EXTRACT FROM... "The Healing'' The car drove on - plundering through the dark on the highway. Other cars passed - their headlights shining brightly, before fading distantly. Two people sat in the car, their lips pressed; the tense atmosphere pushing them apart. The woman was revolving her wedding band around her finger;the man driving with his foot a little heavy on the pedal. Turning offon to a field where many other cars were parked and empty;the man and the woman got out, moving towards the edge of the cars briskly. The sound ofa crowd increased slowly. It was a clear November evening and the man and the woman waded through an auditorium ofplastic chairs facing an empty ring. The other people began to settle. The man and the woman stuck out from them, childless with hands clenched and arms folded. Soon loud booms and cracks accompanied by flashes of colour lit up the sky, stealing the thunder from the stars. The other people responded with gasps and cheers. Then a dozen more shrieks ofrockets, too close, filled the air. The other people stampeded away towards the parked cars. The colour of the unfortunate is red. Red puddle the ground and then with the coming ofthe ambulances, red shone through the dark. The siren sounding ironically like another cracker. And the man lay immobile on the ground. The network ofwhite corridors led to the room. The cliched beeps ofa heart monitoring machine broke the silence. The woman was there and in her hand was his. C ROBINSON - GRADE 11 EXTRACT FROM... "Whose life is it anyway?' It would seem that as humans,we are constantly being told by others that we must"Live our own lives",and "Be ourselves". What is our own life? ... and who are "Ourselves?". Everyday we are told what to wear, what to drink, what to eat, where to go,who our friends should be,and exactly what we should look like. TV advertisements all seem to have the same standards, and views as to how we as human beings should look. No matter where you go, you are bound to find some article, be it magazine,television, radio or poster telling you how you should live your life. Then, there are the even more ironic adverts, which in an attempt to be "cool" tell you that you must be yourself, but that if you are being yourself you'll have to drink their cool drink. It would seem whilst the message ofindividuality is being spread, the message of conformity is spread twice as fast, fast enough to convert the individuals into conformists. The fact that just by looking at somebody,and the clothes they wear, makes us able to classify them shows that individuals are few and far between. Most people can look at a person,and just by the way he walks, talks and the clothes he wears tell you if he is a: "Jock"; "Punk": "Surfer": "Shaker": "Nerd"; "Loser": "Wannabe"; etc. It would appear that there have been several interlinking circles made,and that everyone of us fits into one of these circles, the whole idea that we think we know people by the clothes they wear,and the places they go shows that we are not striving to be individuals,in fact we are all seemingly striving to be exactly the same "super popular beings". I think the question shouldn't be "Whose Life is it Anyway?", but rather "Do I want my own life anyway?", because in the dog-eat-dog world of today we need to fit in, unless we truly are solitary people who don't require friends, and support. So, unfortunately for Bon Jovi,I feel it is safe to say that: It's no longer his life. A McCRAE - GRADE 11 60
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