An unforgettable April Fool’s Day: a very “hot” experience

Unfortunately I was born on the first of April and so far I have always been my classmates’ favourite victim of their pranks. But this year a dramatic change happened. As soon as I woke up at six the last first of April, I began to feel miserable thinking of the tricks waiting for me at school; so I  thought they didn’t deserve the birthday cake I was going to ice that morning but while I was melting the chocolate suddenly something clicked in my mind. I did what I had to do, got ready and went to school carrying the cake in a nice coloured box. Everything occurred as I had expected: three paper fish on my back, an avoided bucket of water, two boys trying to trip me over and my mates laughing like a drain. They couldn’t get why I kept smiling despite their pranks. Finally lunch time came and they all gathered around me waiting for their piece of chocolate cake. I handed it to them grinning at them from ear to ear. As soon as each of them swallowed the first spoonful of cake their faces got as red as cherry. Everybody started shouting and asking for water while I was laying on the floor laughing out of loud. The hottest red hot chilli pepper, my father had brought from Mexico, was working very well. 

Black dotted white stockings

Joyce was feeling on the top of the world. She had just bought a fantastic new white dotted black dress and a pair of black dotted white stockings she was going to wear at her friend’s graduation party the next day. It was already eight o’clock so she went back home to wash and have them ready in time.

At home, when she opened the shop bag, she realized that the stockings weren’t inside. She had probably forgotten them in the shop. Unfortunately it was too late to go back to the shop, so she decided to wash, dry and iron only the dress that night. She would go to the shop next morning at the opening time. She went to the laundry room on the basement floor where the washing machine and the tumble-dryer were. As soon as she got there she saw that the washing machine was on but no one was there. She got closer and looked through its window: a pair of black dotted white stockings were floating in the water. It was definitely the strangest thing that had happened to her.

Blackberries

It was a nice Sunday afternoon and Rob and Hannah were bored and didn’t want to watch TV or play games; so they decided to leave their cottage to have a walk in the nearby wood.

Rob was particularly nervous while Hannah seemed very relaxed but didn’t talk to him. She was getting on his nerves but he didn’t want to make a fuss. Suddenly she told him to keep on walking by himself because she wanted to pick up some blackberries for next day breakfast. They would meet later in the clearing near the big oak tree.

Once in the clearing Rob set under the oak tree and fell asleep. A loud bang made him wake up and his hair stand on end. He looked around and noticed that the Sun was setting and his wife wasn’t there yet. He stood up and began to look for Hannah, shouting her name. All of a sudden he saw a flashing light at the end of the path: he jumped out of his skin when he saw a big U.F.O. shining opposite him. He rushed back home looking for help. Fortunately he ran into a police patrol and informed them about what had just happened to him. The policemen couldn’t believe their ears, but when they followed Rob to the above mentioned place they couldn’t believe their eyes: a three metres tall U.F.O. was really there. They cautiously approached it and began to examine it. It was a real shock when a door began to open. They weren’t able to move or utter a single word. Their heart was in their mouth when some people wearing silver spacesuits appeared. They simultaneously took their helmets off and what they said was… «Happy birthday Rob!!!». He recognized his friends and his wife who told him: «Did you really believe I had forgotten such a special day?»

A Golden Cage

Emancipation: a Life Fable (by Kate Chopin)

Summary

There was once an animal that was born in a cage. An invisible hand looked after him providing for all his needs. The animal felt comfortable in his cage and grew up strong and handsome, but he was unaware of the world outside.

One day the door of his cage was opened accidentally. First the animal was scared and would have like to be able to close it, than, after several stays on the border of the cage, he rushed out of the cage with a jump. Paying no attention to the wounds on his sides, he saw, smelt and touched many things, the noxious ones too.

Out of the cage the animal had to seek and fight for food and water. So he decided to seeking, finding, enjoying himself and suffering because he preferred enjoying himself and suffering because he preferred freedom to comforts in a cage, a golden prison anyway.

This short story by Kate Chopin has got a title which anticipates its main theme and style as it is called “Emancipation: a life fable”. The reader immediately understands that the protagonist is going to “emancipate” his/her condition and the story will be told as a “fable”. Since the first lines we realize that you have a third-person narrator telling a story whose style is like an old-fashioned fable or fairy tale, as “There was once an animal(...)” reminds us the well-known “Once upon a time…”.

The protagonist, an unidentified male animal, is set in a well described place, a cage where all his needs are fulfilled by an “invisible protecting hand”. This make us understand that he is happy with his own little world. As in any fable we can compare his life to people’s ones living in their own happy microcosm. Anyway, our daily routine can be suddenly changed by accidental occurrences. When the animal finds the door of his cage opened he has to decide whether to stay or to leave. The former choice guarantees him a safe, comfortable life even if depending on “the hand’s” will, while the latter will oblige him to seek his own food and shelter day by day for the rest of his life. He chooses the second one because he wants to be free.

