Gilded

This is a philosophical piece about the treatment of people in society I just wrote now on a whim. Hope you enjoy.

The RMS Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, but in reality she was the Ship of Death. This ship was created in the Gilded Age; the top of society was beautiful, but under the thin gold plating of was a solid mass of cheap nickel. This age was mirrored in the Titanic. The top of the regal ship was the gold of society, and as one traveled to the bowels of the ship, the polished gold plating tore away to expose the cheap interior.

In a perfect society, love makes the world go around, but in reality, money not only makes the world go around, it makes the Earth revolve around the sun. One’s placement on the Titanic was decided upon how much money and nobility a person possessed. The more money one paid, the higher up on the ship he got. The immigrants loved their place in Titanic because she was the Titanic, the ship of dreams.

 When Titanic stuck the iceberg, money allowed for survival. The top of the ship was evacuated first followed by the middle. By the time the immigrants came to the ship deck, there were no lifeboats left. Men, women, and children fell into their frozen deaths n the 28-degree water of the Atlantic.  Many people never made it to the boat deck; they died an excruciating death in their cabins as it filled with freezing water.

The people that fell into the 28-degree water, screamed to the people feet away in the lifeboats with all their energy. Thousands of tiny knives sliced every ounce of their bodies until they fell into the greatest moment of peace where pain was no longer felt. Eventually, the screams turned to silence. The victim closed his eyes and never opened them again.  

The rich sat in lifeboats as they watched people die. They doubted the victims were their own, so they watched from afar. They listened to the horrible screams turn into the eerie quiet.  Nearly a hundred years later, people have not changed. One wonders if the rich will ever stop watching people die in the water, and row their tiny lifeboat to save those in the freezing water.

© 2011 Julia Mancini

Author's Note

What do you think? Please, be brutall honest.
Fun fact, I just wrote this piece now in under 45 minutes.