I confronted my dad and explained to him that he was full of lies and so was everything he believed in, he told me to leave and never come back. So I did, I left finished my education in college and became a writer opposing the ideas of the lost cause.
This is how I wanted the story to always end, I wrote this with the idea that the main character would change his beliefs and realized what he believed in was wrong. So this was the way I wanted to take the paper.
they talked about how the war wasn’t over slavery but over independence from the north.
I included this because this is one of the lies that was told to people to try to make them sympathetic towards the south and put blame off themselves. I got this idea from "Lies Across the South"
cy". He explained to me that “the group I was part of was influenced by the lost cause movement and that the lost cause movement was a way to make the south look like they weren't in the wrong during the civil war. They would use things that evidence didn't support to explain how it wasn't about slavery, for example he told me of a picture that showed a slave in a confederate uniform in the background of a picture. The reason why this is wrong argument was because there is a proof that that person was forced to be part of the confederate army not by choice, and that person was forced to wear the uniform because he worked around the camp.”
This is what I wanted to be the falling action after the climax. This part is supposed to make the main character to start questioning what he believes in.
My father didn’t show up to my goodbye celebration, this hurt me, but I would make him proud when he reads what I write.
In the characters head he believes that this is the only way to stop what he believe the north did to him and his family so, even though his father disapproves of this action, he thinks that his mission will be successful and his father would forgive him.
. Finally, I decided to go to a college in Chicago.
I wanted the character to go here because I wanted to put this character in a setting that was unfamiliar to him but because of the fact he wants to change the system from the inside out he would decide to go to chicago, a place that had a college that was more liberal than others for its time.
I joined the children of the confederacy
This was inspired by "The Cult of the 'Lost Cause". The children of the confederacy was a branching group off of the daughters of the confederacy who were inspired by the ideas of the lost cause.
This invitation filled me with joy. It made me think that my father was filled with pride towards me, enough to let me into what him and my brother would do without me.
I wanted to make the main character not exactly hate the people his father did but was more so in this life to try and build a relationship with his father like I was hinting at in the beginning of the story.
After hearing this I felt angry, angry that the north lied about what truly happened, and branded my grandfather a monster in the process. This anger instilled in me a new sense of purpose, I wanted to live up to what my family fought and continues to fight for.
This is the turning point for the main character and why he wanted to join his father and brother
These mementos were from my grandfather. He fought in the civil war and ended up dying during it. My father explained to me what the uniform meant for him and our family. My dad said “Son look at this, this is a uniform for a true warrior. Someone who died protecting their way of life and wouldn’t allow any one to push him around.”. My grandfather died protecting what he believed was right during the war. My Dad explained to me that “your ground father died trying to liberate the south from the oppression of the north, the north will try to tell you that the war was over slavery, but that truly isn’t the case son
I added this part about the grand father to show why his father got into the lifestyle, this part was also inspired by "Confronting Slavery and Revealing the "Lost Cause".
I tried to build a relationship with my dad after this, but he never seemed interested. I started to lash out at other teenagers at my school, till one day I had to bring a note home with me. I brought the note home to my father to be signed, I was expecting to be punished but instead, for the first time in years, smiled at me.
As presented earlier in the story the main character just wanted a relationship with his father, his father always rejected him until this moment where the father finally accepted him for in sighting violence, I never wanted it to be where the main character chose to fight a kid of a different race, he just happened to and his father assumed that he was becoming like him.
At the end of my middle school year my mother got sick, she was bed stricken for the rest of the year. She ended up dying over the summer. With her out of my life, I had no one to fall back onto.
The main character is now left without the thing that was keeping him away from that hatred, and now with it gone there is nothing separating him from that.
One time I asked her "Mom, where does dad and John go at night" and she responded with "This group that is only for adults". I asked her what the white matching outfits were for and she said, "What they wear I hope you never have to put on like your brother did". I asked her why she was never a part of the group like my brother and father. All she did was shake her head and change the subject. I started to notice patterns with my mom. Mom and my dad started to argue more and more.
This is where the main character starts to see that his mother may not fully agree with what the characters father believes in and also bringing their eldest child into that life
I can rely on was my mother.
I wanted to make the mother the thing that kept him grounded, unlike his father, she would be the one who gave him the most attention and would lay hints that she didn't agree with what his father did. As you will see later
They always wore these matching white outfits together; I didn't recognize them from any things I knew of back then. The only thing I could really compare it to was a hoodie of some sorts.
Again, you are seeing this life through the lens of a child, he hasn't been exposed to real racism yet so I wanted to tell a story that you are shown what the child sees, and for a young child this type of outfit would just be matching white outfits
had a mother, a father, and an older brother. Life was good when I was a kid, my family would eat dinner together every night. My parents would walk John and I to school every day and pick us up afterwards. We would have dinners at the dining table every night and recall our days. After school, sometimes, I would hang out with some kids my age, however some kids I wasn't allowed to interact with. Kind of like how my father would never interact with this one shop owner. I wasn't allowed to shop there either, if I did than I would be yelled at by my father.
