Alternate Ending "The Pit and the Pendulum"

    I had escaped from the pendulum with my life! That was two of the Inquisitions death traps for me, but I proved to be smarter than them even with them drugging me. I sat down to calm my racing heart from the near death experience. I noticed that my prison was becoming brighter and warmer. All of a sudden, with a loud creaking sound, the walls start to flatten out pushing me ever closer to the pit. I wondered if they had read my thoughts and were angry at me for thinking I, a protestant, was smarter than the Catholic church. I have no hope for escaping, either I will fall into the pit or being burned to death. As the walls moved closer and closer, I remembered when I first discovered the pit and threw a pebble into it. I had seen for a brief moment a little window that they used to check if the body were dead. I scrambled to the brink and got onto my stomach. I reached down and was just able to reach the door. I felt something furry on the wall and wondered what it could be when it squeaked. A rat sitting horizontally on the wall of the pit. How could that be? I shoved the rat off and felt the smallest ledge. The walls were close to my body, I could smell my clothes starting to smoke. I decided that it was either now or never and holding on to the ledge, I twisted my body and sank into the deep abyss. It was much cooler inside the pit and I felt my body beginning to cool down. I had no idea what I would do if one of the torturers had opened the window. I saw the walls of my prison swoosh together over my head and a dead, singed rat fell onto my head. I almost screamed of horror but I bit into my lip to keep from shouting out fearing they would hurt me if they discovered where I was. The walls moved back into their original positions. I expected them to look into the pit at any moment to see if I had fallen for they wouldn't find my body burned to a crisp. After what seemed an eternity of grueling pain from holding my body up, I saw a hand reach down into the pit. I grabbed hold of it and felt it pulling me up with a significant amount of strength. As I was dragged onto the floor of my prison, I looked around the room and saw my rescuer. There were many men in the room besides my rescuer and they were all wearing the same clothing as I. They told me that the French had invaded Spain and the French soldiers were releasing prisoners and taking captives. They had skipped my cell because they were told by my torturers I was dead. The former prisoners told me they were conducting a search of the entire facility to make sure they rescued every single person in this horrible prison. I thanked them again and again and then we went to help more prisoners.

Irving versus Poe

   I am not sure which author I prefer. Both write some type of horror/ scary story but Irving deals with situations that couldn't possibly happen whereas Poe deals with peoples' minds and situations that could occur. Generally when I read Poe's stories, my brain tends to think about it longer. After reading Poe, I picture circumstances in my head and then I can't get away from them because they're in my head and not real. With Irving, I thought about the story and did not conjure any pictures in my head. One thing I do like about Poe's stories is that some situations that he wrote about have and do happen which makes it so interesting because then you might be able to figure out why someone did what they did.

Romantic Poem Reflection

     One of my  favorite poems we studied this week was Snowbound by John Greenleaf Whittier. I like this poem because it tells the story of a farming family during a blizzard. I love the country and farms and I also love snow (a hazard of having relatives from Minnesota!). This story so vividly portrays how a family in the country lived during the winter. The people in those days were much hardier than we are today. They all knew their job and did so right away. Most importantly, they knew how to have fun with their family without the modern "conveniences" we have today. This is a wonderful poem about country life and makes me wish I could travel back in time to visit this quaint little setting.