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The Tree Outside
He stands. Everything against him. Every loss. Every gust of wind. Every single doubt weighs him down, but he stands. It seems as though all eyes are on him, each threatening to snap him, yet he stands. He’s tired, always thinking about the next moment, foreshadowing every next step knowing it holds nothing but loss. He looks upon the world waiting for something to happen, something to break the blinding darkness in front of him. Silence echoes throughout the air, so thick as if one can slice it open. Body trembling, tears and sweat rolling down his face, why is he still holding on to the dying leaves? Why is he pumping out every last ounce of energy knowing that it will inevitably lead to a long, slow end? The unsettling stillness reveals the remorse that comes with the anticipation of passing time, change.
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In this set piece I attempted to build off “The Tree Outside” quick-write. My pursuits were to include repetition, oxymorons, and personification. I started this story off with the words I repeat throughout the story, “he stands”. Repetition is repeating a word or a set of words in a story to make it more powerful. I also tried to scatter a few oxymorons here and there. Oxymorons are two contrasting words that are placed together to give a greater effect.“blinding darkness”, “silence echos”, and “unsettling stillness” were the 3 oxymorons I included in this story. Lastly, I focused on personification. Personification is when you give human qualities to something that is not human. I wanted to write as the tree in 3rd person. This means that I referred to the tree as “he”, giving it a human-like quality. Furthermore, I described the tree with his body trembling, sweat and tears rolling down its face, etc. My favorite part of the story is the last sentence where I try to wrap this all up and expose the meaning behind the story.