Doc Z
SLCC period 4
March 8, 2011
The Man of the Hills
A man trots down a trail from the tall mountains that hung over a town flourishing with houses, he was the only one up there that morning. He walks down and rolls up on the house closest to the hills. This was his house, it looked over the whole town. It wasn't a mansion, but was one of the bigger houses in the small town. It has steep steps leading up to a big doorway that opened itself to a modern nice home that could hold up to eight, but now it was only for one. He takes a glance around and headed straight to his bedroom. He dresses out of his exercise clothes and starts getting ready for the job he preforms everyday. Ready to go, he walks down a busted road that hasn't been kept up in years to the grocery store a couple blocks away. He observes the still houses and gets ready for the long day in front of him. Nobody really goes to the store anymore in this quite town. He moves into the warehouse like store and picks up the packet near the door. He skips through the packet to see what was on his plate for the day and everything seemed average. he finds his big shopping cart and starts loading food into it, he’ll have to make many trips. Cheetos, Mountain Dew, Chips, wings are the most common of the food he grabs. Some get fruit and vegetables, but that number has gone down as well. He loads up the truck one cart at a a time until the truck seems as though it wont run if anymore weight is put on. He gets lucky and starts the car on the first try and starts moving on his way. The man is the most popular person in town and almost everyone seems to know his name. He rolls a couple blocks down from the huge grocery store and stops at a small and old house. He goes in the back of the trunk and grabs his first load of food and steps out into the morning sun. The house had no steps and where the man used to remember newspapers on lawns, there were none. Who would read it anymore anyway? Knock!Knock!Knock! four times and a buzzer sounding signaling him to come it. He used to look at the camera in his face watching him, but that has become old. He closes the door behind him and his eyes must first adjust to the darkness before he can go anywhere. He navigates his way through the dusty house and walks into the biggest room in the house. In this room is a bed, a fridge and freezer, a new 72 inch TV and a big man on the bed. His eyes didn't even budge to look at the man, but the man continued on and started piling food in the over sized fridge and the pantry. It took him four trips of this before he was done. The man on the bed never looked up, as his face was glued to the screen. The first house of the day was complete.
He continued to house after house with the same routine. The people inside the rest of the dark houses rarely say much, the most they usually say is a simple “hi” and sometimes they talk to the man about what they've seen on their best friend lately. These monsters of people are greasy and disgusting, pimples overwhelm there faces as they stare into the box. You can almost see the mush spilling out of there brains as if their brains have become one with the machine. They don't think for themselves or have any creativeness what so ever. As he places the food where they demand him to these monsters will repeat the funniest line they have heard from the television since they saw him last. He used to record what lines people would say and pick a winner at the end of each week, but this act also became boring. These lazy people would almost drain the energy out of him as the day went on and the man constantly reminded himself of his loneliness. Most days he was the only person in the town that would actually see the light. He hated staying in the town and found that his only escape was in the hills. He embraced the beautiful creeks, trees, and scenes that were up there and he was the only one. He could not relate to anyone about maybe a new wildlife he found, or how a waterfall looked at full blast. He kept all of this to himself, the man was indeed his own best friend as the rest of the town disgusted him. There was a reason he could not leave either. He kept the city together, making sure it didn't break apart so how could he leave? They had created such a reliance on him that leaving them was not an option. These were the streets he grew up on and he could not leave it all behind to destroy itself. Some people driving by would sometimes stop and tell him stories of other cities and places nearby, but that has become lost as well as the town had become an avoidable spot for travelers.
