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Narrative I

English

Flash Fiction

Flawed Rose

Velvet red rose petals slowly dance in the wind, held together by a pure, perfect green stem. She opens her eyes. The sun is spreading golden light as she looks in the mirror at her reflection. Her golden, perfectly straight hair falls down her defined shoulder. The matching outfit and makeup, aesthetically pleasing, that she had chosen the night before is laying on the chair beside her bed. She starts putting on her makeup, the same way she has all these years since elementary school. Her mirror shines bright light onto her as she uses her face powder. The room is illuminated by the morning light and then she hears the noise of her vibrating phone next to her bed. She picks it up to text the person right away. Putting on her makeup with all distractions takes a lot of time. As time passes and she puts the last stroke of powder on her face she looks in her big mirror. She inspects her makeup with a critical eye. Her eyeliner is in perfect alignment to the arch of her dark eyebrow that perfectly puts a contrast to her gold brown hair waving around her shoulder. She starts with a comb to untangle the eyebrows that have a  perfect shape, and she fills them in with a dark brown pencil to make her beautiful green eye stand out. The makeup is perfectly organized around her. Her phone is placed right next to her and vibrates from time to time. The vibrations add a harsh tone that leaves a painful ringing sensation in her ear.She responds quickly to every notification, so fast it is almost like she is trying to stop the terrible sound of her phone before it begins.The clothes are all in light tones with the newest trending shirt. As she puts her clothes on she thinks about how her routine has been the same for years. She puts on her shoes that are aligned with all her other white vans next to her door. Before leaving the house she picks up her lanyard with her key and leaves the house. She wants to find the perfect rose from her dream. The sun is shining through the trees on this mild day. Her phone is always with her in hand, and she is completely sunk into it as she walks down the sidewalk to find her rose. The constant harsh sound of the vibration disrupts the beautiful atmosphere. There is always someone texting or posting all day and night long. It is not really interesting to hear all the gossip and keep up with people she does not even know, but she does it anyways. Already sunk into her phone and all the information about social media, she doesn’t see anything around her anymore. The field is silently waving in the wind in front of her. She stands in the field trying to find the perfect rose of her dream. Then, she plucked the rose and examined it, but it is not what she expected. A dark green stem with a scar in the middle, barely holding together the spotted red petals. A dried out rose with bloody petals.

Velvet red rose petals slowly dance in the wind, held together by a pure, perfect green stem. She opens her eyes. The sun is slowly shining into her room and she sees the mirror with all her makeup and the outfit she laid out for the next morning. She wants to find the rose. She goes to her closet and pulls out her sweatpants. In a rush she puts on her sweatpants and a shirt as the sunlight starts filling her room. She takes a hair tie and puts her hair into a messy bun as she looked one last time into the mirror and leaves her room. She grabs her shoes and keys and rushes out of the house. Her phone is left behind on the charger as she runs down the street into the sunrise. When she arrives at the field she sees the rose, the imperfect rose. She grabs it and holds it in her hands with a smile on her face, as she sees the spotted red petals. A dried out rose with bloody petals. She never thought such a little imperfect thing can make her so happy but she realize that being who you are is the most beautiful version of yourself you can be. She leaves the rose peacefully swaying in the wind, in all its beauty and imperfection.

Critical Essay

In A Myth of Mediation, Madden Williams argues that Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”  depicts someone trying and failing to escape their guilt and hope. Madden Williams is calling the main message of the book the “myth of medication”. He is saying that Kafka is portraying these emotions through various pictures and detailed descriptions of things such as the background. William is arguing that this the book based on guilt, in particular, the guilt that is put on someone by the outside. He is claiming that Gregor cannot handle all that guilt and is transformed into a cockroach. For example, he uses the moment above in which Gregor woke up completely overwhelmed by his transformation. He also goes into deep detail when he is explaining how the surroundings and visual effects additionally help portray the aforementioned emotions. This is to show and remind the reader that we are in reality by having normal things, for example, pictures and clothes, laying around in his room.These pictures also help describe the entire situation though triggers which allow the main character to think about his past. An example for this is when Gregor sees the milk that his sister has brought him, that he used to like so much, but now doesn’t like anymore. The detailed prescription of rather basic unimportant things is to manifest the reality that this book is taking place in and builds a huge contrast to the description of his new appearance. An example of this is when he changes at the beginning and the author is specifically describing his new physical appearance. He uses really clear words to demonstrate this big ugly insect Gregor has turned into. Throughout this book, the main character is shown through a somewhat idealized lense. This is shown when the author describes the main character as a really selfless person who is trying to be the hero. The author further proves this point by telling us that the main character is putting everyone else before him while he just transformed into this monstrous creature for everybody else. This situation, for example, is rounding the story off with humor.  Williams then tells us that these two factors together make the reader empathize the tragedy even more. Another major point Williams states is that this piece written by Kafka is the big judgment that Kafka has on the real world and that is described through metaphors in this conceptual world Kafka created. Williams is saying that there is a mixture of messages and lessons about the real world and it is explained through this conceptual world, and that at some points, the reader could almost think that he/she could just wake up as if it was all a dream (they would wake up and be in the real world). The author is saying that Kafka is portraying real situations and is just using these visual effects to represent the emotions even deeper and is not trying to make it sound like a fable. Major events such as the extreme change of the physical appearance of the main character was supposed to show the brutality of “the exposure of the raw truth”. Williams then further explains that the book was not written to get read literally, but to allow these messages to culminate in everyone’s individual mind. He says that there are two sides of the story. An example is when the family seemed to be hopelessly lost after Gregor’s death, but they eventually had hope again and it started getting better for them. On the other hand, it is showing Kafka’s myth of mediation.Williams says that the author wanted stories like these to help the reader understand his deeper message. In this case, it was about moving on. The myth and unnatural aspects of the aforementioned story is showing the truth rather than the fiction. Although this is a surrealistic story this is telling a lot of truth about reality.

