South Circular
She went to gawp at her newly fixed face. After months of suffering, she had finally restored her iconic image. Unfortunately, the victory was found to be somewhat bittersweet. The top half of her face could be likened to a plucked chicken, in that spots of skin, eyebrows and hair had been pulled off with the mask. The other, a bright red pomegranate, sore from a spurt of sudden pain. It could certainly be said that Tory Samay had learnt her lesson from the whole ordeal. Within days, she had hired servants to farm her gold trees on her behalf, so as to avoid further injury of indispensable persons such as herself. She had ensured that she would only take Sudai Abiran oil and kept miles away from their technology sector. But most importantly, she made the wise decision to avoid manipulating facial expressions and emotion. From now on, Tory Samay would be like a glacier – cold, detached, and lifeless. In fact, she found that her new expression even suited her political leanings.
The American Dream today: reality or illusion?
Luke Jensen-Jones Year 10
n the 18th of March 2017, Shane Patrick Boyle died of diabetic ketoacidosis. He didn’t die because that condition is untreatable, he died because he couldn’t afford to pay for a month’s supply of insulin. In placing responsibility for Boyle’s death, the logic of the American dream is unwavering. It is his fault, and his alone. Perhaps if he’d worked harder, or paid more attention in school, he would have made a success of himself, and been able to afford the luxury that is keeping oneself alive. The American Dream supposes that because, in ‘the land of the free’ everyone has equal opportunity, as long as they make the effort, they can be successful. Therefore, if you fail, it is simply a case of you not having worked hard enough. This notion, that an individual’s life circumstances rely on the actions of them and them alone, fails to understand the real world, where the ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ are indiscriminate in their ability to thwart even the best and brightest of our world. Today, the American Dream is no more real than a shining oasis in the middle of a barren desert. Many on the right of the political spectrum love to attest that if those living on the poverty line were to just pull themselves up by the bootstraps they would be able to rise out of poverty, and that their failure to do so is just indicative of their lazy character. It is the classic rhetoric of the American Dream, but simply put, that assumption is wrong. If you have an Islamic sounding name, such as Muhammad, you O
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