The moral we can draw from this fable is that freedom has its price. For instance, you realize you are not a teenager any longer when you have to make your own decision for your future life without counting or relying on anybody’s help, even if that means you have to give up some or all your previous comforts or advantages.

To be, or not to be

In the very first line of Hamlet’s soliloquy, “To be, or not to be”, is summarized the conflict which is tearing him apart: he has to decide whether to revenge his father’s death or to go on living pretending he does not know the truth, thus behaving like a fool. However, Hamlet’s words do not refer to any particular event or circumstance in his life, so they assume a general meaning and symbolize all the conflicts, or “natural shocks”, that have always tormented mankind.

Once human beings are aware of the unjust features of life and decide not to cope with them, the only solution seems to be suicide, thus ending the “sea of troubles” life involves. Committing suicide, however, is making a decision itself and compels to act, which makes the same dilemma arise again. Moreover what prevents people from killing themselves is also the fear of the beyond, because it is an unknown world. Hamlet actually softens death’s terrible image by comparing it to sleep or using some metaphors: “shuffled off this mortal coil” (l.12), “quietus make” (l.20). In line 28 Hamlet states that what makes all of us “cowards” is conscience and that the doubts it arise prevent our thought from turning into action.

The Tempest: a coloniser and a colonised

In this passage, taken from the second scene of the first act, Caliban and Prospero curse each other using the power of language more than the magic’s one. Caliban cannot stand his state of slavery any longer because he reminds Prospero that when he arrived on the island they established a relationship based on mutual help and learning : Prospero taught him his language while Caliban showed him the “qualities” of the island. Unfortunately Caliban’s gratefulness did not lead to friendship but to slavery because, thanks to the power of his magic, Prospero overwhelmed Caliban confining him in a “hard rock”. This kind of relationship recalls the one between powerful colonisers and weaker colonised people who are obliged to learn and accept the invaders’ culture and language and to give up the control over their own lands. A modern example can be the way Native Americans were confined in reservation. On the one hand Prospero justifies his spell on Caliban as the only possible way to protect Miranda’s chastity from Caliban’s savage instincts, on the other hand Caliban had behaved spontaneously like any human being trying to preserve the species. The Elizabethan perception of the natives of England’s new colonies was the belief that they were savages without any values and culture so it is easy to understand why from Prospero and Miranda’s point of view it was inconceivable that Caliban could be Miranda’s partner, thus putting a coloniser and a colonised on the same level.

Shakespeare’s opinion was probably the same as Prospero and most English Elizabethan people’s but we can also think that Shakespeare’s position as an artist was the same as Caliban’s in verse 59 when he says “I must obey” because the sovereign’s power is so strong that he could be defeated.

Othello: Algid crystals and red roses

This is a fundamental passage of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Othello”, where the protagonist is about to kill his wife Desdemona that he thinks unfaithful. The scene is characterized by Othello’s soliloquy, which is like an ode to Love and Justice. He has to decide whether to extinguish Desdemona’s vital light or let his love for her prevail thus allowing the shadows of Injustice to darken life’s harmony.

Literature is full of works in which the struggle between good and evil is shown through the opposition of light and darkness. An example of images of light and darkness can be found in the Italian writer Tasso in his “Gerusalemme liberata” (“Jerusalem delivered”) in the stanzas here he describes the battle between Clorinda and Tancredi. The night images are associated with fight and violence, whereas dawn is followed by the spiritual rebirth of Clorinda’s soul. Following my instinct I would say that light is linked to safety, positiveness and optimism, while darkness usually makes me feel insecure and afraid of the unknown. However I realize that some people prefer darkness to light because they consider it as a shield against anything that can harm them.

In this passage two contrasting colours emerge: white and red. White is linked to the words snow and alabaster, while red is suggested by the words blood, heat, light and rose. Even if white is usually the symbol of pureness, chastity and recalls a vital shine as it is a perfect colour, here it is used to create an image of cold death because both snow and alabaster are as gelid as a corpse. Inversely red keeps its usual symbolism as it represents some animated elements of life. However even a red living rose, if “plucked”, can die as a body drained of its blood. What can seem contradictory is justified by Othello’s urgent need to restore Justice which can be compared to something as perfect as an algid crystal of snow or a “smooth monumental” alabaster. For this reason the repeated word “cause” in Othello’s soliloquy has to be considered with its legal meaning. This is shown by his words: “Yet she must die else she’ll betray more men”. This momentary vacillation “to break” the sword of Justice is eventually overcome because he smothers Desdemona.