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A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Black Cat

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Rhetoric of Fiction: The Black Cat “Having carefully deposited the body against the inner wall, I propped it in that position, while with little trouble, I relayed the whole structure as it originally stood. When I had finished, I felt satisfied that all was right. I looked around triumphantly and said to myself; ‘here at last, then, my labor has not been in vain’” (Poe 1984, 6). This is an excerpt from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat, which describes the care the narrator takes to bury the body of his dead wife, whom he murdered in a short fit of rage. I argue that individuals should take the time to read Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat as it reveals the inner workings of a ruined human mind when stripped of all humanity. Its publication in …show more content…

However, the reason for this is evident through the theme Poe intends to reveal in this piece of literature. The main conflict in "The Black Cat" is a Man versus Self, as the narrator struggles to control his actions due to his unraveling humanity. This conflict is emphasized by Poe's choice of narrator and plot type. In using Anti-Bildungsroman to highlight the impacts of missing presented opportunities and the consequences of our actions along with a type two narrator to illustrate the unreliability of our perception, Poe emphasized how a mere human would deal with a conflict such as man-versus-self. Poe points to the narrator's Man versus Conflict through certain traits, highlighting the same conflict that exists within us as readers. The narrator's unawareness of his unraveling humanity serves as an experimental claim, paralleling our humanity and unreliability, seen in our personal type two narrator and the anti-bildungsroman of life. By seeing ourselves within Poe's narrative, we learn about ourselves as human beings. As such, it is evident that everyone should read "The Black Cat" to gain insight into our own

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