Historical Fiction—Sam Li(Omega)

Creation Background and Ideas

I want to create a boy whose personality was shaped significantly before and during the Boston Tea Party. The experience made him a steadfast rebel against the colonization of the Great Britain. The boy could have led a joyful life, in which he would grow up without worries just like his peers. However, the brutal depravity caused by the colonization of the Great Britain nearly tore his family apart. It killed people around him, trying to destroy his hope of life. But the little boy didn’t give up. On the contrary, he grew up and became a warrior, who was extremely determined and staunch. He believed that no matter how hard the adversities were, he and his fellows would eventually overcome them. This story tries to portray the boy as a strong-willed figure who, inevitably, fell down but then kept fighting.

Generalization of the Story
setting: the state of Massachussets, Boston, 1768 to the December of 1773
outline: a boy who gradually became a tough rebel of the colonization of the Great Britain, and he tempered himself through practice, during which his personality was shaped to be fearless and determined.
related historical background: Boston Massacre, Tea Act 1773, Boston Tea Party
characters: Sam—the boy (protagonist of the story) and the old man (the one who recalls his experience)
          the boy’s parents—Martin and Elina
          the boy’s classmate—Angie, whose father was murdered in the Boston Massacre
          the leaders and the members of the Sons of Liberty—Charles, William, Samuel Adams, John Hancock

The Adventure of an Intrepid Boy

(Year 1865)
Old Sam, 96, is leisurely resting in the armchair when his grandson Harry comes by and asks,” Grandpa, have you ever been required to write a historical friction story?”
“A what?”
“A historical fiction,” Harry says loudly, “I have no idea of how to accomplish this task. Can you offer me some help, please?”
“Ah, my dear. You just need to put yourself in the setting you create. Hnmm...I wish that you were also there because you would later find that it is not that hard to write a simple passage.”
“I don’t get your point, grandpa. Hello, grandpa?”

.....(Sam was drained into his memories.)

86 years ago (1769)...

The sun came up above the horizon of Boston, Massachussets. But for those who lived in this city, the sunshine could hardly pass through the misty atmosphere before it reached them.

Sam woke up from his dream and made his bed, and then he fell back down on his bed again, staring at the obscure scenery through the window.
“When will this nasty weather be over”, Sam murmured. Before completely losing interest in this issue, he went downstairs in a rush. Today was a special day for him.

“Hi, mum”, Sam spoke excitedly to the woman who was preparing breakfast.
“Morning, sweet heart, you must be eager to see your new friends, right?” replied his mum.
It was telling that Sam couldn’t hide his excitement and delight since today was the first day of school and it meant a great deal for Sam due to the fact that he would become a junior high student in no time.
Just then, Martin, Sam’ s father, came downstairs. He looked utterly vigorous and spoke up,”Morning! Can’t wait for school, our little hero, huh”, Martin beamed on his son while sitting beside the dinning table. “School is a place of learning, but you must promise to me that you would enjoy yourself there, alright?” Sam devoured the food in his plate as a response to his father’s query. And then he grabbed his schoolbag and rushed to school.

(After the mid-seventeenth century, as a result of the rapid development of industry and commerce, the capitalist class rose. And private teaching thrived. )

Sam had never seen such scenes before. He was fascinated by what he observed at school: a large amount of students moving around, amiable teachers who were willing to give a helping hand, a library teeming with books on multifarious subjects. Anyhow, at first, Sam would rather not buy what he had observed since it was excessively unrealistic. He was not sure whether he was in a dream until he pinched his face forcefully. Now, he made up his mind that he would be committed to his studies to become a better person.

Time flew by. Six months passed, which were followed by the arrival of the mid-spring. Sam worked hard in class and had acquired plenty of knowledge. Every day he soaked himself in books which he brought home from neighbors or the school library. Particularly, he was curious about the history of the colonies, and he always went to his parents and teachers to ask for information about the formation of the colonies. Strangely, they seemed to keep hush about Sam’ s questions, which fairly confused him. Nevertheless, Sam was, after all, a innocent child, which meant when it came to the decision between studying and hanging out with friends, he would absolutely choose the latter one.

