9th Grade
Memories & Metaphor
Freshman year was a horror film. I made countless foolish mistakes. So many things were different from what I had always known and a lot more was need of me. I remember heading to some classes filled with dread for the nightmarish horror I was headed to namely the evil that was geometry. It was filled with sophomores who seemingly could not tell left from right without some kind of help and I knew no one. It was haunting to watch them, listen to them and being forced to sit behind the worst of them all. The only way that student passed was because every five minutes he would turn to we and say “how you do that girl?” and I would it explain it so he got it and then explain it all over again in 5 minutes because he forgot. That boy made that class painful. Every other day I felt like I was marching to my end. This year was also filled with watching others fail and learning from them. Like the time in my English class where everyone was writing a paper and one girl went to go to the teacher to ask a question. The teacher never even let the girl finish her question before telling her that she was making a huge foolish mistake that if she didn’t fix would trash her grade. The teacher than addressed the class about her mistake and why it was a mistake. The poor girls face was beet red and there was a moment of silence before the sound of 25 erasers making the mistake everyone made vanish. The teacher look at us like she was having one of those moments a teacher has when they questioned why they became a teacher in the first place as she shook her head. We all made the same mistake yet the seemingly the only victim was the girl. We all used her as a sacrificial lamb to fix our mistake. Another thing that I remember happening all the time this year was upperclassmen and teachers watching and shaking their head at my foolishness always knowing the painful fate these mistakes will bring me.
During this year we had to read a bunch of stories this year. The reading the novel Great Expectations was a haunting task because it was extremely long and very boring. We also read Romeo and Juliet which had me coming to class dreading the possibility of being forced to read a part. It felt like we were moving at a zombie’s pace as we worked through the “Odyssey”. Kids in my class just didn't get it and I had no trouble with it at all. The teacher kept explaining thing I already knew over and over like some kind of sick torture method. There was also independent novel reading that I adored because I could read whatever I want and get credit for it. English was a simple class. At this time I learned a lot about righting and pushing through a horrible novel. My teacher placed the foundation for everything I learned about writing all throughout high school. She also really forced me to push myself to read no matter how demonic I thought the book she assigned was. Overall my ninth grade English class wasn't that bad. My teacher taught me a lot of very important lessons. Montresor
Intro
The original assignment was to write a character analysis on Montresor. We had to pick out quotes from the book and use them to show his traits that helped him kill Fortunato.I picked this writing because I once told my teacher that if I could have rewritten this paper that I would have.
|
|
Rewrite
It was the time of carnival, a time of indulgence and sinning, it was a time when mask were worn so that everyone may hide their identity and it was a perfect time for murder. Which was exactly what a man named Montresor thought when he set out to a murder Fortunato, the man who Montresor said gave him “a thousand injuries”(212). Not only does Montresor kill him but he gets away with it. The reason he gets away with it and the reason he killed Fortunato are the fact that he has the 3 distinct traits of brilliance, deceptiveness and the unquestionable fact that he is sinister.
One of the important traits that helped him kill Fortunato was his brilliance. On page 212 he said to Fortunato “but I have received a pipe of what passes for amontillado and I have my doubts…I am on my way to Luchesi if anyone has a critical turn, it is he.” Montresor knew that Fortunato was proud to a fault when it came to his tasted in wine and he knew Fortunato would never have let him go to Luchesi on something like that. Montresor used that pride to lure Fortunato to his death. More proof of his brilliance is the way that he killed Fortunato. Montresor tricked Fortunato into the catacombs chained him to a wall and then builds a brick wall across the entrance to the part of the catacombs Fortunato. The final piece of evidence that Montresor is smart beyond belief is that he got away with it for fifty years. He made no slip ups or mistakes for fifty years! The only reason we know about it is that Montresor decided to brag about it on a whim. Another important trait of Montresor is his deceptive ways. He made Fortunato believe that it was his idea to go to the catacombs. He exploited Fortunato’s love of wine. He goaded Fortunato with the idea that Luchesi was the better choice for wine tasting. Fortunato eventual said “Luchesi cannot tell amontillado from sherry” (212). Further proof of his deceptiveness is that he tricks his staff into leaving his house by saying “there were no attendants at home; they had absconded to make merry in honor of this time. I had told them that I shall not return until the morning and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. … I well knew to ensure their immediate disappearance” (214). He made sure they left without them second guessing him. He also deceived Fortunato even father when Fortunato wanted to turn back. Montresor tricked him into going father into the catacombs by saying that they could leave after all there is always Luchesi. The most important trait of this murder is that he is sinister. His family motto is proof. The motto was “Nemo me impune lacessit” that means that nobody attacks me without punishment. That’s a cruel and sinister idea to grow up with and live by. Another example of his sinister way is on page 214. When he drank to Fortunato’s long life. His exacted word were “And I to your long life.” > Who drinks to the long life of someone they are going to kill? The final proof of his sinister nature is when he said that his heart grew sick not on account of the murder but because of the dampness of the catacombs. He killed a man yet all he seemed to care about was the fact that it was damp Those three traits of brilliance, deceptiveness and his sinister mind set are very important to the story The Cask of Amontillado. Without those traits of Montresor the story would not be the same. He would have never killed Fortunato and gotten away with it. |