The Boy | Teen Ink

The Boy

November 4, 2022
By VM BRONZE, Cupertino, California
VM BRONZE, Cupertino, California
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

  The boy sat there, in the middle of the field, a field that echoed exactly what had taken place. Six hundred souls, mercilessly slaughtered by an army made for taking the lives of the innocent. The battlefield was desolate, with only the sounds of distant drums rhythmically tapping to fill the empty air. In that field sat a boy atop a small ledge overlooking the field. The boy’s golden brown skin sparkled underneath the sun. He sat there clapping and giggling at the sight of vultures circling above the bodies. His eyes drooped, as the boy looked around surrounded by piles of flesh, blood and bone. Weapons covered in blood reflecting the sunlight, creating beautiful colors like a kaleidoscope. The boy was simply there, amidst the gore and violence, his unformulated thoughts not even beginning to process what had just happened around him. The only fragment of his home, a glowing green amulet cracked like the world around him, hung heavily from his fragile neck. The boy looked up, blinded by the sun, rays illuminated him against the colors of red and tan. He giggled once more before the birds swooped in. 


The author's comments:

I wanted to get into excruciating detail and used imagery to give a vivid picture of the scenario to the reader. Juxtaposition, which is where you put 2 opposites next to each other, was used as I placed a child in the aftermath of a gruesome raid on a city, both contrasting with each other. You can see this when the boy starts to giggle in the middle of the battlefield, the two sides having a huge contrast. You can also see it when the light refracted by the weapons create a beautiful scene, again contrasting with the desolate and barren battlefield. I also foreshadowed the death of the boy in the middle of the piece when he was giggling at the sight of the vultures circling above the dead bodies, only to be killed by them at the end of the story. I like the description of the piece and how it paints a clear image about what is happening


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