George Orwell's 'An Excerpt From Nineteen Eighty'
ONE. INIZIO.
Amongst the fallen it walks. A dense haze of dust renders the consequences indiscernible. Sirens resonate across the terrain, the summer breeze purifying the air. The indiscernible becomes the discernible, allowing it to enter the consequences. It passes through the fallen, gathering each man.
Sandstone slips from her grasp and obliterates into a cloud which she splutters at and bats away with a bound hand. Hands sift through the charred wood, still ripe from the blaze. She winces slightly at the warmth, but all the same finding a pocket watch, leather bound diary and a still-smoking envelope which all get tossed into the wicker basket. She continues to heave rubble away, observing a flesh coloured …show more content…
Just come of age, he had been on the brink of signing up before the unforeseen passing of his father left him running Brereton Cobblers. For months, he’d been bitter about being left at home to tend to his mother while his sister Irene was off at Cambridge, doing exactly what she wanted to do. But when the daily papers began publishing endless pages of names of those who had fallen, Edwin’s feelings of remorse developed into those of relief. Relief that his name was not, nor would ever, be in the morning paper. By the time the Great War reached the end of its first year, essentially all his friends had enlisted, and the overwhelming sense of remorse had returned. It hammered into the back of his brain while Jacob, Charles, Victor and Andrew persisted in recruiting him. “It’s not like any of us have died yet,” Andrew had said. Three days after he returned to France he was shot in the abdomen, barely making it out. The coming of the second year saw a shortage of soldiers and the introduction of conscription. It also saw Edwin’s mother contracting tuberculosis and sleepless nights praying he wouldn’t be called up for service the next morning. The feeling of liability had been pushed to the back of his mind, only for it to inundate him once more when his mother had been
Amongst the fallen it walks. A dense haze of dust renders the consequences indiscernible. Sirens resonate across the terrain, the summer breeze purifying the air. The indiscernible becomes the discernible, allowing it to enter the consequences. It passes through the fallen, gathering each man.
Sandstone slips from her grasp and obliterates into a cloud which she splutters at and bats away with a bound hand. Hands sift through the charred wood, still ripe from the blaze. She winces slightly at the warmth, but all the same finding a pocket watch, leather bound diary and a still-smoking envelope which all get tossed into the wicker basket. She continues to heave rubble away, observing a flesh coloured …show more content…
Just come of age, he had been on the brink of signing up before the unforeseen passing of his father left him running Brereton Cobblers. For months, he’d been bitter about being left at home to tend to his mother while his sister Irene was off at Cambridge, doing exactly what she wanted to do. But when the daily papers began publishing endless pages of names of those who had fallen, Edwin’s feelings of remorse developed into those of relief. Relief that his name was not, nor would ever, be in the morning paper. By the time the Great War reached the end of its first year, essentially all his friends had enlisted, and the overwhelming sense of remorse had returned. It hammered into the back of his brain while Jacob, Charles, Victor and Andrew persisted in recruiting him. “It’s not like any of us have died yet,” Andrew had said. Three days after he returned to France he was shot in the abdomen, barely making it out. The coming of the second year saw a shortage of soldiers and the introduction of conscription. It also saw Edwin’s mother contracting tuberculosis and sleepless nights praying he wouldn’t be called up for service the next morning. The feeling of liability had been pushed to the back of his mind, only for it to inundate him once more when his mother had been