However, something was about to happen to Sam and people surrounded him, which changed the little boy’s life path entirely.

March, 5, 1770, the day which the people in the Colonial North America could never forget. The soldiers from British Army killed people while under attack by a mob. 5 people were killed, and 3 were seriously injured. Before long, the Patriots heavily publicized the incident in order to encourage a rebellion against the British authorities. Unfortunately, for the general public, this event sort of conveyed a message that their daily lives would be negatively influenced. Consequently, most of the civilians tended to steer clear of this issue, fearing that reference to anything about the event would have an adverse impact on their families.

Sam, who was having a bad day, was not in the mood for studying. Just now, he got the news that the father of one of his friends’ was killed in the Massacre, which almost broke his classmate down. Everyone in the classroom intended to help her, without knowing how. It was the first time that Sam had realized part of the reason why people around him refused to give him precise answers all the time.

Sam came home slightly later than usual. On his way home, he felt that the weight of his body all moved to his legs, rendering him quite uncomfortable to make any moves. As bad luck would have it, it began to drizzle. But the drenched clothes could not serve to let him feel impelled to rush back home as he usually did. He just walked sluggishly in the direction of home, fading away in the fog.

“Honey, why so late today? Oh, your clothes are icy cold”, Elina, Sam’ s mother urged and pushed him in front of the bathroom door. “My dear, just go and take a bath quickly, I’ll go and prepare some soup for you.”

Finally, after a warm and refreshing bath, Sam felt a little better. He went to the sofa, where his parents had already sat there waiting for him, and drank up the soup his mother made for him. Martin was the first one to break the silence,”was there something wrong at school today, my boy?”
“N-No, not wrong, actually, bad, terribly bad thing happened. Remember Angie? She’s one of my classmates, her father w-was... You know, the Mass-stuff. She was sitting there, frightened and in pain. We tried hard to console her, but there was nothing more we could do...”
“I’m truly sorry for that”, said Martin. “But my boy, one thing that you must keep in mind is that those heroes died for us. They endeavored to create a better society. So what we should do is live tenaciously and optimistically so that their efforts would not go to waste. You get my point, huh?” Sam nodded.
“How about going to sleep, my dear?”, said Elina.
“OK. Good night”, Sam said goodbye to them in a relatively sanguine mood.

So deep was the night, but the fires glistening in the fireplace were still flaming. Martin and Elina were on the sofa, wide awake. This time, the sustained silence which lasted for several hours was again interrupted by Martin. “So I suppose that we keep it as a secret to him. He had withstood too much pressure today, we cannot exert more stress on him or he’ll break down. I just need to find a new job before he could notice any difference. What’s your opinion?”
Elina nodded seriously and said,“Yeah, we definitely cannot tell this to him, but can you really find a new job in such short period a-and in this situation?”
“I must give it a try, at least. To tell the truth, everyone is suffering. You know, Britain had plundered innumerable wealth from the colonies by simply using high taxation and forcing us to buy their products only. It is no wonder that countless companies went bankrupt and incalculable workers lost their careers ”, Martin sighed deeply.
“There will always be a way out, honey”, Elina whispered. Then, ultimately, they went silent again. One thing that they did not notice was that the door upstairs shook slightly and stealthily.

Three years went by fleetly, and Sam was now a high school student. Obviously, Martin and Elina kept the unemployment fact as a deep secret to Sam, not knowing he had already found out. Sam, however, felt that he could not do anything. Consequently, Sam invested himself into his studies for the reason that he didn’t want to be bothered by the cruel fact that his family was under serious circumstances. The same year, the Tea Act aimed to reduce the amount of tea stored in the warehouses in London in order to help the East India company, which was currently under severe financial crisis, to survive.

One day in November, Sam sauntered along the street when he accidentally arrived at the bar in town. When passing the partly-open door, he heard voices from two men. “So we are going to do something to the ship from Britain at the end of the year, right”, one of the speakers said.
“Yeah, but the problem is we are lacking in members currently”, said by the other one. Then they left the bar. Sam thought for a while, then quickly followed their shadows before they vanished into the fog. 15 minutes went by, they reached a remote alley. Sam watched them head into it and waited at the entrance of the alley.

