| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: touching upon life's problems, but never solving
them--all this holding out no promise of change,
and losing its charm more and more--she began
to despair. She had desperate moods when she
longed to die.
Her friends directed her thoughts to charity.
On the one hand, she saw poverty which was real
and repulsive, and a sham poverty even more re-
pulsive and pitiable; on the other, she saw the ter-
rible indifference of the lady patronesses who came
in carriages and gowns worth thousands. Life
The Forged Coupon |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: She unfolded another lump of newspaper and disclosed some roots of
pansies and of crimson daisies.
"Four penn'orth!" she moaned.
"How CHEAP!" he cried.
"Yes, but I couldn't afford it THIS week of all weeks."
"But lovely!" he cried.
"Aren't they!" she exclaimed, giving way to pure joy.
"Paul, look at this yellow one, isn't it--and a face just like an
old man!"
"Just!" cried Paul, stooping to sniff. "And smells that nice!
But he's a bit splashed."
Sons and Lovers |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: known to overturn street-cars. Those leaping horses, striking
sparks from the cobbles in their forward lunge, were creatures
to be ineffably admired. The clang of the gong pierced his breast
like a noise of remembered war.
When Jimmie was a little boy, he began to be arrested.
Before he reached a great age, he had a fair record.
He developed too great a tendency to climb down from his truck
and fight with other drivers. He had been in quite a number of
miscellaneous fights, and in some general barroom rows that had
become known to the police. Once he had been arrested for
assaulting a Chinaman. Two women in different parts of the city,
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
