Cameron (Flash Fiction)

Cameron

Cameron grabbed the door handle and twisted it with one white-knuckled hand, pushing through and slamming it shut behind him so hard that the door frame rattled and quaked like a sapling in a hurricane. He stormed into the house; each step tempestuous, each swing of his arm feverish. Pacing rapidly back and forth, he angrily studied the bruises on his arm. His nostrils flared as he remembered the strong grip, those unyielding and unrelenting fingers digging harder into his skin and leaving red crescent moon impressions when they finally receded. He paced faster, trying to clear his head, but his mind was filled with echoes of words, words that he could not forget. You’re a waste of space. Nobody wants you here. He covered his ears, but the words reverberated incessantly through his thoughts. A small droplet of blood appeared, welling into the nail marks in his skin. A repeating pattern of pain drawn onto his arm, all set on a backdrop of newly-formed purple and yellow bruises. Stupid, stupid, stupid! His hand flew out and punched the wall, causing a resounding cracking noise to echo through the myriad of rooms branching off into the darkness of his home. Small fractures spidered out from the point of impact and spread until they tapered off into the darkness surrounding him. He grimaced and shook his hand in pain. “Even the wall can fight back,” he muttered to himself aloud. Why couldn’t he have done anything? Grabbed the fleshy, horrible fingers and torn them off of him? But he had been weak, too weak to do anything about it. Rage coursed through his veins, partially hate for the bully, but partially hate for himself. His thoughts became so entangled with one another that he could not separate them; he clutched his head in pain. Suddenly, he was shaken from his own mind by a sound. What was that? Curiosity distracted him momentarily as he stopped pacing to listen. There it was again. A small whimper floated through the air from around the corner, easily carried through the silence of the empty house. Cameron slowly turned his head, searching for the source of the noise; his pet dog. Huffing angrily, he returned to his bitter reverie. Cautiously, the small animal poked its nose around the corner, and then its face appeared, but Cameron did not halt his furious marching. Click, click, click. The dog padded over quietly; the only sounds in the nearly noiseless house were its nails against the hardwood floor and the heavy breathing of the boy. Nudging Cameron’s leg with its wet nose, the little creature whined softly again. Cameron snapped his neck around, his eyes shifting wildly. His inhibitions had disappeared; all semblance of humanity had vanished. His leg seemed to move of its own accord and suddenly, with one swift movement, his booted foot had come down on the helpless dog. A horrible noise echoed through the room; shocked, the boy dropped to his knees and cradled the tiny broken body of the dog. Its ribs had snapped like a brittle paper mache art project torn in the clumsy hands of a small child; its breaths escaped raggedly, hardly shifting its soft abdomen. As he clutched the little dog to his chest, a tear slid down Cameron’s cheek and tracked down his face into his pet’s matted fur. What had he done? Fragments of realization slipped into his reality, shattering his previously clear vision. Cameron squeezed his eyes shut to cage the tears threatening to flood down his blotchy skin. His arms and hands shook as he held the animal close to him, trying to feel the last beats of its heart. As he felt its life draining slowly away, he let out an anguished and primal scream; all he knew was pain and pain and pain. Deep sadness engulfed him like a fog rolling into his mind, dulling his senses to everything but his infinite and unending misery. The dog blinked slowly in confusion and licked the boy’s hand with its rough sandpaper tongue. It took one shuddering breath, then another, then another, and then nothing.

Ivory: Africa's White Gold

White Gold

When you think of white gold, you most likely imagine an expensive bracelet or ring made of opulent metal. However, the “white gold” of Africa is a different substance: ivory. Ivory is the white material that makes up the tusks of various animals, most notably elephants. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, ivory trade has been banned internationally since 1989. However, the illegal killing of African elephants for their tusks continues to persist nearly 30 years later and is still a major topic of debate in Africa and throughout the world.