His long day had come to an end as he finished up the last house on the long list. He slowly drove the truck back to the store and walked slowly down the street to his house. He used to watch the television in spare time but now he read books and filled his time with single person hobbies. He goes to sleep when the sun goes down so he can wake up at sunrise to go on a daily hike up in the hills he calls his own. He woke at the crack of dawn to go through the same routine he does on most days. He hiked up to one of his favorite spots, Mirror Lake. He remembers the name from a guidebook for the area before it became uninhabited. The lake is absolutely beautiful as it is surrounded by pine trees and is clear enough to reflect anything around it. He sits at the lake for hours on most days, but today it only took a couple of hours before he heard something. He first heard laughing and talking until he saw a small group of people coming over the horizon. The group consisted of two older men infront and three women in around there twenties behind. They got closer and closer and he got more and more nervous that his social skills had gone with his friends he used to have. They reached him and a thin bearded man in front said “We have been hiking through the woods for days and we need somewhere to settle down and live for a couple of months, do you know any towns near these mountains?”. The man smiled and even laughed a little and replied “I know just the place”.
Explanation
My story “The Man of the Hills” is a simple story that reflects on a issue of the American Experience. It mainly focuses on the issue that America has become fat and lazy and does not apperciate the outdoors as much as we should. That we spend most of our time watching TV, stuffing our faces, and building more cities then spending some time out doors and not taking it for granted. It is a short story without to much action or conflict, but it gets a theme and a story of a man across to the audience. It gets that simple theme across mainly through the setting that the story takes place in, the characters that are in it, and the narrator that tells the story.
The setting of my short story is not to out there or extreme. It takes place in a quite town that rests under big mountains. The mountains are a very important to the story because they give the man a sanctuary and they also prove how spoiled and lazy the rest of the town’s inhabitants are. The grocery store represents the workplace for the man and also a Costco like place that never seems to run out of food for the monsters. Another important area is the man’s house, because it represents that he does indeed make a lot of money for his job. The steep steps almost serve as a moat for all of the fat people to stay away from his front door. The first person’s house that he rolls up upon is also pretty important to the setting of the story. The fact that is has no steps and the man remembers that people used to actually get newspapers shows how much they stay indoors. It also shows how un-athletic they are. The dark inside makes it almost seem like these people live inside of caves where there is no sunlight or cleaning. The lake at the end is the man’s total home and that is where he finds his visitors.
The characters also contribute to the theme of the book. First of all the main character, the man, is pretty much an everyday normal guy. He is fit, he loves the outdoors, and he works a job full time. He is the constant in the story, the person that people who read can relate too. The rest of the town is what makes the story more fictional. These monsters represent what is wrong with society today over exagerated. They rarely talk and are described to be disgusting and fat. They show what happens if someone watches to much TV and becomes absolutely obsessed with it. They are almost like zombies that have no brains and can not think for themselves. The people that come to the lake at the end of the story represent hope. They could get the city started again and get more fit people so the town can become normal again.
The characters also contribute to the theme of the book. First of all the main character, the man, is pretty much an everyday normal guy. He is fit, he loves the outdoors, and he works a job full time. He is the constant in the story, the person that people who read can relate too. The rest of the town is what makes the story more fictional. These monsters represent what is wrong with society today over exagerated. They rarely talk and are described to be disgusting and fat. They show what happens if someone watches to much TV and becomes absolutely obsessed with it. They are almost like zombies that have no brains and can not think for themselves. The people that come to the lake at the end of the story represent hope. They could get the city started again and get more fit people so the town can become normal again.
The narrator in the story is pretty generic and basic. It tells the story through the eyes of a normal person or the man. It makes life as the man seem very tough and lonely, like he is almost the only person on the planet. He is alienated by the narrator until the new characters arrive at the end. The narrator makes the other people in the town seem like horrible monsters and that could be unfair. It makes you wonder what would a story be like from what of the others narrating? The narrator makes them seem like robots of sorts. The narrator tells the story and adds some of his opinions of the people in it as well to show the overall theme.
My short story shows the an Amercian flaw through the eyes of a man. It leaves a lot of questions unanswered including the question of what happens at the end? Do they team up and bring the city to its old self? Or do they just stop by and leave again to leave the man lonelier then ever. That is for the reader to decide.
