Thursday, March 21, 2013

Twin Trouble


Author’s Note: Throughout this piece I used a variety of different figurative language.  This piece is a creative piece that I chose to make into a short story.

Have you ever hated your twin sister or brother? This is just how Sammy and Rachel feel about each other ALL the time. These two twins are constantly bickering about everything they come across and currently they have just found a new fighting topic dealing with what they think may be their best friend.

One random Friday afternoon, Sammy and Rachel get off their bus at the end of their driveway and open the mailbox to check for their new mail.  Jumping up and down with excitement are Sammy and Rachel, because of a certainly special birthday invitation from their best friend, Molly. Both of the girls walk up the driveway staring at the invitation with a smile on their face as big as a clown’s.  You can already tell that both of the twins cannot wait for the birthday party.  They have read about a party at the new building called, “Flabbergast”, a place with big blow up obstacles and toys.  

The next two days, are Saturday and Sunday.  Sammy and Rachel can’t wait to talk to Molly all about what she wants as a gift. DING! A light went off in Rachel’s head; she had remembered a great idea that Molly had mentioned she wanted at school. On Monday all of Molly’s closest friends are crowded around her in a whisper about the Flabbergast event occurring in just a week.  They are trying to squeeze out of Molly what she wants for her birthday.  Sammy and Rachel smile at each other, knowing that they have the best idea of all.

When Sammy finally gets to be alone with Molly she asks who all was invited so she would know who and who not to talk to; neither of the twins likes to hurt other people’s feelings.  Eventually Molly gets down to the big secrets of all of the invites and releases a big top secret that acts like a slap in the face to Sammy. At that moment, Sammy was saddened to death. Suddenly, Sammy starts sprinting and tries to find Rachel, but cannot no matter where she goes, there is no sign what so ever of Rachel.  Until the end of the day Sam is looking all over for Rachel even when she is supposed to be doing her homework at school.  All of a sudden Rachel appears to be in the same classroom as Sam, but talking to all of her friends, just like she has been the whole time Sam has been looking for her.

Right when Sam is walking up to Rachel, Molly stops her, making sure that Sammy knows Rachel will never know.  If I were Rachel and I was getting told this, Sammy’s words would be bullets to my head.  When the girls get off of the bus again they both are checking the mailbox at the same time, and that brings an important thought to the mind of Sam… Molly doesn’t want Rachel to know.

Whenever Sammy and Molly would come across Rachel they would completely avoid the subject of the birthday party except for when Rachel would bring it up with a simple question, or says how excited she is about it. Quite frequently she would express her feelings about all the different gifts she has thought of getting that she doesn’t think Molly would like. Now that Molly and Sammy have completely run out of things to say about the birthday party that they can say without revealing the top secret, the conversation between the three of them is as dull as dishwater.

Finally Molly says she needs to talk to Sammy alone and reveals that she will let Sammy tell Rachel the secret they have been keeping from her almost the whole week.  As a result of this decision, Sammy decides to tell Rachel when they are at home so that Rachel can’t hurt or do anything to Molly in anger.

Right when they get off of the bus Sammy and Rachel race to the front door, Rachel winning by just a hair.  Immediately Sammy spills the beans and tells Rachel all of the information she knows about the birthday party. Rachel gets furious when she finds out that ONLY Sammy was invited to the birthday party and not herself.  Rachel gets so furious she is about to have a cow.  Surprisingly it ONLY takes Rachel the ENTIRE REST OF THE WEEK to get over it. By the end of the week Rachel is completely friends with Molly again, but is just stumped at why she is not invited to the birthday party of her best friend. 

After math, their silent work hour, Rachel decides to confront Molly, but just comes across one slight problem. Molly is nowhere to be seen. Everyone has looked everywhere. All but one person knows where she is because of course, Molly is preparing for her party at Flabbergast this afternoon. Until now, Rachel hasn’t even had a bad thought about not being invited to Molly’s party; however, since Molly has been excused from school and the birthday party is becoming more of a reality to Rachel, she is now facing the blow that she feels has thrown her way.

The bus stops, Sammy and Rachel get off, and Rachel goes into auto-pilot with her emotions leading the way.  She tells Sammy she wants to play hide-and-seek, and she tells Sammy “the closet would be a great place to hide!”  Sammy takes her advice, just as Rachel had planned. “CLICK” the lock on the doors snaps into place as Rachel runs away. Smiling to herself, Rachel thinks, “I’ve done it!  If I can’t go to the party, Sammy can’t, either.” 
                                                        
The end of the story sounded good until…  “Sammy, Rachel… where are you?”  Oh no, MOM!!



Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The Big Catastrophe Review


Authors note: In this piece I have examined a previous written piece named “The Big Catastrophe.” Throughout this piece I will be showcasing different types of figurative language and what they mean.

Have you ever said, “I am so hungry I could eat a cow or heard someone say that the sky is as blue as the ocean?”  Well, if you haven’t these are examples of similes, which is a type of figurative language. Throughout this piece I will be pulling out sentences with figurative language from a previous piece entitled “The Big Catastrophe”.

SNAP! I had said, explaining how a branch had broken. This is an example of onomatopoeia. An onomatopoeia is a word taking place of what I would call a sound effect or an action. More examples of an onomatopoeia are bam, crackle, pop, smack, or bang.

In just a few seconds a big gust of wind had made a big branch hit my back, which threw me off the tree. This is an example of personification. Many people may have heard or used this technique to make their piece of writing come to life. In a personification example someone might say, “the leaf jumped off of the tree” or “the wind is howling”. These are all good examples of personification: making and inanimate object come to life with words.

“You need to drive a little faster....I said with pain in my voice.” Litotes are phrases using exaggeration or sarcasm within them. Many people are most familiar with the term sarcasm, also known as massive understatements. Another example of a litote would be, “there are only a few McDonald’s in the world.”

Litotes are the opposite of a hyperbole: an enormous exaggeration.  Hyperbole shares a common qaulity with a simile: they compare two different things. An example would be: that Great Dane must have been the size of a small horse or he had the strength of ten men!

Many types of figurative language can be used to create mixed emotions or deep thoughts on what the language means. On the other hand, other kinds of figurative language  may cause people to over think about something that is quite simple. Sometimes you may even use them on a daily basis and not even realize how you use them.