To begin, it is important to know why ivory is in such high demand and who is the main buyer of illegal ivory in the global economy. An article by National Geographic explains that the bulk of ivory from poached elephants is smuggled into and sold in Asia. In Asia, ivory is in high demand for two reasons. The first reason is that traditional Chinese medicine often calls for ivory in its recipes; in the traditional Chinese culture, ivory is believed to be a powerful healing agent that can cure various diseases. Elephant ivory, along with the horns of rhinos, is sold in Asian countries as medicine in various forms, including pills and powders (World Wildlife Foundation). The other use for ivory that is popular in the Asian community is that it can be carved to form small figurines and is known to be made into beautiful art. These artworks made from ivory are worth a great deal of money and are considered a display of wealth. Ivory is in high demand in Asia and this causes the perpetuation of illegal poaching of African elephants.

When ivory is a hot commodity, as it has been for many years, the demand for more of it only increases. The ever-growing Asian market for ivory drives poachers to brutal acts of violence in order to collect the amount of ivory they want from elephants in Africa. One example of a major elephant slaughtering would be the Garamba National Park massacre last May. National Geographic cites the African Parks Network in stating that 33 elephant carcasses were discovered in a short period of time within this important national park. These elephants were killed and stripped of their tusks so that the ivory could be sold on the black market. National Geographic adds that 3 elephant poachers were killed by park rangers who were defending the elephants. Clearly there is a death toll both on the elephants and on humans hunting and guarding them. The constant need for ivory led poachers to slay elephants carelessly in an effort to make themselves richer.

Finally, even when elephants are not killed in massive groups, separate poachings add up to an enormous amount of killings throughout Africa. This death toll is so great that it is possible that elephants could become extinct in the near future. While the bulk of this issue is contained within central Africa, it is widespread because elephants have been forced into various sections of the country and have now lost 30% of their original territory (Plos One). According to PNAS, there was a 63.7% decline in the population of elephants between 2002 and 2012. Additionally, National Geographic reports that over 100,000 elephants were killed between 2010 and 2012; in only two years, an entire chunk of the population was wiped out.

To conclude, the huge demand for ivory in the Asian market is a major driving factor behind many brutal killings of elephants and despite the fact that their killing is illegal this violence persists. In Africa and Asia, the ivory from the tusks of elephants is the most precious substance of all; it truly is like white gold.

Works Cited

Christy, Bryan. "Poachers Slaughter Dozens of Elephants in Key African Park." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 13 May 2014. Web. 8 Mar. 2015. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140513-democratic-republic-congo-garamba-elephants-poaching-world/>. This article was possibly the most helpful to me in giving me a real grasp of the topic. It showed real life examples of the brutality of elephant poaching and slaughters and had no more bias than an informed opinion. This article proved invaluable to me in making a point in my own article.

"Devastating Decline of Forest Elephants in Central Africa." PLOS ONE. PLOS ONE, 4 Mar. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2015. <http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0059469>. This article also provided useful information about elephants in Africa. This article was helpful because its information was solid and there were many statistics. Additionally, this research paper was unbiased and was therefore a good resource for this research paper.

"Illegal Killing for Ivory Drives Global Decline in African Elephants." PNAS. Ed. Peter M. Kareiva. PNAS, n.d. Web. This backed up the other informational article and gave more useful statistics. The good news about this source is that it was fairly unbiased because it was a simple statement of data from a research project done. This was mostly useful for information on numbers and facts but not on basic background information.

"Issues: Illegal Hunting and Trade." WWF. WWF, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2015. <http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/elephants/asian_elephants/areas/issues/illegal_hunting_trade/>. This article was somewhat short but contained some valuable information. It helped me to get a good sense of the topic and it was useful in my actual article as well. Because of its source it had some bias, but it was more of an article with an informed opinion rather than a true persuasive piece.

Scriber, Brad. "100,000 Elephants Killed by Poachers in Just Three Years, Landmark Analysis Finds." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 18 Aug. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. This source was good because it contained very interesting statistics surrounding elephants and their poaching in Africa. It was useful in that it gave me good numbers to use in my article and I found it fascinating to read. It was also good background information.

"Threats to African Elephants." WWF. WWF, n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015. <http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/elephants/african_elephants/afelephants_threats/>.This article gave me some more basic and background information. I found it useful because I was able to become more knowledgable on the topic and because it verified some information that I already knew was true.

