Prose: The Ghost in Angelica’s Room

Author: Maria Haskins

Approach: Formalist Approach

A Formalist Approach of The Ghost in Angelica’s Room by Maria Haskins

Suicide is what people do if they want to end their lives. It is also affiliated to great pain and sadness
that can destroy a person’s consciousness and causes their deaths. But what will happens to the people left
by a person committed suicide, how it can affect them? In the flash fiction, The Ghost In Angelica’s Room
by Maria Haskins, portrayed that if a person commits suicide, people around them will be affected. It can
also causes grief and can burden them in thee process.

The story mainly revolves in the suicide of a father and what reaction his family presented. It is
written in the point of view of the main character which is Angelica. The story was started in Angelica’s
point of view about her dad always visit her room every night even though his already dead. They talk about
secrets that don’t know by others. But then Angelica has a gun under his pillow. She notice that her mom
feel pain deep inside but don’t know what is it . Her mother is very trouble by what her daughter saw in
such a young age. She is will aware of Angelica being odd that she ask her “ if she is fine “ but Angelica
answered that she is alright but as a mother she knows she not. Angelica is aware that her mother is great
pain that she was “crying and drinking”. Deep into her thoughts Angelica recall the past and anger comes
to her. Angelica plans to commit suicide, questioning his ghost dad “ why would he kill himself in the shed
where she will eventually find him”, “why would you leave me?, while putting the gun in her face. This
explained why she is acting odd because she feels it is her fault that is why her dad leave her. Her dad
stopped her from committing suicide and lost consciousness. After she gained her consciousness, her
mother is by her side trying to be strong in front of her daughter but then Angelica realized that her mother
has the same pain as her. This is what the dad left when he died suffer from his family.

That concludes that committing suicide will solve your problem but it will pass on to others. In the
last paragraph of the story it concludes that “ Angelica and her mom are the same: two ghost, hunting what’s
left in this world…”. They were left with questions and extreme sadness. This proves that they are not
hunting by the ghost of her father but the ghost of the memories that bury within their selves.
 Personal View/Insight

The story is about the effects of committing suicide. Nowadays people are very sensitive to what
they hear, or what they see on social media that can have influence their personality in a bad way.
Cyberbullying is might be one of the common causes of committing suicide because it can give false
accusation to any person that can cause others to share and believe that, that person is something he’s/she’s
not. Some people are easily corrupted by the pressure they feel because of the judgement of the society,
that is why they do things to avoid, accept, ignore, change the feelings of being not to achieve the society’s
standards. But even though people are unique by nature, and make mistakes almost everyday and society
cannot dictates what people should do because you are what you are and the choices you made are only
made by you, don’t let others dictates your death. Being not to achieve the standards created by society
feels like you are not part of it, that you are not supposed to be there and plan to commit suicide is not a
solution it may free you from pressure, loneliness, and despair but it may only past to the people who will
you be left behind. It may influence others and try to questioning their selves “ why would you do that?”,
“would it be the best solution to free from troubles?” or they might conclude that it is their fault, it may
affect them in many ways, your are just giving them a lot of trouble. People should think before they do
something because committing suicide is just a selfish desire.
Prose: Wisdom’s Woods
Author: Aaron Stone
Approach: Formalist Approach

Formalist Analysis of Wisdom’s Woods by Aaron Stone

Students learn not by the teacher’s explanation of the lesson but to what tasks they can give like homework
and projects that train their self-study skills. Experience can give you lessons that are not studied in school
and that is how we really learn. The theme of the story Wisdom’s Woods by Aaron Stone might be the
failures are not there to set your limits but rather improve your skills and everyone has their own pace in
taking the road to success. There are many struggles before you achieve something and failures are the one
that can rise you up.

The text reveals that everyone have to face failure in order to success. The poem is written in the narrator’s
point of view and its in first person. The poem is about a person facing failure and mistakes he/she made,
telling their selves that “No, I’m not a loser” just because of those mistakes. It was said that “some thing
take longer to learn” meaning that some people has a slow pace in taking life. “in the end, I’ll have things
mastered” from the failures they came through and try to learn from that mistakes to hone or make it better
next time. Based on the text some people feels that those failures are too big for them to feel to “walked
away too many times” and feel regret because they could have done it better but it was said that this can be
start a new discover.

