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Essay Comparing The Cask Of Amontillado And Everyday Use

715 Words3 Pages

First-person narration is a powerful technique that the writer uses to bring his stories to life by allowing readers to experience the events of the story through the narrator’s eyes. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” both use the first-person perspective to develop their stories. In this paper, I will compare and contrast the effective use of first-person narration in both stories by examining the reliability of the narrators, their motives for telling the story, the way they present themselves both to readers and to the other characters in the story. Moreover, the strategic decision, which Montresor and Mama use as narrators. The use of first-person narration in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” …show more content…

Montresor is an unreliable narrator as he presents himself as a friend of Fortunato’s, yet his actions towards him are anything but friendly. The reader is left to question whether Montresor’s motive for telling the story is to justify his actions or to brag about his success in getting away with the murder. Montresor presents himself as calm, calculated, and in control, but to the other characters in the story, he comes across as a normal person who is friendly to Fortunato. Poe’s strategic choice of having Montresor narrate the story allows the reader to experience the events from the perspective of the murderer, which creates a sense of suspense and …show more content…

In “The Cask of Amontillado,” the reader is drawn into the mind of the murderer, creating a feeling of unease and suspense as the events of the story unfold. In “Everyday Use,” the reader is drawn into Mama’s world, creating a feeling of empathy and understanding for the struggles faced by Black Americans during the civil rights movement. While Montresor is an unreliable narrator, Mama is a reliable one, which gives the reader the opportunity to trust her perspective on the events of the story. Both narrators present themselves differently to the reader and to the other characters in the story, but in both cases, the strategic choice of having these specific characters narrate the story brings out the main themes of the stories. In “The Cask of Amontillado,” the themes of revenge and betrayal are brought out through Montresor's narration, while in “Everyday Use,” the themes of heritage and identity are brought out through Mama’s

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