Hey guys, Kit here. I had this assignment for English and I think of it as a fanfiction, so I thought I would share it with you all. It is of a pretty grotesque book, As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner, so bare with me. We also had to wrote it with Southern writing, so it might not make 100% sense. Rated T for teen pregnancy.
PROMPT:
Rewrite a portion of Chapter 45 (pages 198-206) from a customer's perspective.
The author's choice of point of view influences the way a reader interprets a work of literature. As I Lay Dying is written from the point of view of all its characters, one at a time. Sometimes more than one character gives an account of the same event, and those accounts have significant differences. For this activity, you will rewrite a portion of Chapter 45 from the point of view of another customer in the grug store observing the exchange between Moseley and Dewey Dell. Moseley's point of view does not afford Dewey Dell much sympathy for her situation- how would a customer in the store interpret their conversation.
Start your rewrite at the point where Dewey Dell tells Moseley "It's the female trouble..." on page 200 and continue on page 203 where Dewey Dell leaves the store. Fell free to paraphrase the conversation between Dewey Dell and Moseley rather than use the entire conversation verbatim.
Disclaimer: I don't own As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. I only own Cynthia.
Cynthia's POV:
"It's the female trouble."
There she is, a young women by the looks. Traveling too, I'm sure. Torn dress with a damp hem, stiff straw hat hiding that red face and bare feet blackened with mud.
"Where's you ma?" The shopkeeper, Mudely or something of the such, asks. Seemed like a nice enough fellow when he told me 'bout the town couple days ago. Right welcoming man, that Mudely. That name though, doesn't seem right, may be wrong.
"She's out yonder in the wagon."
Towards the window, a crowd gathered near that smelly wagon. Something evil was lurking there, evil I tell you. The boy on the box, he's in trouble, something wrong with him, I'm sure. The other one comes down and goes into the shop, and stays.
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen"
I be right then, when I think she be a young woman. Very plain, though, I think, with black eyes. Dark, filled with that tiredness and sadness.
"Do you want something to stop it? That it?" he asks and I come closer, hidden behind them shelves.
"No." The girl pauses, like she doesn't want to tell him nothing. "That's it. It's already stopped." She then lowers that face of hers and just stares at them floorboards like the be the most interesting things in this here world.
"You're not married, are you?"
A small shake of the bowed head, in shame. A tugging at my chest for this girl. So young, all by herself, her ma in the wagon. Looking out again at that yonder wagon. There ain't no woman there! Only a man, a boy, that poor child on the box. And that evil box, Maybe the ma has hidden away in that there box, making it evil.
"i haven't got anything in my store you want to but. Was that all you wanted?"
Eyes still fixed on that there floorboard, my heart still aching for this girl, all alone, without her ma.
"I've got money to pay you." Poor girl, shes got herself into more than she can handle, she has. "He gave it to me. Ten dollars." If thats all this poor girl got from him, she doesn't have no taste, no sir. When I chose my Wille, well lets say that I didn't pick that boy overnight. Thinking and an honest job, thats what I chose.
"You take my advice and go home and tell your pa or your brothers if you have any or the first man you come to on the road."
"Lafe said I could get it at a drugstore. He said to tell you me and him wouldn't never tell nobody you sold it to us."
I picked up on of them trinkets on that shelf and stood there, turning it round and round in my hands, a thinking. This child, all alone, with this 'Lafe' just a giving 10 dollars and sending her off, another thing ticked off on his daily chores. Some nerve, men these days. If this child had just walked into any other drugstore in the county, she might be getting what she then asked for. But in this town, in this drugstore, she won't be getting anything she needs.
"He never said this drugstore. If he did or mentioned my name, I defy him to prove it. I defy him to repeat it or I'll prosecute him to the full extent of the law, and you can tell him so."
That man! So harsh, turning this young girl away, 'specially when she needed something now. Men, always like that, abandoning girls. That Lafe, my Wille and now this Mudely.
"Lafe said I could get something at the drugstore." she said
"Then go and get it." he said, "You won't get it here."
Then that girl, she up and left, bundle and all. Not all that graceful, that girl, she bumped into the door and went down the street. I felt bad, so strange this feeling, hope the girl will be alright.
Fin!
So I meant to get this posted quite a while ago, but it was due before I finished typing it and I haven't gotten it back until now. Teachers giving back work cause my last day of Freshman year is Monday 23 June. And it is only half a day.
That reminds me. I am going on vacation and will no be back until the 11th of July. I will have Internet, so I will try to post, but I have to pre-write everything in advanced cause I will have no time while I am gone. Most of the stuff will probably be poems and this weird thing I thought of for the Wizard of Oz, but I will also try to update my other stories. I will try to write chapters out on paper while I am gone so I can post a bunch when I get back. I also have to beta a lot of chapters for Criminalminds01453 (she posted them un beta'd. Ugh, what am I going to do with her?) So I have to go an edit all her stuff and then repost it.
Anyway, Ciao for Now!