That reveals that failures are not really failures but a tasks that leads you to “Wisdom’s Woods”. To put it
simple, failures are the way to learn and achieve wisdom to make it better next time. So failures are created
to improve what is wrong and anyone has their own pace in achieving success that proves are theme.
 Personal View/Insights

Failures and success are the fruit of our experiences. Everyone start in their failures then try to stand on
their feet, trying to fix things that are wrong or start from the beginning many times in order to find success.
The knowledge we acquire from those experiences are added to our wisdom and make you create things
better since you already know you faults.

People always create mistakes and failures are not exception. Even for people nowadays can’t deny their
failures because it is need in order to move on or level up your understanding and skills in different things.
Failure can not dictate that someone is a loser for the person himself/herself knows what they are an what
are they supposed to do. Failures can teach you how to correct the mistakes that you been made. A person
should lose something to gain something. Experience teach us to fail and gain from it. Failures can make
us feel regret thing and look down to ourselves but even the people we idolize gone through many struggles
and many failures just to achieve what they have now. Never give up on your dreams and try to convert
your mischief into fortune and let your experiences guide you how to walk. Personally, I think failures are
there to achieve success, without failures no one would ever succeed in life. Everyone has their own pace
in life, some people achieve success in their young age, some achieve it in their 40’s but it is still success
and what made up that success are the hard work, patience, trust and the lessons you learn from all of your
mistakes and failures you committed. Failures are not only teaching us to fix what mistakes we had but also
teach us to understand more in our surroundings.

These faults doesn’t make you a loser but rather a more better person, knowing that those faults are a
stepping stone to a better understanding of life and how to make it even more better. You can say that your
are loser if those failures you encounter only makes you even more down than you’re already are.
Experience the success and failures are lessons in life that make you decide your action own your own.
Wisdom’s Woods
By: Aaron Stone
Published: October 9, 2017
For every time I’ve failed,
For every time I’ve screwed up,
For every time I’ve said “I’m Sorry,”
And for every time I’ve not.

For every heart I’ve broken,

For every stone unturned,
For every one I’ve damaged
Due to an action or spoken word.

No, I’m not a loser.

I know I am no failure.
Some things take longer to learn.
In the end, I’ll have things mastered.

Regret? I’ve had aplenty.

Self-loathing? I’ve lived that, too.
Walked away too many times,
Stepping closer to something new.

I know where I’m going.

I’m taking longer than I should,
But these setbacks are not failures,
Only detours through Wisdom’s Woods.

