A fictional story I wrote for my final Literature project during grade 9.
Image Source: NASA
During the final curve of learning in the 9th grade, another COVID-19 wave caught us and we were forced to go online. This affected how the final exam was taken. The school allowed teachers to think of another idea to evaluate our ability, my literature teacher ended up coming up with this idea. We were given 3 weeks to write a 1500 words fictional tragedy about the Moon event taken place around 50 years ago.
“Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. I am the first man to piss his pants on the moon."
Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. - Buzz Aldrin
For the assignment, we were each tasked with one member of the Apollo 11 team. The person we are assigned are the person we need to focus our story's perspective on. I was tasked with Buzz Aldrin, the 2nd person to have stepped on the Moon. Other than having to be 1500 words long, the story must follow either Aristotle's or Arthur Miller's definition of tragedy, and also be at least 51% true.
After the entire story has ended, there would be 3 paragraphs of analysis to meet the assignment criteria.
Please Enjoy, thank you.
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE MOON LANDING
Chpt 1. History
This is what the world’s history has recorded us, no, “heroes”, as...
“The Eagle has Landed!”
The crew was in tears. Tears of happiness swam through their faces while they were looking out to the beautiful view of the Moon. Everyone who was monitoring the event cheered and jump around in happiness. They have done it; humanity has successfully reached the Moon. The US is now one step closer to the finish line of this space marathon.
While the people on Earth were cheering, the astronauts are getting ready to explore the new area on the space map. Buzz and Neil spent around 6 and a half hours preparing for the first step of mankind. Now, the time has arrived. The hatch of the Eagle opens up, cameras around the ship pointed at Neil. The man slowly and heroically climbed down the ladder, and now he has set foot on the Moon.
Neil spoke through the microphone, into the intercoms, and into everyone’s television’s speaker, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Hundreds of hours from thousands of people have influenced the success of NASA and the US. A man has successfully walked on The Moon, Earth’s exquisite natural satellite, 384,400 kilometers from what everyone calls “home”. Although no one can see the event happening in person, the 2 astronauts' valiant aura brightly shines through the television screens. Buzz later joined Neil on the surface of the Moon, the two then brought out the United States of America flag and struck it down onto the surface of the Moon with honor.
Millions of people cheered upon the pivotal moment. After 20 years and upon falling behind every step of the Soviet Union, they have done it. The US has swept in the last moment of the race. Although many lives were sacrificed throughout the race, it was still considered a victory for the US.
Neil and Buzz went on and explore the mysterious land. Buzz delicately placed down the commemorative mandilions of the nobles who sacrificed their lives to the mission and a silicone disk containing massages from 73 countries onto the Moon’s surface.
The crew went on and deployed EASEP or the Early Apollo Scientific Experiment Package. Later on, they collected samples of the Moon’s surface. Finally, Buzz returned into the hatch following with Neil around 40 minutes later. The astronaut's time on the Moon ended 111 hours and 39 minutes into the mission.
The astronauts later left Moon after a full 21 and 36 minutes on it and reunited with Michael on the CSM. Everything has gone as planned, the crew returned to Earth on the 24th of July and landed in the Pacific Ocean.
It was an indecipherable success for the workers, engineers, computers, and commanders who spent hundreds maybe thousands of hours on the project.
And so, they thought......
Chpt. 2 Suffering
We spent another full year going to interviews and news. Everywhere we go, there were cheers, screams, and praises for our accomplishments. My face was accepting them with a large smile showing pride, but my insides were falling apart.
Throughout the year, many kids were talking about how they considered us as their “heroes” and one day be like us. Be the light that leads humanity into a dark unknown forest. Be the inspiration to the many kids around the globe to become an astronaut. Be the brave man which helped the United States of America win a war where they were always behind.
The day of celebration began on August 13th, we would stand atop cars riding down the street. We can see confetti's firing and flying everywhere. Police bikes were used to escort us through the city streets. We would hear cheers, claps, and praises from the people standing on the road. We waved our hands and sat down feeling the comfy and relaxing chair of the car. It’s magnificent.
For outsiders, this would be like the proudest time of their life. For us, it was the most suffering. The truth that we are required to keep in. This was like trying to keep Pandora’s box closed. I was having dreams of the truth being exposed.
“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t!” I screamed in fear.
Neil added, “This is too much for us, how can we keep this in when people are simultaneously praising us for our accomplishment every day!”
“No, no, no, no! We can’t end this now. We’re too deep into this. We can’t break the hope of our country!” I forced myself into saying.
Neil cried, “I can’t Buzz! This is too much for me. I am their Hero. How can I possibly lie to their face?! I am ending this!”
I instantly shut Neil up: “Stop what you are thinking now! Think of the consequences of your actions when people know! What will happen to us? What will happen to them!”
