Hey everyone! I’m just writing this, as kind of an apology. But it is also a normal post for me.
Well, two days ago I got an assignment for school, it was to write an allegory. I didn’t have a length requirement, but I did have some serious writer’s block. Most people tell me to turn off all distractions, and get down to business. That doesn’t really work with how my brain works, I have to have something going all the time. However, one of the shows I was watching caused me to have a sudden burst of inspiration.
Now because I think it is interesting, I’m going to post my allegory on this post:
In a small country village in the mountains, an elder sat down with her grandkids to tell them a story. She told them to sit still and be quiet. “Now I’m going to tell you a little story about when I was around your age.”
This village used to be under a tyrant. Originally, before Lord Kaza came here, we were all unique, and we all had our own unique markings, something that we are born with. Our markings show something special about us, such as a skill or special ability. It also holds the key to our personalities. As you kids should know by now. Kaza had a very special mark, one that showed that he was a great leader.
In about a year after he came to rule, the rest of us noticed that his marking has changed, it was no longer a sign of power, but, a sign of equality. It was then that our fate was sealed. He began holding regular conferences and speeches, all about one thing; equality. Not even a few months later, he started decreeing his ideas, to produce equality. Such as playing a recording of him talking about equality, and how with everyone being different causes conflict to arise. That our marks are evil, that the only way to be truly happy was to get rid of them, and in their place, the equal sign. Anyone who did not follow these rules were considered miscreants, and forced to listen to only his voice, in a small room, unable to get out.
It took time, but eventually we, the townsfolk, one at a time we allowed him to use an ancient artifact that contains magic to remove our markings and replace them with the equality symbol. Now everyone who removed their marks has to be immersed in his melodic, hypnotising voice, telling us to forget about our marks. To forget who we are, to become one and the same, that we are better off without our differences. No one is better than the anyone else. This goes on for a long time, until one day, six friends come into town.
The day that Bridgitte, Elise, Brittany, Sakura, Tsubaki and Hinata showed up, was the day that would change our fate. When they were sitting at our cafe, choking down the terrible muffins, discussing the reason why they were here. They didn’t know what was going on here that they needed to help with, after all, to outsiders this town looked like the happiest place on earth. The villagers didn’t understand how they were friends, they were so different from each other, yet their friendship couldn’t be stronger.
It made us begin to wonder, wondering about why we strived for equality, when we are no closer than we were when we didn’t know each other. Lord Kaza didn’t like that they were different and still close friends; he wanted everyone to be the same. Afraid of a possible revolution against him, he lured the six into a trap at the Vault of Marks; the place he stored all of our marks, our identities. He took their marks by force, and then locked them in a cell, to prevent them from being able to get their marks back. Within the cell, he played his recordings, over and over. Slowly but surely, their behavior began changing, they became less like themselves.
They began discussing amongst themselves how they were going to get out of their and get their marks back. They came to the conclusion that the only way they were going to do that was to have one of them fake being converted, in order to make it less obvious that they planted a spy. Elise agreed to spy, because she was the one who had liked the town to begin with and was peace loving, therefore least likely to draw attention to herself. Lord Kaza escorted Elise to his mansion, the only expensive building in entire town; also the place where all of the newcomers must stay until their house is built.
One evening, when the butler was delivering a glass of wine for Lord Kaza he tripped over a small rug and spilled the wine all over his boss. Elise noticed that his equality symbol was fading, the wine had washed it off, revealing his original mark! Astonished, Elise tried to find a way to tell her friends without letting him know that she knew. She would have to wait until the next day, when she could see them again. In the meantime one of the other villagers began questioning Lord Kaza, so he was placed with the other five girls, to become re-immersed with the ways of equality.
The next day, when Elise was able to walk around town, she saw that her friends had also pretended to accept it. She immediately ran over and threw a glass of water on Lord Kaza, making his equality mark disappear. One by one, gasps were heard in the crowd, people began protesting; before finally one of the villagers cried out asking what is going on. Why did we have to give up our marks, while you didn’t?
This time, Lord Kaza was backpedaling, trying to come up with excuses as to why he did what he did. Ending up yelling at them telling them that he is better than them, and he is the one who brought peace and harmony. At that time, the other villagers decided that they didn’t need him to rule over them. They chased him out of town before running to the Vault of Marks and releasing their personalities in the form of their marks. Deciding that they want to live with their differences, and get to know each other, as themselves, and become friends, as opposed to having someone constantly tell you how things should be, and what is happiness. You have to find that out for yourself.
“So kids, can you figure out what this story means?”
This story means that it is ok to be yourself, and that equality isn’t the answer to conflicts. In this, equality makes everyone the same, with no one better than someone else at something, no one can improve themselves. The team is only as strong as its weakest link, if everyone is the same, that means there is no one who is stronger than the weakest link. Without someone strongest than the weakest link, there is no way for the weakest to become stronger.
