Rejoicing Ruth

"I can hardly wait to leave this place; this is not a home, I think I'm better off alone"

             --Three Days Grace, "Home"

By golly! Lena just bought us a nice looking house down in Clybourne Park! It's about time we get outta this "misery". All them "cracking walls and marching roaches" can drive me to drink! I been working hard all my life, in them kitchens and at the home, trying to survive, and now we gots a new home. I couldn't be happier. Except that Walter's upset about it. He's been working like a madman his whole life too yet he's down because we spent a lotta money that could've been his? It don't make sense. It's Lena's money anyway, and we will live in the remembrance of her husband. I sure wish he was happy. It's the first nice thing we ever got. Yet he's selfish and jealous of something that ain't his! Sure, we gotta live next to some "crackers", but fo' once we are getting what we worked day in and day out fo'. We deserve to live in that house, and we can't let some rich white people get in our way of doing so. I sure am excited! I want to get them packing crates and move on out right now- "it's my time" to be happy.

Destructive Diamond

"The sunset still looks fake to me, the hero looks like he can't breathe, the damsel just left everything"

               --Mayday Parade, "Black Cat"

Once upon a time there was a family that lived on a colossal diamond. The Washington's owned generational wealth; the status that corresponds with this manipulates the characters personalities and actions. Kismine, one of the daughters, is an extravagant and beautiful girl of sixteen. She is described to have "physical perfection", and acts flirtatious and fake around John Unger, their summer house guest. Kismine is like the Kim Kardashian of today. But hidden under this mask of elegance, corruption lies in the soul of Kismine, and everyone in her family. They "sacrifice some of their best friends" because the family is afraid of a guest disclosing the following: wealth, location, and the giant diamond, in order to hoard their grand prosperity. Kismine reveals this to John, speaking with nervous and stressful rhetoric. "Yes-th-that's the-the whole t-trouble. I grew up qu-quite attached to some of them. So did Jasmine, but she kept inv-inviting them anyway". This conveys the intensity of corruption that lies beneath the surface of the Washington family. Because Kismine speaks with such tension, it is implied (and ironic) that there is mental pressure to keep the secret in order to maintain a status that doesn't portray corruption. Like pink elephants, Kismine may look charming and pretty on the outside, yet is fake and has a fraudulent mentality. John Unger is ultimately her hero, like Moses in Exodus, because he removes her from her corrupt home into a world of reality.