warder, which is basically the best warrior you can think of, and then double that thought, named Lan, helped save the village. Moiraine tells Rand, Matt, and Perrin, that they were the ones being targeted by the Trollec raid, and that can only mean their master, the Dark One, is after them, for some unknown reason. Moiraine and Lan tell the boys they have to leave the village right away, or they will bring another raid upon the village. They leave that night, in order to make less of a fuss, and end up taking the Gleemen, Tom, and Egwane along as well. 

This story really is a great read if you are looking for a heavy fantasy book, with thirteen books after the first,  and some very well rounded characters. I think anyone that liked Lord of the Rings would defiantly want to take a look at this book. The book is a little over eight-hundred pages, but is surprisingly addictive, once you start reading it. If you are looking for your fix of magic powers, treasure, young romance, and simply a story a leaving home, and challenging the beliefs you were raised on, then this is your book. Alright guys, hope this blog sparked an interest in you to pick this book up, and tell me what you think if you do pick it up. Thanks for reading.