Erosion
Anastasiia B.
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Upon starting this piece, I wanted to write about the mental toll that torture, or prolonged repetition, has on the human mind. How do our senses of self “erode” when we are pushed to madness? In this piece, a man who claims to love his family, to do anything for them, is subjected to Chinese Water Torture by an unnamed, un-recognized figure. At the end of the story, it is clear that not only is the protagonist untruthful about his relationship with his wife and daughter, but he continuously subjects them to the same level of terror as he is currently experiencing. In the first person point of view, I have crafted an unreliable narrator that is not only a liar, but losing his mind. The inability to tell truth from illusion reflects on the horror-thriller genre of the short fiction piece, and the protagonist’s “evil” or unlikable qualities make his story border between tragedy and righteous consequence.
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Expressing my creativity though writing allows me to explore and experiment with different characters and the psychological impacts that their narratives and settings have on their lives. This way, I am able to draw comfort both from the historical and psychological world.