The picture I wanted to paint for my character was that of a stable child hood akin to someone elses that might be reading this story, I wanted to give that sense of familiarity so the reader could see how someone who adopts these awful views might not have dissimilar backgrounds to you or I.
I was born into a very small town and a small family in the south,
I wanted this to be set in the south. I wanted to focus on the lost cause as the main purpose of why the characters family acts the way it does.
He explained to me that the group I was part of was influenced by the lost cause movement and that the lost cause movement was a way to make the south look like they weren't in the wrong during the civil war. He explained to me that they would use things that evidence didn't support to explain how it wasn't about slavery, for example he told me of a picture that showed a slave in a confederate uniform in the background of a picture. The reason why this is wrong argument was because there is a proof that that person was forced to be part of the confederate army not by choice, and that person was forced to wear the uniform because he worked around the camp.
This is what I wanted to be the falling action after the climax of learning that what he fought for was loss
remember that when we got to the civil war unit in the class they explained the confederacies side during the war. I was quick to point out that this was wrong and that the war was never about slavery it was something the north did to try to take blame off themselves.
This idea is something I got from "Lies Across the South". Again I liked the idea that he bit into this life for his father and he wanted to defend the south similar to how his grand father did except without a gun with a pen
I decided to go to a college in Chicago
I wanted the character to go to a college that was liberal, something that the main character hasn't been around yet
I joined the children of the confederacy.
This was inspired by "The Cult of the 'Lost Cause"
This invitation filled me with joy, it made me think that my father was filled with pride towards me, enough to let me into what him and my brother would do without me
I wanted to make the main character not exactly hate the people his father did but was more so in this life to try and build a relationship with his father like I was hinting at in the beginning of the story.
My grandfather died protecting what he believed was right during the war, this instilled to me a new sense of purpose in me
This is the turning point for the main character and why he wanted to join his father and brother
These mementos were was from my grandfather. He fought in the civil war and ended up dying during it.
I added this part about the grand father to show why his father got into the lifestyle, this part was also inspired by "Confronting Slavery and Revealing the "Lost Cause".
I tried to build a relationship with my father after this but he never seemed interested. I started to lash out at other teenagers at my school, till one day I had to bring a note home with me. I brought the note home to my father to be signed, I was expecting to be punished but instead, for the first time in years, smiled at me.
As presented earlier in the story the main character just wanted a relationship with his father, his father always rejected him until this moment where the father finally accepted him for in sighting violence, I never wanted it to be where the main character chose to fight a kid of a different race, he just happened to and his father assumed that he was becoming like him.
At the end of my middle school year my mother got sick, she was bed stricken for the rest of the year. She ended up dying over the summer, with her out of my life I had no one to fall back onto.
The main character is now left without the thing that was keeping him away from that hatred, and now with it gone there is nothing separating him from that.
Mom, where does my father and older brother go at night" and she responded with "This group that is only for adults". I asked her what the white matching outfits were for and she said "What they wear I hope you never have to put on like your brother did". I asked her why she was never a part of the group like my brother and father. All she did was shake her head and change the subject. I started to notice patterns with my mother, her and my father started to argue more and more.
This is where the main character starts to see that his mother may not fully agree with what the characters father believes in and also bringing their eldest child into that life
I can rely on was my mother
I wanted to make the mother the thing that kept him grounded, unlike his father, she would be the one who gave him the most attention and would lay hints that she didn't agree with what his father did. As you will see later
They always wore these matching white outfits together, I didn't recognize them from any things I knew of back then.
Again, you are seeing this life through the lens of a child, he hasn't been exposed to real racism yet so I wanted to tell a story that you are shown what the child sees, and for a young child this type of outfit would just be matching white outfits.
what the real meaning behind the civil war was. I remember sitting in the living room and he came up to me and asked me if I wanted to know what happened during the civil war. I told him yes and he explained to me that people would try and explain to me that the civil war was fought over slavery but that wasn't the case
I wanted the reader to see what the characters father was like and his beliefs through the eyes of the child, this is the first sense that something isn't right that you get in the story. I also wanted got some inspiration from this part from "lies Across the South".
I had a mother, a father, and 2 siblings. Life was good when I was a kid, my family would eat dinner together every night. My parents would walk my siblings and I to school every day and us up afterwards. We would have dinners at the dining table every night and recall our days. I wasn't allowed to interact with certain kids that lived near us, my father would never allow me to, kind of similar to how my father would never interact with this one shop owner in our small town. I wasn't allowed to shop there either, if I did than I would be yelled at by my father.
The picture I wanted to paint for my character was that of a stable child hood akin to someone elses that might be reading this story, I wanted to give that sense of familiarity so the reader could see how someone who adopts these awful views might not have dissimilar backgrounds to you or I.
I was born into a very small town and a small family in the south,
I wanted this to be set in the south. I wanted to focus on the lost cause as the main purpose of why the characters family acts the way it does.