User blog:Mystery12/Analysis Of "They"

Last February I wrote a story called "They" this was to be my potential last story I ever write on this Wiki, so I treated it as a "grand finale". Well, several months later I read through the comments and I noticed a particular theme which goes along the lines of "I don't get it", "why does this happen?", "who are 'they'?", etc. I figure that this would be a good chance to tear apart my story to give a good understanding of what it really means.

To start out, lets talk about the ACTUAL trip. This story was based on an actual trip that I went on back in 2014 with my family (if you read in the comments, you can see that I posted some of the locations mentioned in the story that I had actually visited). The actual event took place in mid May of 2014. My parents took my sister and I on a road trip to go to some resturant that I had never heard of, but were convinced that I had been there before. I haven't. For one, they got the name of the resturant wrong, they called it the "Hubbell House" when it is actually the "Elba House" both are completely different and I had been to neither before. We live pretty far away from this place so it took hours to get there. As I mention in the story it was a nice day and the trip was pleasant. We eat there, nothing out of the ordinary, food was bad, etc. After the meal we went on a car trip. We literally drove for hours. Obviously the story is a bit far fetched and exaggerated. We didn't drive for several hours like the story, it was about 3 at most, however still a long time. The main inspiration for the story came from this trip because my whole family (Mark is based off of my father, Vanessa is based off of my mother, and Lily is based off of my sister) were just in awe at the farmland we were driving by. I didn't quite understand what was so "fantastic" about empty farmland, but apparently they were. In the story I mention how they never hear what I say, and that was true. My Mom and Dad were too consumed in the scenery to even listen to my complaints. After driving for so long, we stopped at that church/schoolhouse mentioned in the story, and that completely swept them off of their feet as it was a beautiful sight in the middle of nowhere. Then the rest of the trip commenced and finally we made it home. Obviously the face melting and becoming "they" was just for the story, however it does symbolize somthing, I will get to that later.

Now, let's get into the story.

So the first part the narrator (who is loosely based off of me). Is talking about some entity called "they". He mentions that he is ignorant about this concept. The story proceeds with the recount of the events that occured. It seems to be a bit slow paced at first, however there is a reason for that. The part where the narrator is sucked into going to resturant that he has never been to before, but supposedly he has seems a bit redundant. In the actual event that I mentioned before this part really serves no purpose. In the story it is to represent that something is out of the ordinary. As the story progresses to the restruant the trip is pleasant. The quartet eats a poorly made meal and leaves. This part also seems redundant; what does this have to do with anything? The answer is that the Elba House is the last place where things are "normal". As soon as the four leaves is when the story takes a shift to craziness. The story continues to the end. The characters become increasingly stupid, irrational, illogical, and quite frankly act unrealistic. The dialouge is very ridgid. Vanessa makes very trivial, but enthusiastic, claims about how she wants to live on a farm and how Lily was "obsessed with silos". This scene in particular is where the transition from human beings to this entity happens. The narrator notices this transiton transpiring as soon as his questions are blatantly ignored, hence why he states that "these were not the same people anymore". So, as the story progresses the characters become more irrational, such as Mark circling the schoolhouse repeatedly and Vanessa freaking out about someone confronting them as they inspect the building. The characters at this point are unusually enthusastic and blissful. Nothing matters anymore. As the story draws to a close, the final step of the transition occurs. The three's face melts off and the narrator panics, finally the narrator joins them.

This story is really confusing. I put so little information about the entity that it comes off as "poorly written". '''This was intentional. '''This creature is for the most part unknown. It is completely unknown why what has happened did happen. Why did the characters turn into this "thing"? How the the story being told when the narrator is one of "them"? What is happening? Those are all questions that are clearly unanswered. I purposely omitted the answer to each of those. It's up to the reader's interpretation. There is no right nor wrong answer to those questions.

Let's explain "they".

So, each of the characters turn into this creature called ''they. ''I put the word "they" in italics to seperate the the three characters from the creature. They is a combination of the the characters together. There are three characters affected (eventually four at the end) and as they transition to they they become one. Confusing right? So in short they is the combination of the characters into one. This creature, they, is a symbol for the theme.

A theme that I like to use in these types of story is a "false utopia". I use the same theme in my other story (it's being rewritten so you cannot read it at the moment) called "The Gray Area". In that story the protagonist stumbles across this magical place in the middle of nowhere where everything is perfect. He uses this place as an escape. He notices that it is incapable of change; when he tosses a stone into the river, the very next day it is right in the spot where he had first picked it up. The false utopia is when in both of my stories where the characters are in a place where everything is perfect. It's as if the curtains were drawn on the world around them; things are still happening around them however they don't notice it. In "They" this false utopia comes to the quartet in the form of the creature that possesses them. As they become one their behavior changes, they act blissful and ignorant. Eventually their faces melt off cementing the fact that they have reached the point of no return. They are locked in this blissful state forever. They are locked into the "perfect day". The sun never sets and they never stop driving. This would be a horrible state to be in. However to the characters it's no big deal, it's utopia to them.

Does your brain hurt yet? I know mine does. This story has a lot more depth than it appears which is why I feel that people get stumped over the message. Overall I just wrote this story for fun, it's kind of dark, but humourous in some ways. However it is designed to cause confusion. You never know why only these few people were affects, you never know how the story is being told, and you never know how everything connects, but the message is that when they becomes they everything changes, yet stops changing; that period of time is locked in repeat forever.

I hope this "essay" clears up some confusion, or even adds to it. This story is not to be read from the surface, you have to tear it apart to see what is actually happening.

~Mystery12