The Black Cat Substance Abuse

Domestic violence is indisputably a major problem in our world today, and is one that many people and animals are victims of. In the story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, the main character goes from being a lovely, animal-loving person to a horrible degenerate who abuses animals and people. His victims include his wife and his pets. He does this as an effect of his great addiction to alcohol, and this alters his mind in a terrible way. Ultimately, this shows that anyone develop the capacity to become violent. People, when their minds have been altered, can become abhorrent. In this story, the unnamed narrator struggles to control himself and his violence. His alcoholism plagued him and “[he] grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable,

He had little no conflict with anyone and was known for being a softie. As a child, “[he] was noted for the docility and humanity of [his] disposition. [His] tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make [the narrator] the jest of [his] companions.” That being the case, it seems ridiculous that he, of all people, should become such a horrible person. And yet, he ends up this way. This is because of his gradual development of an addiction to alcohol. Alcohol heavily modifies the brain and many people become much more aggressive when under the influence. He becomes invested by evil thoughts and ideas. In loneliness, “evil thoughts became [his] sole intimates—the darkest and most evil of thoughts. The moodiness of [his] usual temper increased to hatred of all things and of all mankind,”. This illustrates how much of himself the main character has lost. He has gone from being a lovely, docile person to an egregious domestic abuser and murder, as he later murders his wife, demonstrating how far people can go when their conscientiousness is lost.
We can all become horrible, murderous people when our mind is altered. It is the nature of humans. In the story “The Black Cat”, the narrator goes from being a caring, loving person to a murderous, violent maniac. He struggles against his alcoholism, which has created a demon inside him that has destroyed his life. Ultimately, we can all become like him. All it takes is an addiction to alcohol, a triggering of a memory, anything that gives us a lust for blood. People, in their nature, can become demons. Therefore, we should all be careful not to lose our humanity. One might devolve into something like