| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: answer to a series of plain questions. It is partly in
consequence of such facts, that slaves, when inquired of as to
their condition and the character of their masters, almost
invariably say they are contented, and that their masters are
kind. Slaveholders have been known to send spies among their
slaves, to ascertain, if possible, their views and feelings in
regard to their condition. The frequency of this had the effect
to establish among the slaves the maxim, that a still tongue
makes a wise head. They suppress the truth rather than take the
consequence of telling it, and, in so doing, they prove
themselves a part of the human family. If they have anything to
My Bondage and My Freedom |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: Time was when we were rushed up to a stalwart young man of
twenty-four, who was presented as the pivot about whom the
plot would revolve. Now we are led, protesting, up to a
grubby urchin of five and are invited to watch him through
twenty years of intimate minutiae. In extreme cases we have
been obliged to witness his evolution from swaddling clothes
to dresses, from dresses to shorts (he is so often English),
from shorts to Etons.
The thrill we get for our pains is when, at twenty-five, he
jumps over the traces and marries the young lady we met in
her cradle on page two. The process is known as a
Fanny Herself |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: went out, instead of a cab. Castanier was a gourmand; he engaged an
excellent cook; and Aquilina, to please him, had herself made the
purchases of early fruit and vegetables, rare delicacies, and
exquisite wines. But, as Aquilina had nothing of her own, these gifts
of hers, so precious by reason of the thought and tact and
graciousness that prompted them, were no less a drain upon Castanier's
purse; he did not like his Naqui to be without money, and Naqui could
not keep money in her pocket. So the table was a heavy item of
expenditure for a man with Castanier's income. The ex-dragoon was
compelled to resort to various shifts for obtaining money, for he
could not bring himself to renounce this delightful life. He loved the
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