| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Awakening & Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin: She touched his hand as she scanned the red cicatrice on the inside
of his white wrist. A quick impulse that was somewhat spasmodic
impelled her fingers to close in a sort of clutch upon his hand.
He felt the pressure of her pointed nails in the flesh of his palm.
She arose hastily and walked toward the mantel.
"The sight of a wound or scar always agitates and sickens me,"
she said. "I shouldn't have looked at it."
"I beg your pardon," he entreated, following her; "it never
occurred to me that it might be repulsive."
He stood close to her, and the effrontery in his eyes repelled
the old, vanishing self in her, yet drew all her awakening
Awakening & Selected Short Stories |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: he discovered beneath it a layer of scurrying roaches, almost as
badly frightened as himself.
Here they brought him more "duffers and dope," with the addition of
a bowl of soup. Many of the prisoners had their meals brought in
from a restaurant, but Jurgis had no money for that. Some had books
to read and cards to play, with candles to burn by night, but Jurgis
was all alone in darkness and silence. He could not sleep again;
there was the same maddening procession of thoughts that lashed him
like whips upon his naked back. When night fell he was pacing up
and down his cell like a wild beast that breaks its teeth upon the
bars of its cage. Now and then in his frenzy he would fling himself
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: attitude of the tetrarch. "A man should never allow himself to be
annoyed," said he, "by such foolish criticism." And he laughed at the
censure of the priests and the fury of Iaokanann, saying that his
words were of little importance.
Herodias, who also had reappeared, and now stood at the top of a
flight of steps, called loudly:
"You are wrong, my lord! He ordered the people to refuse to pay the
tax!"
"Is that true?" he demanded. The general response was affirmative,
Antipas adding his word to the declaration of the others.
Vitellius had a misgiving that the prisoner might be able to escape;
Herodias |
