The Ivory Tower

When the Colors Faded

A behind the scenes look at how I wrote this.

Background info: I had to write this story as an assignment for class with a  required essay dictating how I wrote this story. This is it.(Words written like this are my own personal commentary) 

I hope you like it.

This story had a really long development process, starting from when I was in High school until now, when the most progress happened. It really began with three doodles in my 6th grade notebook: 1) a slave auction- a man and a boy buying a young slave on the auctioning block; 2) those two people, now with that slave, the boy looking sympathetically at the slave; 3) the boy and the slave again- this time, the boy is having a conversation with the slave while the slave is chained up.(That idea came, if I remember correctly, from when I read a book called To Be a Slave, a non-fiction combination of stories from real slaves. I still have it by the way.)

It was in my head for years, the plot (the son of a slave owner saving another boy from bondage) not really explored upon for most of them, plus it was never fully written out...ever. When this assignment was announced, it was the only thing I could think of writing down for it. It is the only true original short story that I had ever made from start to finish. This essay will chronicle the events, adding whether it was in the original or only in the new version, with hopefully some enhancing commentary. (Not necessarily in order of development, rather of the story.)

How I started the story was the same way that it had been planned years before, with telling the time before the family bought the slave through the boy's perspective. In the beginning, I wanted the boy to be interested in buying a slave for selfish purposes, such as to be able to get out of chores and not have to work at all, but to spend more time with friends. I decided to also emphasize that he was at the age of manhood to make a better reason for the boy as to why he would be able to go to the slave auction, something that only men could go to.

Also, the fact that the Swardson Family had never had a slave before was mentioned to make the boy feel more anxious about getting a slave, something that everyone else had. I also brought in Annie on a bad note, to show that she didn't get along well with him, another small point that changes over time. Additionally, Papa is shown as a caring individual, buying the slave to help out his wife. (Actually, a lot of those elements were actually changed as the story matured. There was the same family dynamic, but they all were more developed by the time I wrote this story.)

While at the auction, a man in white acts as the auctioneer. This man is whom Lucas calls the "fat man", the man who had kidnapped Lucas in the first place, but it isn't implied that there's a connection in the story. The reason he is wearing all white is all irony; he pretends that he's some pure individual, while he personally captures slaves to sell. (Cheesy I know, but I liked the symbolism so I kept it. All arguments invalid ;-). )

Now they bought the slave, the main character bursting with pride at his Papa, and I thought that it would be a good touch to show how much they don't know what the "proper" way of owning a slave is. They bring him up onto the horse, dress him, give a proper place to sleep, integrate him into the family, and even begin teaching him "their language". I thought to center on his progress in the beginning in order to show the change in the Boy's perspective from pushing all of his new chores onto that slave into pushing him to succeed.

One of the impromptu big points of the story was written during the ride back to the house, which sprouted a very interesting point in the story: "I tried to tell him about Mama, and our big fields, and the beautiful forest that changes colors in fall, but he wouldn't understand. Until someone teaches him our language, he'll never understand what it's like to live around here." At this point in the story, we are introduced to a deeper point of the protagonist- he believes that experiences are those that could be told over in words. We see how this changes later in the story when he and Annie show Lucas the forest in the fall. The forest wasn't in the original story, but put in when I wanted to show the "calm before the storm". Also when the boy motions to Lucas "You'll see the deer again, I'm sure," it is actually a foreshadowing to what happens in the end.