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Examples Of Obsession In The Tell Tale Heart

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Did your obsession become my obsession? Obsession is a state of mind in which someone thinks about something constantly or frequently. It called my attention the way we handled this meaning in the story of “The Tell Tale Heart” during class. I have read this story before during high school but not with the same focus. The story becomes a literary evidence of the elements of obsession. The author uses obsession to appeal to the senses of the reader and create a new character that it is not expected at all. The main character obsesses over the eye and creates an individual separated fictional persona from the old man as target, which can be called as the object of obsession. His obsession grew so much that it became and impediment in his life …show more content…

This first essay that I read helped me understand the psychological struggle and symbolic meaning of the story. Kachur claims that vital information from the narrator is omitted because it seems not important to readers, but that same information is the one that describes the motives and the challenges presented by the author. This essay really caught my attention in ways that I would never imagine. Kachur argues that the narrator obsession is based in “father-on-son incest”. He supports his idea with three possible hypothesis: first, the narrator was a victimized child that resulted with some psychotic symptoms; second, the narrator is re-enacting his abuse to make the old man feel what he suffered; and for last, the old man is a victim of the narrator´s threat of incest. In several occasions the narrator stated that he loved the old man and did not wanted his gold; making a clear connection between them. After re-reading the story it actually made sense what this essay is trying to explain. His obsession can be a result of the unknown truth that will haunt him forever. Kachur uses a study written by Etherington that states that children abused by the same gender parent will have a greater problem with self-differentiation and establishment of personal identity; which can be an explanation of how the narrator sees the “Evil Eye” and the old

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Contrastingly, The Book of Salt by Monique Truong portrays the protagonist, Binh, as a man who is constantly haunted by the voice and image of his radically stifling father, the Old Man. Everytime his doubt takes a hold of him, Binh is further confined by the opinion he thinks the Old Man will have, despite Binh’s hatred for him. “Every day, I hear the Old Man's voice shouting at me from beneath the earth, where, I tell myself, he now lies,” Binh explains (Truong 267). The Old Man’s blatant hatefulness and unacceptance is evidenced in many situations, but especially in the day he found out about Binh’s sexual relations with another man, which was the day the Old Man “was no longer [his] father” (230). When Binh recalls this day, he says twice,

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The authors of both “St. Lucy’s School for Girls Raised by Wolves” and “The Cathedral” use narrative in multiple ways to craft their short stories. Although very different in genre (science fiction vs. contemporary fiction), both pieces use the first-person perspective to fabricate meaningful experiences for the audience. In “St. Lucy’s School for Girls Raised by Wolves,” author Karen Russell tells the story of a special school designed to assimilate young girls into modern society after they have spent the majority of their lives as part of a wolf pack. The short-story has undertones of a metaphor describing every child’s struggle to grow up, and for this reason, the fact that the narrator is an adolescent girl is significant.

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His son marries, and the narrator and his wife age further, and the transition into old age is complete with the death of the narrator’s father-in-law. Between these events we can see large shifts in attitudes and ideas, as well as health and well-being. These factors provide clear character evolution within the

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Examples of it can be seen from Wade and Artemis being obsessed with the contest and neglecting their grades and school life, Sorrento bombing a part of the Stacks in an attempt to persuade Wade to help with the contest and Halliday being obsessed

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EL121: The Short Story and Essay Writing TMA: 2015 - 2016 Comparing and Contrasting the Ends in: "The Tell Tale Heart" and "The Scarlet Ibis" As indicated by Hamdi and DeAngelis (2008), there are five elements in the short story: setting, plot, characters, theme and point of view. It can be presumed that the ending of a short story is closely related to at least three of these elements; plot, characters and theme. This is because the ending of the short story is the closing point in the development of the plot; the part that marks the destination or the last development of characters; and also the point where the presentation of the story 's theme is crystallized and fulfilled by the author. This means that the ending of a short story is the

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Obsession, an idea or thought that constantly keeps invading one’s mind, sometimes leading them to do terribly foolish things. This is proficiently depicted in the short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson. In “The Tale-Tale Heart”, the protagonist was so strongly obsessed with the old man’s vulture-like eye and hated it with such a great passion, that he decided to take the old man’s life. Similarly, in “The Possibility of Evil”, Adela Strangeworth was so excessively addicted to helping stop spread “evil” in her town that she did not realize that she was being intrusive and invading peoples personal lives. Even though in these two stories tackle different things the main character is obsessed over, the main idea of harming other peoples lives because of their strange obsession remains the same.

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One of the most important relationships in the novel is the one between the man and the boy. The father is determined to protect

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Obsession is defined as an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind. Victor worked so tirelessly at the university on his theory that he could create life he often didn’t eat or sleep. “Soon [it] became so ardent and eager that the stars often

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It can be argued that the father was raised completely different from his son, as he portrays to be an incomprehensible and baffling individual. This is evident as seen in the father’s attempts to show his affection to Peter by giving a penny to him. Alas, they were unable to communicate clearly, leading to Peter misinterpreting the father’s actions. The father’s adherence to society’s gender roles lead Peter to perceive him to be cold-hearted and distant. In addition, gender roles can be evident in the father’s role in the family.

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“I loved the old man. He never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye!”

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The bond between the father and son is the heart of the novel, and their deep love for each other drives their actions throughout the story. The novel shows that even in the toughest of circumstances, their love for each other can endure and inspire acts of selflessness and sacrifice. The father is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure the safety and well-being of his son, even if it means putting his own life at risk or making difficult choices. Knowing that both characters loved each other helped them endure even the toughest situations. The theme of love and sacrifice in the novel adds depth and emotional resonance to the story.

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Furthermore, when his father says that “[he] was worse than the girl”, he feels incomparable. Witnessing the interaction that his father has with his daughter creates a deep desire for approval and he is forced to wonder about the other situations within his childhood in which he felt lacking. Moreover, when the narrator admits that “maybe [he] was jealous”, feelings of envy towards his daughter are created. These feelings could have a deleterious effect on their relationship and cause his daughter to desire the same feelings as he desires from his father. He finds himself comparing his interaction with his father to his daughter’s interaction.

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Every day and night that the eye would haunt him, he would receive a better understanding to how he will overcome the eye. An obsession begins as a thought about someone or something, which is what happens to the narrator, the thought of the eye is the beginning of his obsession for it. The author satisfies his obsession “every night, about midnight” by “turning the latch” of the old man’s door and peeking his head through (3.4-7). By doing so, he got to take a look at the old man’s pale blue eye. To the narrator this eye stimulates an unhealthy obsession.

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793 Words | 4 Pages

Lastly, the two words the son and the man add to the complexity of the relationship. This shows that the man can’t picture himself being a father, especially after knowing he can’t meet the child’s expectation, but will always picture his son being a child in his eyes. In conclusion the author uses literary devices to add depth and emotion to the complex relationship between the two characters. He does this by changing the point of view throughout the poem from son to father. He uses a purposeful structure from present to future coming back to present to demonstrate with the complexity of the father's

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He had no problem with the man himself, but he just absolutely detested the man’s eye to the point where he must rid him of it. Every night he would creep into the old man’s bedroom and stare at him and particularly his eye. He did this for about a week until one night the man was alerted and jumped up in bed. The narrator stood absolutely still in the dark room until he began to hear a thumping that he believed to be the old man’s heartbeat. It grew increasingly loud and being afraid the neighbours might hear it.

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