Metacognition: My Short Story

I have to say I was pretty excited for the short story unit in English.  It felt like a breath of fresh air after the arduous task of writing my poem.  While the experience has been better, it was a lot different than I expected.

The short story process really began when we read a few stories and learned just exactly what a short story is.  Whether we read about a crazy grandpa retelling a story to his grandson or someone trying to describe cathedrals to a blind man, each story had one thing in common: pressure.  Something about the narrator's situation had to put him/her in a tough place.  The more stories I read, the more apparent this became.

When the time came for me to write my short story fragment, I was ready to go.  I knew exactly what I was going to write about, and nobody was about to tell me otherwise.  Writing my fragment was a blissful experience, as I was able to let out pure creative energy onto the paper.  I even used some visuals to help me paint a picture with words.  Looking back, I have to say that this fragment was the foundation of my short story.

My story fragment was definitely a good start, and there were a lot of directions I could go with it.  The pressure, the characters, and many other story elements had a lot of possibilities.  When it came time for me to complete the third step and write a four-page draft, I felt prepared.  The added space gave the story some room to breathe, and many important parts of my story were created during this step.

When I moved on to the fourth step, I was introduced to the "pressure meter", a quantity that was supposed to gauge how much pressure I was putting on my main character.  On the third step I scored somewhat low, my fragment only garnering a "4".  This time around I was motivated to put more pressure into my story. This became a little tough the way my story had previously turned out.  While the story did have a narrator, it mainly focused on the story told by another supporting character.  This made the issue of pressure tough because it was hard to decide whom I should put pressure on.  This definitely showed in my completed fourth step draft.

The fourth step did not yield as promising results as I had hoped. I only moved from a "4" to a "6" on the pressure meter.  While I was at least in the top half of the meter, it still wasn't enough.  The fifth step was where I made some of the biggest changes to the main story, changes that in my opinion should have been made during the previous steps.  Large parts of the story became small chunks that contributed to a new ending.  It was also during this step that I was finally able to come up with the title that was truly best for my story.  While much of the changes made during step five were rather belated, they were the most important in improving my story.

As I write this blog, I have yet to begin step six, in which I will revise the ending of my story and turn in the final draft.  Frankly, I am a little nervous for this step, as I have made so many changes already that this draft may push me over the edge, or at least get me close.

All in all, the short story process so far has been quite a ride, and I've learned quite a lot about the way I think.  I think that many important changes came during the later steps because my brain wasn't ready for these changes until I got to these steps.  It's almost as if I subconsciously knew that my story wasn't ready for major change until it had a solid foundation.

While it's had its share of stress, the short story unit has been one of my favorite units this year.  I can't wait to finish!

It Matters: Heart of Darkness and 19th-Century Imperialism

The desire to control others has existed for all of human history.  People have always wanted to be able to say that they are the ones with power, and quite often this power goes to people's heads.  This idea is prevalent in 19th-century imperialism along with the numerous works of literature that came out of it, such as Heart of Darkness.  

In Heart of Darkness, the character Kurtz becomes obsessed with his newfound power upon entering the Congo and turns the local tribes into his personal servants.  He even commits serious atrocities such as surrounding the walls of his house with the severed heads of Africans.  Upon trying to leave his newly-formed kingdom, Kurtz has a hard time abandoning his position of power.

During the 1800s, colonialism was reborn in the form of 19th-century imperialism.  Various European powers claimed colonies all around the globe, primarily in Africa and Asia.  By the time that the 1900s rolled around, almost all of Africa had been divided into colonial possessions.  These colonies were usually formed for military reasons, economic reasons, or simply for prestige.  In some colonies, like the Belgian Congo, the natives were subjected to atrocities such as the amputation of hands as a punishment.

While imperialism may seem like a thing of the past, it is still alive today in the form of conflicts such as the Afghanistan War.  Just as European countries created colonies to control resources, a big part of the Afghanistan War was the amount of untapped oil reserves in Afghanistan, and as usual, severe atrocities have been committed during the U.S. military's time in Afghanistan (see the attached article).  As of recently, Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai demanded that U.S. troops leave the Wardak province due to accusations of U.S. soldiers causing Afghan allies to torture other Afghans in the area, and this isn't the first time that this kind of abuse has been reported. In the past, U.S. soldiers have burned Qurans in military bases and reportedly murdered countless civilians.

Many people don't want to do anything about this war because they believe that the atrocities of imperialism are long gone.  This is because they have no idea what really is happening.  If more people were informed of the major downsides of the Afghanistan War, maybe we could change our ways by attempting to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible and trying to prevent imperialist wars from happening in the future.

Some people may think that imperialism is a thing of the past, but in reality, it still exists in our world today.  

Afghanistan Article