The Raven Research Paper

Undertaking Personal Battles

Struggling with mental illness, the loss of a loved one, and addiction is by no means, a simple walk in the park, and it’s essential to find ways to dominate these obstacles. The following patients and authors struggle with lack of belonginess and love and generally their feelings are projected onto others. In Charlotte Gilman's story The Yellow Wallpaper, published in 1892, a woman is struggling to find herself throughout the obstacles that she has to mentally overcome. In the 1845 poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe, the author elaborates on his own personal battles of losing a loved one. In Out Of Reach, the 2012 novel by Carrie Arcos, Micah has to overcome his addictions to find himself and return to his family.

Death is a natural occurrence and there is nobody at fault for such tragedies. In “The Raven”, Edgar Allan Poe created a character whom lost his beloved Lenore, “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor,” (Poe: 2) adding emphasis to the death of the loved one and the sorrow that the character felt. In Poe’s writing he elaborates on his own life struggles, when he was young he had a feeling of abandonment, his mother passed away, and his father left, leaving Poe as an orphan. In this poem, the character feels that society is mocking him and the symbol of society is the raven that seems to be having no emotions or feeling of sorrow. The sadness that this character felt left him too depressed to participate in society, reaching level 3 on Kohlberg’s scale, and he is lacking the feeling of belongingness and love. “Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken “Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store, Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster”,” (Poe: 11). Just as the character in the poem, Poe doesn’t get out into society enough to help him recover from the loss of a loved one. Due to a broken heart, Edgar Allan Poe had no hope of recovery from this

Out Of Reach by Carrie Arcos is a novel that shows the effects that addiction can have on a family. Micah, a 17 year old high school student that is keeping secrets, lying, using crystal meth, and running from reality. “If I had known that his mind had already been altered with that first try, that the seed of addiction had taken root, maybe I would have done more,” (Arcos: 6). Rachel, Micah’s sister has kept his addiction a secret from their parents to keep him out of trouble, and now that the addiction has taken control of his life, Rachel can’t help but feel guilty for letting it get this far. Micah’s addiction began with his feeling of abandonment from his family, he didn’t feel like he fit in with everyone, and he then got caught up in a rough group of friends at school resulting in his experimentation with drugs; “It’s weird, I felt… it was… the best I’ve ever felt. This super rush. I didn’t know I could ever feel that way. Like I could do anything, you know?” (Arcos: 4). As Micah’s addictions spiraled out of control, he left his family behind and took off across the country, following whomever had the drugs that are now controlling his life. Soon after her left, Rachel, his sister, and Tyler, his best friend, set off to California where they thought her might be headed to, “I didn’t want to make small talk, but I didn’t want to be a jerk. “Thanks for helping me find him,”” (Arcos: 17). Micah has so