Hoang 1 Jonathan Hoang Dr. Nelson Eng-1b 9 February 2023 Singular Effect in “The Black Cat” “The Black Cat” is a story written by Edgar Allen Poe back in 1843. Poe was a successful American writer who was known for his short stories. “The Black Cat” is a short horror story about a man who used to be a kind and loving person who then turned murderer. He has a black cat named Pluto whom he loved very much. But as he continued to consume alcohol, he began to mistreat Pluto along with his other animals. One day, he comes home from drinking and takes out one of Pluto’s eyes and later killing it by hanging it from a tree. He feels guilty afterwards but not before his house burns down. He later finds another black cat that looks like Pluto expect …show more content…
He hides both the cat and his wife’s body in the walls in his basement but then later confess to the police that he had killed her. In his story "The Black Cat," Poe focuses on the theme of alcoholism through character development, conflict, imagery, and metaphors to show readers how alcoholism can destroy one’s mind and cause one to do insane acts. Poe uses character development to illustrate how alcohol can negatively change someone. When the narrator began to grow a dislike for his second cat, he realized that he was the problem and that all the alcohol he had been drinking had changed him. To show this, Poe writes, “And now was I indeed wretched beyond the wretchedness of mere Humanity. And a brute beast — Hoang 2 whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed — a brute beast to work out for me — for me a man, fashioned in the image of the High God — so much of insufferable wo!” (Poe 6). The narrator now realizes his drinking has created destruction and regrets it. He sees how alcohol has changed him into something less than a human being. He finally realizes that and knows that alcohol is the reason that he is miserable and suffering in his life. Poe uses strong words …show more content…
The beast is symbolic of the person that he now is because of alcohol. The alcohol changed him into an animal, one that is cruel and violent. At the beginning of the story, Poe describes the narrator as loving and happy. But he then describes him as a “brute beast.” This is character development, and Poe develops it through alcohol, which slowly destroys who he once was. This theory is further backed up when Poe writes “whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed.” The fellow that the narrator destroys was his past self and his innocence. He killed who he once was before the alcohol when he was loving and charming. Together, the elements in this quote add up to create a mood of regret and shame. The narrator regrets that he allowed himself to be destroyed by alcohol and he is ashamed for letting himself get this bad. He negatively changed due to his abuse of alcohol and Poe expresses this by comparing him to a monster. Poe uses character development to express how alcohol can change a man negatively. Besides character development, Poe uses a conflict, specifically person against self, to show how alcohol takes control over the consumer. When the narrator came home one day,