“You two are late”, said solemnly by one of the men who were waiting in the alley.
“Sorry, John. But you know, William and I have searched for an entire afternoon but have found no ideal person for our mission.”
“Mm...that’s really a problem. We are extremely short of fellows to meet the requirement for the mission.”

There was dead silence in the alley but the rustling of the frizzy breeze. But this moment, a fine but firm sound broke the silence:” I can help.” The four men turned around and looked at Sam with surprise and a little bit of horror. Before they started to speak, Sam continue,”I unwittingly heard you talking in the bar and I-I followed you here...”
Samuel Adams recovered from his surprise first, coming up to Sam and squatting down. “Kid, I appreciate your courage and kindness, but you should not get into stuff like this.”
“No, I should. In fact, I must. I know that you are talking about the ship which would come here from Britain. Although I don’t exactly understand what your goal is, you surely would fight against those who ruined our lives, and that’s the only thing I need to know. Those people killed my friend’s father, took away my father’s job. These months, I could only concentrate on books so that I get to get away with those matters for a little while. But I know that it is not a permanent solution. So I must stand to fight back. Please, let me help you guys do something.”
Samuel stared at the little boy in front of him for a while. However, he felt that he was talking to a strong-willed man. Finally, he said,”OK. But you must care for yourself first. I do have a mission for you. Here’s a list, which included all possible people from whom we could seek for help. I need you to go to their houses and ask if they are willing to give us a hand. Can you accomplish this task tonight?”
“I will try ,” Sam took the list excitedly and earnestly.

Charles, William, Samuel, and John watched Sam disappear in the dim light. Then, Samuel said to Charles and William,“go and protect the boy in case that he gets into trouble.”
“You’re sure we don’t need to help him?”, questioned by William.
“Can’t you see? The excitement and hope were shining in his eyes”, replied by John,”Just go.”

Sam put on a sprint of speed on the street, feeling a spurt of energy from every part of his body. Less than an hour he finished his the task assigned to him, then he headed to home contentedly under the gaze of two pairs of eyes.

Tonight was an unforgettable night for Sam, it was destined to be a sleepless one for him. Sam stared at the sky through the window. The perennial fog seemed to vanish under the moonlight. “Tomorrow will be a new day”, Sam thought confidently.

December, 16, 1773, this day finally arrived. Sam woke up automatically and went straight to the alley, where the leaders and members of the Son of Liberty were already there. Sam smiled to each of them and stood aside. Samuel took a step forward and said,”I have nothing more to tell you guys. Although our contributions are trivial, the efforts from all of you are unparalleled. So, wish us good luck.”

In the late night, the whole crew disguised themselves as Native Americans. They snuck to the harbor and passed the lax guard easily. They boarded the ship of the East India Company, where they found the chests of tea. There was an expression of indignation and excitement on everyone’s face. Sam could not be more excited when he watched his fellows pushing these large boxes near the brim of the ship, breaking them apart and throwing the tea into the water. Suddenly, Sam felt a kind of urge that he wanted to give it a try when he noticed that Samuel was beaming on him. Samuel guided Sam towards a large box. They came to a tea box, tore the wooden shell with axes, and threw the tea inside out into the sea at full tilt. At this moment, Sam had a feeling that all his tears, his pain were eventually paid. Finally, they destroyed the entire shipment of tea from the East India Company, throwing it all into Boston Harbor. Late in the night, the moonlight laid a veil over the earth. Covering in the light, the warriors faded away. You could see that there seemingly was a comparatively little figure disappearing in the dim light...

(Back to the present day...)

“Grandpa, grandpa!” Sam is waken up by the voice of his grandson Harry.
“Oh, Harry. You’re still here. Finish the fiction stuff, ha?”
“Nope.”
“Then you’d better come up with your exciting story, hahaha...” Sam indulges in his memory again, where he could clearly see the tea leaves shining brightly incomparably in the sunlight...                                 (end of the story)