The Choice is Yours

In the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker she portrays two sisters who are completely opposite of each other. One following family heritage all the way and the other following her own path and being completely independent. However these two options are not the only ways to follow, there is a 3rd option showing the middle ground. One can follow their parents ways and yet still be individual and independent from them, creating this grey area where the children create their own culture and heritage to pass on to their own kids.

I, myself, have followed in my parents footsteps for the most part and respect their heritage. My mom is originally from Australia, but she has lived in America longer than she has in Australia. Because of this she doesn't have many Australian traditions, however we still make the occasional phone call over there to see how life is like down under. My father is from up north, Iowa to be specific, so he's one of those queer northerners that us southerners don't understand their ways.

My mother is an amazing cook, as she gets her skills from her own mother. Throughout my many years of experience (not really) I have acquired some of these cooking skills from my mom and continue to learn and become better. Family is also very important to my mom so she insists that every day my family has a family-style sit down meal. Even though I sometimes dread these because I'm hungry and just want to eat and leave I respect her and sit through these since she is accustomed to this. As mentioned before, my father is one of those weird northerners so he passed on some of his weirdness to myself (thanks dad). He also deals with engineering in his job so ever since I've been old enough to understand what engineering is hes taught me about it and encouraged me to pursue it as my career (hence WEGA). With the WEGA program, I have been able to explore engineering and have enjoyed it thus far so it looks like his wish of his daughter becoming an engineer will come true. I have also followed my dads genre of music by listening to most of the things he listens to such as Pink Floyd and instrumentals.

Even though I follow my parents in most of their ways, I also have my individuality. Probably the thing that sets me aside from my parents the most is religion. Both my parents are Lutheran, and my father is especially very strong set about his beliefs. I on the other hand, am atheist and think that their beliefs are completely crazy and cant stand to listen to them talk about their religion. I also differ from my parents in playing two instruments in band where neither of my parents are musically inclined. Another thing that sets me apart from my parents are my movie/television choices. I am in love with Star Wars whereas my father cant stand it at all, in fact to where he'll have to leave the house if I am watching it. Whenever I watch something else my dad will walk in the room, see what I'm watching and ask, "Why are you watching this crap? Watch something better like this or that" and then he'll take out my disc and put in one of his "better" movies.

With my parents heritage influencing me and with my own views on some things, I am able to create this middle ground that isn't completely following their heritage nor completely independent from them. I can still respect them and their ways since they helped shape who I am.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe is the bomb.com when is comes to haunted houses or horror stories. Just look at the "The Fall of the House of Usher" for example, he keeps readers sitting on the edge of their chair and wondering what'll happen next throughout the entire story while also making it twisted and haunted. He uses several techniques that most haunted stories use today and that would be superb to copy if one was to make their own scary story.

One thing that Edgar Allan Poe uses in his story that I would personally copy if I were to create my own scary story (which I wont ever do unless Mr. Thomas makes us, so please don't! I'm not that creative) is imagery. Anything that is scary is scary because of the appearance and how its presented which is due to what? Why, imagery of course! Imagery can create a scary, gloomy, spooky and eerie setting which is perfect for a haunted story and is exactly what Poe did especially at the beginning of the story when the narrator approaches and enters the house.

Now of course every haunted story has to have a psychopath or crazy person, that's haunted stories 101. In "The Fall of the House of Usher" this person is Madeline since, well lets face it... She dies and comes back to life. Not to mention before her "death" she was very ill with a mystery sickness. She also has an incestuous relationship with her twin brother which just adds to her psychotic personality giving her an abnormal and twisted back story. Perfect for a haunted story!

Another thing I would use for my (hypothetical) haunted story is Personification. With this, the author can make an inanimate object come to life and be that much more scary. If I were to say there was a full moon out tonight vs. the molten moon peered down upon me, isn't that much more eerie? Such as Poe did with the house when it is described to be crumbling away and decaying, just like how the family of Usher is decaying, probably due to incest.

Poe did a fantastic job of leaving the end of the story open to mystery, definitely worthy of copping. With this, it will add mystery and give the reader questions that will never be answered which will in turn make the reader think about the story more.

Finally, the last thing that would be amazing to have in my own scary story copied from Edgar Allan Poe is to have someone rise from the dead. Hey, it worked for Poe and it worked for Frankenstein and they were both a huge hit. With this it adds a thrill and excitement and a fantasy that will also satisfy America's obsession with the occult.

Now I do not like challenges, nor would I like one so sorry Mr. T I don't know what I'd do differently than Poe if I were to create my own short story.