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e lives with her lover of 3 years who also has dedicated her life to fighting for womans rights. The Cross Dresser spoke next. He is a young 20 something year old gay man who makes a living by being a female impersonator. He loves to get dressed up and go and sing and dance at local clubs and bachelor parties.
While trying to make a living he has to be concerned about his health since he was recently diagnosed with the HIV virus. The Ski/Surfer Bum was an enjoyable guy. He is your typical burnout, stoner whoms life would lose all meaning if he couldnt find the perfect wave or the steepest mountain. He is by no means unintelligent but he does like to smoke marijuana and have a good time. He is a jokester and loves to make people laugh. The Alcoholic Wife-Beater came next.
He is an out of work factory worker who is too lazy to get up off his butt and go find another job to support his family. He is also a male chauvinist who expects his wife to be the breadwinner while still taking care of the family, and all the house duties. The only way he knows how to vent out all his anger is by beating his wife and children. The Convenience Store Owner was next to speak. He has only been living in American for a few months and works in the store until he can save enough money up to bring the rest of his family over from Pakistan. Along with saving the money he is trying to become an American citizen.
He desperately tries to fit in and learn our culture and our history. His dream is to earn his citizenship and be reunited with his family so that together they can live out the American Dream. The News Reporter was quite a talkative character. She resembled the TV personality Barbara Walters, from such shows as 20/20 and The View, and she also happened to be her hero and mentor. She is an up and coming news reporter and works at a local news studio in North Carolina. Her job as a local anchor was just a temporary gig until she made her big break.
Because she still hadnt made it to the big times yet she was always out looking for the perfect news-story that will make her famous. That is what brought her to the shelter, she was sent to cover the story of the hurricane. Like her idol Barbara, she always was struggling to overcome her lisp. The Cult Leader was a very strange guy. He grew up in an average type of household. Both of his parents were around and there for him whenever he need.
He was never abused and was provided with all the things he needed, but was not considered spoiled. All this normality got to him. In high school he started experimenting with witchcraft and tried casting spells. Soon he moved on to bigger things and began sacrificing animals. He isnt the average type of person you would normally come across; he is very twisted in his views.
But besides that he seemed to be extremely intelligent and he felt that he was just trying something new and was not willing to go with the flow. The World War II Veteran came next. He willing served his country and enjoyed every second of it. His family suffered from his enjoyment of the military because he was never around to be there for them. They were forced to move from military base to military base whenever he got transferred, which was quite often. After 30 years of service he was forced to retire, and he hated it.
He spent his time reminiscing about his time spent in service. He loved telling his grandchildren different stories about his past experiences. Although he gave off the impression of being a sweet old man, there was something else there. He was very eccentric and was a firm believer that males were more superior to females. One of the final people to speak was the Fleeing Mexican.
He snuck across the border hoping to find a better life and employment but all he got was trouble. The police caught up to him and are now trying to deport him back to Mexico. He was working here and sending money back to his family trying to help support them while he is away from home. The Police Officer was last. He is known to be a jerk, and he never lets anyone off even on the pettiest of crimes.
He feels that you should be an upstanding citizen 24 hours a day and never falter or make a mistake, but he also felt that he was not liable to follow these rules. He grew up in the Deep South and believed in white supremacy. Along with being racist he is also hateful towards many others including gays and lesbians. His lifes ambition was to put all wrongdoers behind bars or make them suffer, even if the law did not recognize it. I being the Host introduced myself last.
I just explained that I was 25 years old and a recent graduate from New York University. I earned a business degree and now am employed with an advertising agency. I live alone in a small but decent apartment in SoHo. I ended by explaining how I ended up in the shelter and was able to meet such a group of diverse individuals.
The Story The dark sedan pulled quietly up outside a comfortable family home in a small town called Oak Hills. The brick residence stood silent and dark in the early hours of the morning, looking much like the rest of the houses in the Hills. However, inside this house lay the prosecution’s sole witness in the most important case in the history of the state. Without him, the trial could not go to court.
His life was in danger. Joel Granger stepped from of the car with two colleagues and the three men made their way slowly and quietly to the boy’s bedroom window. Joel stood watch with his pistol at the ready. The FBI didn’t normally do this sort of thing, but in this case there was no other choice.
His colleagues quickly snatched the sleeping boy from his bed, covering his mouth, and threw him into the waiting car. Joel stepped into the driver’s seat and eased the car off down the road. The boy, Adam Martins had witnessed what was turning out to be the most important case in the state’s history, and after the FBI had uncovered the Mafia link they were left with no choice but to take Adam into safety. They presumed that the Mafia was watching every move made by Adam and his family, and the FBI couldn’t risk telling the boy’s mother or any other family members.
