Week 11 Story Planning: Aaron's Truth

So I am having trouble coming up with a good ending for the story I wrote last week, Aaron Discovers the World. I thought I would try the story planning option to see if that would help me nail down some ideas. I have established that Aaron and the citizens of Carcera live in a dystopian world, confined to the dome in which they have always lived, and ruled by the force of an oligarchical, self-appointed committee. There are robots who operate as guards, and this makes them difficult to circumvent. My ultimate goal is for Aaron to devise a way to expose the Mind of the Six and free the people of Carcera. There are a few ways that could happen, I suppose. Aaron could get intentionally captured by the Mind of the Six, and tell them he knows the truth. They could then confirm that he is right and admit to keeping the people prisoner for power and personal gain. All the while, Aaron has a hidden video camera, and is broadcasting to every single screen in the city. This leads to mutiny, and Aaron leads the people out of the city. I would have to explain how Aaron is captured, how the people take care of the guard robots, and how people deal with the Mind of the Six. Another possibility is to have Aaron save the people by disabling the robots with the computer that controls them. Once the guards have been disabled, he could come over every loudspeaker in the city, and explain that they have been lied to. Because this is a dystopia, and I have not established the extent of technology, I am thinking he could cause a map to the outside world to appear on every screen in the city. That could lead people to discover the same path he did and ultimately escape. I would like to write the demise of the Mind of the Six, but I am not sure what that would look like if I went with this option. I could combine the two story lines into one. Aaron could get captured after planting a bug in the city's main computer. The bug could be time delayed, so he makes it to the chamber of the Mind of the Six before the robots shut down and the screens start broadcasting his hidden camera. That would make for a more well-rounded story. I originally wanted Aaron to die as a symbolic sacrifice for the rescue of the rest of the people, but the more I think about it the more I do not think it is possible.
I read the Alice in Wonderland unit this week, and while I enjoyed it very much, I find that world to be very different from the one I have created. I could model the leader of the Mind of the Six after the Queen of Hearts. As she orders Aaron's execution, the robots shut off just before removing his head. Aaron could find that the computer room where he plants the bug is just as confusing as the room full of doors in which Alice finds herself. Symbolically, the door Aaron discovered to the outside, is almost a perfect representation of the door Alice finds. They are both hidden, and they both lead to a beautiful world on the other side. As you can see, I have a lot of options. By this time next week, I will have narrowed it down to choose the best plot line.


Photo of Server Room at the National Archives (UK), found on Wikimedia Commons, here.
I chose this photo to represent the server room in which Aaron must plant a bug. This shows just how confusing one of those rooms can be.

Bibliography: Story of Alice in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll, from British and Celtic Reading Units, found here.

Week 11 Reading Notes: Alice in Wonderland Part B

The conversations with fantastical characters are made up of nonsense, jumping hastily from one topic to another, seemingly without rhyme or reason. Perhaps I could use that writing style to introduce important information through a seemingly mad character. Maybe the character will speak what seems like nonsense, but is actually important. The dormouse being asleep inspires me to write in that a security guard has fallen asleep, and that gives Aaron a moment to slip past and into uncharted territory. The Queen of Hearts inspires me to model a character from the Mind of the Six after her. Someone should be so ruthless as to rule with fear in a dystopian society. I might model a character after the Cheshire Cat, so that Aaron may have a companion that appears and disappears at random, possibly with some important information about what to do next. The trial scene makes me consider writing in a trial before the Mind of the Six. That setting could be where an important piece of plot takes place. The ending of Alice in Wonderland, the part where Alice wakes from her dream, makes me consider writing that Aaron escapes and frees all of the people of Carcera, only to wake up from a dream and find he is still being held captive there. He might search for the same door whence he escaped, only to find nothing there. Despite the very different themes and writing styles, I have produced some very useful ideas from the Alice in Wonderland story that might help me in writing my story. If anything, Alice in Wonderland inspires creativity and imagination.



Alice playing croquet with a flamingo and hedgehog, illustrated by John Tenniel, found on Wikimedia Commons, here. I chose this illustration because I found it hilarious that she would have to use a flamingo and hedgehog to play croquet. What a mad world!


Bibliography: Story of Alice in Wonderland, part B, by Lewis Carroll, found here.

Week 11 Reading Notes: Alice in Wonderland Part A

Lewis Carroll is an incredibly creative writer. He puts Alice into the wildest situations with the wildest characters, and he creates equally wild ways for her to move from place to place. Alice as a character is fun to read about. She seems so innocent and curious. She speaks very properly for such a young girl, and she speaks properly to everyone and everything she comes across. I think she represents innocence and youth, and the story continues in a way just as crazy as her imagination. I find it hard to imagine how different items keep appearing to help her change sizes, and I find it odd that they all have different effects. I like the stream of consciousness writing style Carroll uses, and it is especially enjoyable as Alice is falling down the rabbit hole. The characters make this such a bizarre world to explore. The rabbit is running late, the caterpillar is smoking, the footmen are each with a fish head or frog head, the baby is a pig, and the cheshire cat is grinning iconically as it disappears. I admire Carroll's imagination in creating such characters. It certainly does make the story feel very much like a dream. I like the way that the cheshire cat responds to Alice's question about which path she should take. Alice has no idea where she wants to go or why, and the cat is really quite unhelpful. That could be a metaphor for life. Either way she goes, Alice is bound to meet exciting characters on her adventure. 

Illustration The Caterpillar by Sir John Tenniel from the Wikimedia Commons, found here.

I thought Alice's singing a poem with the caterpillar to be an interesting part of the story.

Bibliography: Readings from the Alice In Wonderland Unit Part A, found here.