 

I agree with Madden Williams that the Metamorphosis is about failing to escape guilt. Through the different views that the author is describing guilt it lets the reader understands all aspects of it. For example, at the beginning, after Gregor turns he is really specifically describing the background and Gregor’s physical appearance, but also he is drawing connections to the past. With all these aspects the reader doesn’t just get a deep view of the representation and the feeling of guilt, but also where it came from. He is not using any dialogue to represent any of the feelings Gregor is experiencing. Kafka is focused on putting emotions and feelings into objects and surrounding that he is describing. For example, by using a detailed description of something like the milk and connecting it to the past, he is allowing the reader understand Gregor’s guilt better. He also uses detailed diction on descriptions of all his important metaphors, such as one detailing Gregor’s body. All these different aspects give a deep look into the feeling of guilt and how it affects Gregor.

On the other hand, I think this essay is also about making fun of the work system. It is focused on the jobs in which people do the same thing over and over again throughout their entire life. It is about these people that are stuck in there life for years doing the same thing and how they are unable to change out of it, and how people feel so pressured and how they lose themselves doing it. The quote “How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense”(1), shows that he was just worrying about sleeping longer because he didn’t want to go to his job although he just changed drastically into an insect. This is connecting humor to reality because it shows how his job is even more important to him than himself. He is so distracted by thinking about his job that he almost doesn’t seem to notice his transformation. Although he was forced into change we see what his personality is and how it changes.Through the change, he was forced to change and he was unable to change because he was scared to get out of his routine and he did not want to risk losing his job. We can see the sadness at the beginning when he is in this role and so pressured to do everything and how he is panicking that he can’t get to work. It is made clear from the beginning that he has to keep the job because his family is in debt with the owner of where Gregor works and they would lose their house if Gregor quit.

The other point of the pressure is that he is scared. The author is saying at the beginning how the character has an opinion but never shows it. The author is throughout the book explaining how all this change is happening due to an unexpected circumstance that is making the character change. This is connecting back to the big topic of change where Kafka is using this example with jobs and how people fall into this work routine to get his point across. The entire book is based on metaphors that Kafka is using to represent guilt. The biggest metaphor is Gregor transforming into an insect. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect”, is showing a big shock for the reader is that he is using really detailed description of the tension keep reading the reader is more shocked than Gregor himself. This is connecting back to the judgment of the “working man” is put into this story. The most feelings are getting transferred through the pictures and really detailed description. the author is relating to something that has happened to him because there is a lot of passion in this book. It also seems to be really heartbroken because this book is telling a message yet there  is no happy ending.

Design

Artist Statement

Rose

In my Flash fiction I am exploring the feeling of perfection. The greater idea in my flash fiction is that to be happy, you don’t need to be perfect. I am showing that through a female teenager that is searching for a perfect rose from her dreams and fails because all she finds is a “ugly” rose.

I started my layout with thinking about what personality traits I wanted my illustrated animal to have. I chose a puma head to show loyalty, but also beauty. I chose a baby bear because it represents youth, and I chose a horse to symbolize shyness and kindness. When I started sketching my animal I wanted it in a position where it is in a hurry but also lost.

In detail I focused on having earth tones that connected the metaphors from nature to characteristics such as kindness, calmness and shyness. For the background I chose the opening cover of my Flash Fiction in which I have a beautiful bright rose with the golden light of the sunrise making it almost glow.

I am representing my character at the beginning of her journey in her dreamworld right when my flash fiction starts.

As a costume I chose to do a fancy shirt because it shows the girl trying to show off with clothing to appear perfect. The shirt with little details reminded me of a really fancy designer shirt that pops out in color and in which she is almost trying to hide because she thinks the rest of her would not be good enough.