Adam sat in the backseat, squeezed between two agents. He was confused, still half asleep and luckily, very quiet. The dark car turned off the freeway and drove carefully down what seemed to be an unused dirt road. They were taking Adam to an FBI safe house, to reduce the risk of being found. As the car turned a corner and picked up speed, a shot was fired.
The sound of a gunshot rang out through the trees. Joel looked in the back. The agent on the left side was leaning on Adam, and the other agent was frantically trying to move the body. Joel had no idea what to do, but he knew that he couldn’t take Adam to the safe house.
He suddenly stepped on the brakes and spun the wheel. The car turned a full 180 degrees and Joel stepped back on the accelerator. The car raced past the spot where the first shot was fired, hitting the second agent in the face, instantly killing him. Once back on the freeway, Joel picked up his cellular phone and rang his boss. “We’ve got a leak.” Joel spat out quickly, “We got shot at. The other agents are dead, but the kid’s still alive.
I’ve got to get him somewhere fast.” “OK, OK. Where are you taking him?” the boss asked. “I don’t want to say. Your phone could be bugged. Ring me back from a pay-phone.” And Joel promptly hung up.
The car turned slowly off the freeway again and made its way quietly down a suburban street. Joel parked outside an old beaten-up house and carried Adam around the back. He forced open an old wooden door and carried Adam down the stairs to the basement. His cell phone rang. “Joel.
That you?” It was the boss. “Yep. I’ve got the kid and I’m at my parent’s house.” “What! It’s not safe!” The boss said angrily. He trusted Joel, but Adam was a very important witness. “Don’t worry. I’m in the basement.
They don’t even know I’m here.” Joel was calm now and had time to think. “OK, but keep it that way.” The boss said reluctantly. “We need the kid. No witness, no trial, you know the story… Look, Joel.
Get some sleep and I’ll come down tomorrow in person.” Sunlight shone through the vents along the east wall as Joel woke to answer the door. He was still dressed, but had been sleeping and was not fully alert. He opened the door and yawned. Before he had even closed his mouth, the assassin shot the silenced pistol, putting a large hole through Joel’s head. The assassin then stepped over the body and made his way to Adam, who was sleeping on the couch.
He pulled a piece of nylon rope from his pocket and completed his mission. He then left the basement room as quietly as he had arrived. No witness, no trial. Writing this paper allowed me to reach into my creative side a produce a paper that I was to create a group of characters that to me represented the American culture. Some of my characters I tended to base on famous people, like the Barbara Walters news reporter. I felt that by including real people in my story I would be depicting a more realistic type of character that could be related to better because there would be something to compare them to.
Other characters were based on people that I have known, but I chose not to tell their whole life story. Instead I chose a few different moments from throughout the years that I have had in contact with them, and created a character based on their life during a certain time period. Take for instance the Hard Working Mother, that character is based on my own mother, but from ten years ago. During that time she had to work two jobs in order to support my brother and myself while trying to keep up with payments on the house. The rest of my characters were based on just general characteristics of people that I may have seen in a movie or on TV or from the news. Each character that I put into this tale was meant to represent an average group of people, and all 25 characters together were hopefully meant to symbolize all the American people in general.
Everyone is not meant to be able to relate to the entire personality of a character or just one character, you should be able to share the same traits with bits and pieces of a few characters. Hopefully those who read this will be able to associate with some of my characters and connect different aspects of their life and views with the ones I have created. The reason I chose to tell a story from the point of view of the Hacker is because I felt that his lack of trust in people would be the easiest for me to tell a story about. He was the perfect character to have the lack of confidence in other because of his lifestyle and chosen hobby. The story I told I hope gave off the impression that there is a good reason behind not trusting people and relying on them to keep your best interest at heart. The Hacker being an intelligent man and his ability to hack into certain websites like the FBI and CIA may have come across this in the form of a case.
Maybe he just conjured the story out of his head so that he could show the entire group his reasons for not trusting friends or family or colleagues. Wherever he got the idea for the story from the reasoning behind it was still the same. Although I tried to parallel my tale and the Canterbury Tales closely, it was hard to follow exactly. It was difficult to try and give backgrounds for 25 completely various people, personality traits, views, and past experiences.
It was also tricky to try and decide which information you should provide the reader and how that particular character would react to it. All in all I hope that my creations of 25 characters did for the most part describe American life, as it is known today in the Twenty First Century. In time these people will change and a new Canterbury Tales will have to be written in order to conform to that particular generation.
