When I first saw him, I would never have guessed that we would become the best friends that we eventually did. I was sitting on the bus getting ready to head off to my new school where I was selected for specialized diving training. All the other boys on the bus had also been selected for a variety of sports, but everyone else seemed to be talking of everything but diving. Nevertheless, I was excited as I loved diving and had been told I had great potential. I had been waiting my whole life for this moment and I was finally ready to train in the sport I loved. A small boy came on and sat next to me, head bowed, trembling slightly. I greeted him, “Name’s Peng Hai, hai as in the great big ocean, but you're younger than me, so you can call me big brother Hai.” Something in me told me that he needed someone to protect him, to be his companion and guardian in a way. I felt drawn to him instantly and although his eyes were still red from the tears he must have shed from leaving his fami...
Genre Study: Roman Fever by Edith Wharton Roman Fever by Edith Wharton is a typical frenemies-style story that follows two women, Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade as they revisit the city of Rome with their daughters, after many years away. Roman Fever also happens to fit into the category of a short story. Edgar Allan Poe defines a short story through its “unity of effect and impression” and Brander Matthews enhances this definition by saying short stories, “show one action, in one place, on one day. A short story deals with a single character, a single event, a single emotion, or a series of emotions called forth by a single situation.” Although Roman Fever doesn’t fit into every exact aspect of this definition, it certainly comes close, whilst also broadening the definition beyond Poe and Matthew’s contained characterization of the genre. Roman Fever is able to maintain a singular place and day in the present, but offset the situation with flashbacks and reflections of the past that a...