Cry Character Analysis - John Kumalo

Argumentative statement:

Fugard conveys through the character John Kumalo the idea that many villagers in South Africa are becoming unhappy with the traditional idea of their tribes. He is a representation of the other South African indigenous people who are going to Johannesburg and never coming back. It is clear that he has become corrupted by the greater sway he holds in the city and the power he has. Because he has power in Johannesburg, he does not want to write to or come home to his family and friends in the tribe and he will not embrace any aspect of the tribe, including the language of Zulu. He asks to speak in English when talking about his experience in Johannesburg to further emphasize that there is a huge disparity between the way of life in the tribe and his new way of life. When asked again to speak in Zulu he becomes enraged and only the peaceful efforts of Stephen calm him. His power and money in the city have changed him into a man who thinks he has it all but in reality has no family or friends to share his joy with besides a mistress who he is not even married to.

Quotes:

1. ¨You people in Ndotsheni do not understand the way life is in Johannesburg. I thought it better not to write¨ (35).
2. “Down in Ndotsheni I am nobody, even as you are nobody, my brother. I am subject to the chief, who is an ignorant man. I must salute him and bow to him, but he is an uneducated man” (35).
3. “‘Perhaps we should speak Zulu again,’ [Msimangu] said. The angry veins stood out on the great bull neck [of John], and who knows what angry words might have been spoken (37).

We chose this picture to represent John Kumalo’s state in life. The beautiful view from the high peak of a mountain represents his wealth and success, but like the man in the picture, he is alone and has no one to share it with. His wife left him, and he abandoned his family in order to earn more money and become more successful.

Civilization and the Westernized World

Symbol One: Movies

Sijie uses the symbol of movies in this book to represent and symbolize love, wonder, and civilization. First, the movies represent civilization in the deserted and unsophisticated world Luo and the narrator are stuck in. The movies are something viewed by people in the cities and the mountain villages; they are a connector between rural and urban. In this way, they symbolize civilization. The second combination of related concepts they represent are love and wonder. The love and maturity of the people in the movies is reflected in the Little Seamstress, Luo, and the narrator, helping them to come of age. The movies help them grow up by showing them idealized adults.

‘“As for us, we were content to watch her lovely face bathed in the luminous colours bouncing off the screen. Now and then everything would go dark and her eyes would shine like spots of phosphorus in the gloom. Then suddenly, when the scene changed, her face would light up, flush with colour, and blossom in wonder.” (81-82)

‘Her words pierced my heart. “It’s so much better when it’s you telling the story.”’ (82)

Sijie uses the symbol of the suitcase to represent mystery and the knowledge of the books. The mystery in the books helps them accept that there are some things they may never understand. Additionally, it represents the Westernized world that they so miss. When one starts growing up, they start to experience different things in their life. We see mysterious things that change our point of view in the world. For some people they see positive changes and others see things as negative. We start to see beyond one person and the little things that make them special to us. As we grow up we can discover ourselves and start learning what is important to us.

“Four-Eyes had a secret suitcase, which he kept carefully hidden.” (45).

“The heightened vigilance, and distrust shown by Four-Eyes, in spite of the friendship between us, seemed to substantiate Luo’s theory, and we grew convinced that the suitcase was indeed filled with banned books.”(50).

‘Luo broke silence the silence.“I expect they’re books,” he said. “The way you keep your suitcase locked up and hidden away is enough to betray your secret: you’ve got a stash of forbidden books”’ (49).

Physical Representations:

Two Sides

Two Sides

The rambling wind will always blow

across both sides of the mountain

One side holds meadows and the other holds snow

but the breeze does not flow over only one

The wind will travel across the Earth

no matter what’s below it

deserts, oceans, grasses, tundras

the wind does not stay in the confines of one

Why, then, would one limit their thinking

by seeing only the yin or only the yon?

The Master sees every side of the mountain

and not just the side he is currently on.

The perspective cycle: Memory, Decisions, Perspective and identity