The Ghost In Angelica’s Room

by Maria Haskins

Published: March 2018

Dad still comes into my room at night, even though he’s dead. I don’t know why he bothers, but
he does. First time it happened, I thought I imagined him. But I can hear his breathing, can feel
the mattress shift when he sits down on my bed next to Winston, who purrs and tucks his paws
in neatly beneath his ginger-tabby chest.
“Tell me about your day, Angelica,” he’d say when I was little, and I’d tell him about school and
Mom and all the stuff no one else wanted to hear. Sometimes I still do, but not tonight. Tonight, I
slip my hand under the pillow, grasping the moulded grip of the gun.
In the other room, mom is screaming in her sleep—wordless with rage or pain or something that
is maybe both, impossible to tell apart. I don’t know if Dad is listening. Mom used to call him a
loser and a fucking disgrace. Maybe that’s why he left, but it was my fault, too. He worried about
me, even when he should have worried about himself.
The day he left, Dad asked me who I’d be if I weren’t scared. I didn’t answer. I was only ten, and
what kind of question is that anyway?
***
At breakfast, I ask Mom what she dreamt last night.
“Can’t remember,” she answers, but I know it’s a lie.
“You’ll feel better if you talk about it,” I say, trying to be funny, all pop-psych and teenage sass.
“But you won’t,” she says, pouring herself another coffee.
I wish I could tell Mom about Dad, but since she never mentions him, I don’t either. Besides, she
hasn’t been drinking lately, and I don’t want to set her off.
***
I don’t go to school after breakfast. Instead, I end up at the park with the gun in my backpack.
No one’s there except the crows picking through the garbage.
In the daylight, the gun doesn’t even look real. It’s a prop, a toy. But holding it makes me feel
like there’s a way out, after all.
Bridges and Emmaline find me later in the grass. They’re holding hands, and Emmaline
pretends she’s my friend today. Some days, she pretends she isn’t. Bridges is OK, I guess, with
a smile so pure you barely notice the acne scars tugging at his face. He’s almost seventeen, but
too stupid to know he shouldn’t hang with me or Emmaline.
Emmaline grabs my backpack, as if she somehow knows I put the gun in there. She pulls it out,
teeth and metal glinting.
“It’s your dad’s, right?”
“Did your mom let you have it?” Bridges asks, in a hush.
When I hesitate, Emmaline says, “Of course. Everyone knows Angelica’s mom doesn’t give a
shit.”
Emmaline aims at one of the crows, fingering the trigger and safety. There’s a bang, so loud we
holler, and the crow turns to blood and feathers, the air sharp with gunpowder and hot metal.
“Angelica, you psycho! It’s loaded!”
We’re still laughing when Emmaline spots him: ginger-tabby, softly-treading paws. Winston.
Emmaline takes aim again, giving me a sidelong glance, eyes challenging me to stop her. I think
of Winston purring beneath my hand. I think of punching Emmaline until her nose breaks. Then
she laughs and dumps the gun into my backpack, smile sharp like broken glass.
***
Mom comes into the bathroom when I’m brushing my teeth that night. At first, I think she’s going
to rip into me for not going to school. Then I realize she’s been crying. Drinking, too.
“You all right?” she asks, tousling my hair, awkward, like she’s not quite sure how to do it.
“Yeah. Fine.”
She nods, pretending she believes me.
***
“Who would you be if you weren’t scared, Angelica?”
It’s the first time Dad speaks to me since he died.
In the dark, he’s just a silhouette, but I know if I turned on the light, he’d be sitting there with half
his head blown off, just like I found him in the shed.
The sound of my heart, of blood through veins, is loud and inescapable, and I wish my heart
and the whole damn world would go silent. I think of Emmaline and Bridges holding hands, of
gunpowder and feathers, and I sink into the mire of before-before-before. I want to scream at
Dad, as loud as Mom, but there are only shadows of unspoken words left on my tongue.
Why’d you do it in the shed, Dad? Didn’t you realize I’d come looking for you? That I’d notice the
missing key, the padlock hanging open? That I’d pull open the door?
I close my eyes, and my pain tastes like salt and steel.
Was it like this for you, Dad? Gun barrel scraping teeth, trigger-finger trembling. Was this what
you felt when you decided to leave me?
Dad grasps my arm, pulling the gun away from my face. His touch is cold and dry—bone and
whispers, silence and absence.
Who would you be if you weren’t scared, Dad?
Would you still be alive?
He lets go of me. I let go of the gun.
When I open my eyes, Dad’s gone, but Mom’s there. First, I think I’m imagining her, but I can
hear her laboured breathing, feel the mattress shift when she moves, her body so loaded with
booze and pain she can neither cry nor sleep. She exhales my name, and in the silent presence
of everything she doesn’t say next, I realize she’s as scared as I am.
I lie very still as Winston curls up between us—keeping me warm, keeping me here, even when
nothing else does—and I wait for Mom to leave. She doesn’t.
Maybe she stays because we’re the same, Mom and me: two ghosts, haunting what’s left of this
world, this hollow space of grief and anger, of regret and love unspoken. I wonder, who
might we be, who might we become, if we’re not scared when we get up tomorrow?

Prose: The Ghost in Angelica’s Room

Source: http://flashfictiononline.com/main/article/ghost-angelicas-room/
Poetry: Be Proud Of Who You Are
Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/wisdoms-woods