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Rewrite of 'Gregory' by Panos Ioannides
[1] Personal Responses:
What strikes me most about this piece is...the sheer brutality of this story. It is shocking to think the narrator did not have the guts to do the right thing and not execute Gregory. He blames the prisoner for not escaping, but the prisoner tried to explain it was a death sentence, anyway. The executioner was just trying to get Gregory to run off (thereby doing the killing for him - death by exposure). Then in the end, personnel at headquarters did not even check in person to see if the prisoner was hanged from the pole. Who’s to say they would have even noticed if they had not killed him at all, but staged his death, what pathetic pigs these murders were.
[2] Analytical Responses:
The analytical feature(s) that helps me make sense of this piece is...the use of highly descriptive violence forced Me to face the grotesque death of the prisoner. I have seen a lot of war footage, read many accounts, historical and personal, but this particular piece sickened Me like few others. The cowardice of war and the absolute absence of decency never ceases to disgust Me.
[4] Creative Responses: Rewrite, (of course)…
“Gregory” , Paragraph 44
I squeeze the trigger again.
The bullet smashes into his neck, but it has only grazed him.
Gregory turns. His eyes are all red. He lunges at me and starts punching me with his fists.
“I hate You I hate You…” he screams in a blood curdling voice.
I try to empty my barrel, but he has seized onto it with a death grip.
I screamed at my comrades, “What are You waiting for?!”
I felt the trigger squeeze, again. We struggled.
I was dying, I tried to scream again. But my mouth was full of blood and so were my boots and socks.
They all stood quietly, looking at me.
When Gregory came to, they stooped and picked me up. My hands were frozen and he wouldn’t let my legs go.
He still has the imprints of my hands around his neck, red and deep, as if made by a hot knife.
“We will hang him tonight?” the men said.
“Is that what you all want? Gregory asked.
They gave him no answer.
“Let’s switch the uniforms first”, Gregory said, “then we‘ll make our escape”.
Headquarters did not ask for the report the next day or the day after. The top brass were sure that we had obeyed them and had left Gregory swinging from a pole.
They didn’t care to know what had happened to Gregory, alive or dead.
© 2007 Mike W. Boitano
All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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