I continued, “How can I, I mean we, possibly destroy all the hope of every Americans out there? Imagine how heartbroken they would be if the truth is exposed!”
Neil replied, “Yes, yes, I understand now. Let’s continue with the next interview.”
We continued going to several interviews and press conferences throughout the year. Through the microphones of reporters were words that we contently spoke out to force both ourselves and the public on how amazing the experience was.
I have successfully pushed past the suffering I was going through and manipulated the public into thinking what I want them to think.
All to avoid disappointment.
Chpt. 3 Truth
Years have passed since the event. All the crew members have retired from NASA and had continued living their life. Neil went on to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati and chair an electronic systems company. Michael later went on and worked for the U.S. State Department. He also later became the president of the Smithsonian's National Air& Space Museum. In 1980, he left the museum and joined the LTV Aerospace Company, and then started his consulting firm in 1985. Lastly, I had written several books and had given many lectures around the world. I am currently the president and founder of Starcraft Enterprise.
The truth hasn’t been spoken off since we all left NASA. We didn’t speak to each other at all outside of times where we were called in to events. How can we speak to each other anyway? The time we shared together was all just a huge lie NASA and we put together to hide the mistakes we made. We became squeamish, we can’t let this lie slip out or else everyone would be disappointed. But that was just hope.
One day while I was spending my wonderful time, my phone rang.
On the phone was Neil: “Buzz, can we meet up tomorrow, please? I want to talk about the thing.”
I replied, “What are you talking about?”
“The truth. It’s been on my mind since the last day we met. It has been too long for this to go on. We must end it now,” Neil talked back.
I stumbled then replied, “No, no, no, we talked about this Neil. This story should never be revealed nor talk about. The Moon landing happened. We did not fake it!”
Neil bursed out in anger: “We did Buzz. Stop trying to cover it up! You know the story; you don’t need me to recap it! The mission failed! We didn’t land on the Moon! It was all fake! This needs to end now; I’m doing a press conference in a week and you need to be there with me and Michael to end it!”
I stopped for a second and hung up.
I thought to myself, “What am I going to do now? Yes. Yes! I need to stop Neil at all cause. Or else America’s hope would fall!”
I need to kill Neil.
…........
…...
….
..
.
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I snapped back into reality. The nauseating smell of blood swam through the room and into my nostrils. The vivid vermilion-colored blood stained my pair of hands. Silence took over the room. Neil’s soulless body lied in front of me. I have done it. I have saved America’s hope.
The truth about Apollo 11 mission will not be released. The only thing people will remember is that it is true and only true. The ship didn’t break down. There wasn’t an error message on the screen before we landed. We didn’t abort the mission and came back to Earth. It was all real. There wasn’t a studio set up to film the event happening. It’s all real!
And so, I thought it had ended...
Neil’s body was found along with a letter he wrote explaining what really happened in the mission. The truth started coming out bit by bit. NASA had to go through many investigations and was finally canceled. America’s hope was demolished in a matter of days. I need to now go through investigations and maybe put on death roll for what I had done. I was once America’s proudest man, now I’m the most disappointed.
“Everything I had done up until this moment, it’s all meaningless. Now I know, the truth is inevitable. Soon or later, it will still be revealed.”
Analysis
One of the largest indications of an Aristotelian tragedy is the main character having a position in high dignity and “of a certain magnitude”. The story of “The Truth Behind the Moon Landing” was a perfect example of that. During the second paragraph of the second chapter, it states, “many kids were talking about how they considered us as their “heroes” and one day be like us.” This shows how Buzz Aldrin and the Apollo 11 crew shines as heroes in the story. They were the last sprinters who crossed the finish line and won the Space Race for the U.S. In conclusion, Buzz completely glows as the main character in Aristotle’s definition of tragedy being a person with high dignity.
Following along to the main idea and message behind my story, it being: “Secrets don’t exist in this world.” There is no such thing as “secrets” in this world, it is only a matter of time until it comes out no matter how hard you try to hide it. An example of this would be the ending of my story where the truth of the Moon landing has been finally exposed even after Buzz killed Neil. This shows how it’s impossible to keep a secret in this world. It is just a matter of time before the secret is revealed. In short, the main idea of the story teaches and shows how secrets will be divulge no matter what you do.
Finally, to succeed in being a full-on Aristotelian styled tragedy, it must be written in a “appropriate and pleasurable language”. Throughout the whole writing, I have included the use of “pleasurable language” where it’s either the use similes, metaphors, or personification. A great example of this would be from chapter three where Buzz described, “blood swam through the room”. This shows the use of personification, where the smell of blood was given a human characteristic of swimming. Ultimately, through the use of personification and other pleasurable language, it has proven the fact that the story “The Truth Behind the Moon Landing” is an Aristotelian tragedy.
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