"The Lady, or the Tiger?" ending - reason

This blog post will be about why I wrote the ending for ‘The Lady, or the Tiger?’ as it is. The reason for that is that most people will only expect to see one of the two coming out from the doors. This is shown by the fact that there were people who were betting on what would come out of the door. This will also lead the reader to believe that only one will come out.

However, I wrote the ending in such a way that neither the lady nor the tiger came out of the door. Instead, behind the door, the tiger was attacking the lady. The reason for that is this: the princess could not bear for her love to be with another person, but nor could she bear for him to die under the claws of a tiger. However one of them had to come out of the door, and both would break her heart.

So, seeing as she had discovered the secret of the doors, she could make the tiger be behind the same door as the lady. The tiger would have eaten the lady, which gave her lover time to escape. Thus, that would mean her lover would not be with another woman and would not be eaten alive.

That is why I wrote the ending for my story in this manner.

~215 words~

'The Lady, or the Tiger' ending

Immediately, she regretted making that decision. She buried her head in her hands, and sobbed away, no one noticing her cries as the crowd cheered loudly for the charming young man who was about to face his destiny. People were placing bets with each other about what the outcome would be.

"I bet ten on the tiger! The king hates him so much, if he lets him live, I'll think he's an idiot! Whatever people say, I think he puts tigers behind both doors."

"I say 20 for the lady. The king wouldn't break his daughter's heart by letting him die, would he? However barbaric he might be, I don't think he would do that to his daughter, breaking her heart."

"I think you're both wrong. Look, the princess is gone. She must somehow be in both of the doors."

The three of them turned and looked at where the princess had been sitting before - sure enough, she was gone. Still, no one noticed that the princess had disappeared but them. They turned back to look at the doors with a grim look on their faces. Who knows what would happen when the king found out about it.

The crowd stopped cheering when the young man stood in front of the door on the right. He took a deep breath, and put his hand on the big brass handles. Even he did not know what fate the princess had given him. He turned to look at where the royal family was sitting, but she wasn’t there. With a resigned look on his face, he pulled the door wide open.

To his horror, he saw what was behind the door – the tiger savaging the girl behind the door. Rooted to the ground, he stared at the scene. Never had this ever happened before. The crowd was similarly shocked, many of which had their mouth open, staring openly at the king. The king himself cursed silently and stalked out of the arena.

The young an regained his senses, and taking the chance, ran for it.

~344 words~

Composition draft 4

Below this line is my totally edited composition. Seriously edited.
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From my house, I watched the airplane circle in the air above the HDB flats, disappearing from sight when it went above my block. It circled a few more times and started to fly away. My eyes still trailed the plane as it flew away. Just as I was about to leave the window, I heard a deafening crash. I snapped my head to the direction of the living room, and to my horror, I saw the roof of my house caved in, and so did the lights. Everything in the living room was flattened and smashed to smithereens. I stood there dumbstruck and speechless, staring at the demolished living room. The living room was veiled in a cloud of dust, making me cough violently. When the dust cleared, I saw a –

“GIANT OCTOPUS!” I screamed as loud and as long as I could, until I ran out of breath. I stood rooted to the ground, staring at the octopus. It was waving its eight tentacles around in the air, as if it was lashing out at someone. Then, it started moving towards me. It was still alive and able to move somehow, when it should be dead by now. It came towards me slowly but surely, now tentacles whipping at a target – me. My parents were not at home. My father was not here to lead to me safety; my mother was not here to comfort me. I had to make my own decision. By now, the octopus was right in front of me. I was trapped. My only hope of escape was by jumping through the window. However, I was faced with a dilemma. On one hand, I lived on the 14th floor, the highest floor, and jumping down meant certain doom; however, on the other hand, a murderous octopus was waiting to shred me to pieces.

I decided. I would rather take my chances with a bush breaking my fall. “I must be mad.” I took a deep breath and jumped through the window, shattering the glass. A tentacle came cracking at where my head had been just a fraction of a second ago. Tears streamed from my eyes, and I shouted myself hoarse. I could just make out a group of people staring at my slight figure. As I was about to hit the ground, I thought to myself: Goodbye cruel world. I closed my eyes and braced for impact…

There was a sound of springs breaking under high pressure when I landed on something that smelt like it came out of a rubbish dump. I bounced onto the hard cement floor. I’m not dead, I thought to myself. Then I shouted, “I’m not dead!” I heaved a sigh of relief, but then I saw the octopus jumping out of the window too. I ran as fast as I could, and there was another person sprinting alongside me. “You ok?” When he said that, I knew he was my savior.

My first composition

I was looking forward to my first composition, ever since the first day of school. Finally arrived the day when the first composition assignment came. My heart sang when I knew a composition was coming my way. However, when I saw what the composition topic was about, my heart sank. A giant octopus bursting into my house. Brilliant. Now what was I going to write. I was used to writing fictional stories in my primary school – in fact, I only wrote fictional stories unless asked not to, but this composition topic was just too random. I mean, what in earth would a giant octopus be doing in your house. If it was bursting out of and aquarium, fine, I can see the point of that, but in your house?

I had a feeling that this was going to be one of the hardest compositions I have ever written - and will ever write. I had no idea what I was going to write, and I kept brainstorming for ideas. I looked around the house, in the living room, in the bedrooms, but still did not have any clue as to what I was going to write. Then, I looked out of the window in the living room, and saw and airplane flying in the air. Then, suddenly, an idea struck me, and I immediately sat in front of the computer and started typing. The ideas just kept coming.

When I was done, my composition was about 800 words long. Way too long. I had to cap the composition at 500 words. Thus I began the arduous task of cutting out 300 words! When I finished cutting the words out, my composition seemed pitifully short, but there was nothing I could do about it. All I can say was - now I know why primary school teachers complain about the student's compositions.