| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: that you accept my proposition?"
"Why, I'll think it over, Mrs. Manstey, certainly I will. I
wouldn't annoy you for the world--"
"But the work is to begin to-morrow, I am told," Mrs. Manstey
persisted.
Mrs. Black hesitated. "It shan't begin, I promise you that; I'll
send word to the builder this very night." Mrs. Manstey
tightened her hold.
"You are not deceiving me, are you?" she said.
"No--no," stammered Mrs. Black. "How can you think such a thing
of me, Mrs. Manstey?"
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: untainted sentiment, the highest of all human feelings because the
most disinterested. Love has its egotism, but motherhood has none. La
Marana was a mother like none other; for, in her total, her eternal
shipwreck, motherhood might still redeem her. To accomplish sacredly
through life the task of sending a pure soul to heaven, was not that a
better thing than a tardy repentance? was it not, in truth, the only
spotless prayer which she could lift to God?
So, when this daughter, when her Marie-Juana-Pepita (she would fain
have given her all the saints in the calendar as guardians), when this
dear little creature was granted to her, she became possessed of so
high an idea of the dignity of motherhood that she entreated vice to
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: Cold rain had fallen for days and the house was chill with drafts
and dampness. The logs in the fireplace were wet and smoky and
gave little heat. There had been nothing to eat except milk since
breakfast, for the yams were exhausted and Pork's snares and
fishlines had yielded nothing. One of the shoats would have to be
killed the next day if they were to eat at all. Strained and
hungry faces, black and white, were staring at her, mutely asking
her to provide food. She would have to risk losing the horse and
send Pork out to buy something. And to make matters worse, Wade
was ill with a sore throat and a raging fever and there was neither
doctor nor medicine for him.
Gone With the Wind |
