Sunday, March 12, 2006

The Benevolent Captain Hook

This is a story we had to write in Communications class in little groups. We had to come up with a villain and write a narrative-type thing from their point of view (ex: The Big Bad Wolf who actually had a cold and just wanted some medicine). My group consisted of a rather odd girl who seems to be a bit of a recluse (she claims to already be a published writer) and a slacker guy who says he plays a lot of basketball. Well we got some done with my idea here, but I offered to take it home and tweak it before it's due date (Tuesday). Here's what I ended up with (Tell me what you think):
CAPTAIN HOOK

Once upon a time there was a tall, dark, and handsome pirate named Harold. He was the benevolent captain of his own ship and crew, of whom he only desired their hard work and respect. In return for their services, Harold provided them with bunks and food to keep them content. Captain Harold was as fun-loving as the next pirate. However, there was one particular nuisance that kept him on the edge of anger.

A young, able-to-fly boy named Peter was a fan of the practical joke. The consistency with which this irresponsible punk acted upon his impulses made Harold angry at the boy’s immaturity. One such incident had Peter flying around Harold’s ship cutting his beautiful, tall white sails. Harold climbed a ladder to try to convince the boy to stop this particular joke, but while he climbed, Peter sliced through a sail and his sword went right through Harold’s wrist. It was then that he required bandaging, and then decided on a different type of prosthetic than is usual. The end of Harold’s right arm now had a curved metal piece attached, thus changing the appearance of the benevolent captain and caused him to be renamed by everyone across Neverland.

Captain Hook could not stand Peter Pan. The boy was the constant source of headaches due to an annoying rooster cry that echoed every time the boy flew near. Because of Hook’s persistent attempts at stopping Peter’s “fun”, he was given the nickname of “Codfish” and this only built up the anger he held inside of him. Peter’s gang of misfits, The Lost Boys, caused more trouble still when they would steal Captain Hook’s provisions and graffiti the sides of his beautiful watercraft.

The one thing that kept Captain Hook sane (except for grooming his one-of-a-kind handlebar mustache) was his hard-working crew, especially his right-hand man Smee, a man always there to help clean up Peter and his gang’s mess. Since Smee was a bumbling fool a majority of the time, he occasionally caused problems himself. However, Hook saw the potential in him when no one else could. Smee was a great listener, he was Hook’s confidant, and thus was always there for Hook when he needed to vent about his personal issues. He was the best first mate Hook could have asked for. Hook was only hard on the poor chap because he saw the potential in him to become a better man and wanted him to have a successful future as a possible successor.
There was one occasion where Smee was extremely helpful to Captain Hook. They were attempting to convince Tinker Bell, a stubborn fairy with a slight temper, to leave Peter’s gang and join theirs. Hook had stood previously in awe at the fairy, both in part to her size and her luminosity. He hoped she might bring this added light, as a metaphor, to his ship as a morale booster. Peter did not appear to treat the beauty very well and Hook knew that he could do better. For a small amount of time, Ms. Bell did cooperate with Hook, but then Peter found her and conned her into rejoining him. Silly fairy.

There was also a crocodile that followed him around non-stop. This certain animal was very annoying because it was essentially stalking the poor pirate. Hook had nursed the reptile back to health many years ago when he had found it wounded on the shore. Once he set it free, it would not leave him alone. There was one time that the crocodile awoke Hook in the middle of the night and so he took his alarm clock to try to show the animal what time it was and how wrong it was to cause commotion at such an awful hour. Well, could you believe that the crocodile leapt out of the water and grabbed the alarm clock! It swallowed it whole! From that moment on, the crocodile followed closely behind the ship and everyone who had ears could attest to that.

There came a point in Hook’s life when he felt like he could no longer take Peter’s constant annoying habits. Hook tried to negotiate with the young boy, but he would just not listen to anything Hook had to say. He would barely give Hook any time to explain his issues. So, Hook decided that he needed a career change. He graciously offered Peter his ship, the flagship of a potentially great naval fleet, and decided he would try his hook at something a little different. His options included becoming a marine biologist (of course) or a fisherman. He wasn’t completely sure what he would pursue, but he knew that he would be successful at whatever he tried. Hook was just that confident. Plus, if he could run his own ship and crew, how hard could anything else be? His only hope was that there would be no flying boys anywhere near where he was going. And those, so he had heard, were quite an anomaly.
So. . . . . .

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

nicely done.. creative..