Travel is an incredible tool in your stories. It places characters into unfamiliar environments, forcing them to encounter conflict and helping them evolve as individuals. To take full advantage of traveling as a plot device, plan out each character’s destination, motivations, mode of transportation and baggage in advance and watch as the magic unfolds!
Lose and Found presents an intimate look into a contemporary American subculture: Young Travelers. Through raw portraiture and intimate storytelling techniques.
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher is a gothic tale about an isolated mansion and its sinister inhabitants, drawing from horror genre themes of inheritance, madness and self-fulfilling prophecy. Furthermore, it serves as a critique of European literary forms as the United States was developing its own identity and culture during the nineteenth century.
After receiving an invite from Roderick Usher, an unnamed narrator visits his house. Upon arriving, he observes how it seems ominous and mysterious with a dark atmosphere around it; but rationalizes this gloominess is simply his imagination.
Roderick and the narrator quickly become acquainted. Roderick informs him of his twin sister Madeline’s illness and shares that he believes the house to be sentient, exercising some sort of control over its inhabitants – frustrating him with its apparent disbelief from him as being due to nervous affection for Madeline.
At last, the narrator witnesses evidence of the house’s sentience: an unsettling mirror on the wall turns angrily black as it reflects light from within the room; Madeline ran screaming into it after hearing its door open by itself and soon died of her own insanity, having been fatally stabbed by her brother.
As the house crumbles into the tarn below, its crumble is watched by its narrator who flees. At that moment, a newly widening crack appears in the Usher house and illuminates with Moon light; at that moment he thinks back on how each Usher child, including Frederick, Tamerlane Victorine Napoleon Camille died under mysterious circumstances and realizes their names–Fredrick Tamerlane Victorine Napoleon Camille–foreshadow their tragic endings before beginning his descent and dissolving into nothingness himself before beginning his descent into silence. He slowly fades from view.
“Where Is Here?” by Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates uses multiple literary devices in this unsettling short story by Joyce Carol Oates to strengthen its narrative as a whole, including dialogue between multiple characters within one paragraph – which Oates does so to disorient readers as to who’s speaking and what is really going on.
A quiet residential neighborhood provides the backdrop of this story. Their lives are relatively uneventful until a stranger appears at their doorstep on one November evening and requests to tour their home as they told him that he lived there as a child. While a reluctant father allows him inside, concerned about what his intentions might be; she relays her concerns directly to her husband.
As the tale progresses, a stranger walks around reminiscing childhood memories of those who lived in his former home before him, sparking both sympathy and unease from family members as he recalls these memories from years past. These reflections also raise questions as to his purpose in living there again – perhaps this is some type of ghost who has returned for unknown reasons as an adult?
Oates’ story is an iconic Gothic tale, delving deep into themes of loss, fear and unpredictability. Additionally, Oates explores concepts like innocence lost and social pressures to mature. Connie struggles between wanting to mature but remaining an adolescent; ultimately falling into temptation can lead to disintegrating relationships and losing control over one’s own life – Oates uses strong language to convey these emotions with great force in his story.
“Lost and Found” by Joseph Joseph
When you find yourself trapped in a difficult situation through no fault of your own, every setback can seem like the end. Sometimes these troubles are personal while other times geopolitical. Either way, they can make you question where God is in all this chaos – something Joseph certainly faced at times as his humanity failed him, leading him into loss of dignity, false accusations and imprisonment – but always managed to overcome his circumstances and rise above them each time.
Joseph stands out as an early Christ figure who, although innocent, was victimized by those closest to him because of jealousy and animosity. Thrown into prison but later released after God granted him wisdom that enabled him to save many lives without bearing grudges against those who treated him badly; reconciling with his brothers.
One of the greatest lessons from Joseph’s incarceration story is God was at work all along – his cunning in manipulating his brothers to their detriment was part of God’s plan and when Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him and sent him away as punishment, it marked an important turning point on a journey that eventually lead him becoming second in command over all Egypt.
Joseph finds strength in God even during his most trying moments, such as while imprisoned. He interprets Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker’s dreams with ease. Though no angel has visited Joseph directly or spoken directly to Him directly, Joseph does experience His presence through all his trials.