The Tell Tale Heart Rationale Diary

Rationale:
For this task, I created a diary because I think that this style of writing would be an extremely effective way to show another major character’s emotions and ideas, as it can be written from a first person perspective, giving a huge amount of insight. I based my task on a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, titled “The Tell-Tale Heart.” I chose this piece as it gives the opportunity to be very creative in my writing, but also introduces various constraints, such as writing in a similar style to Poe, and trying to avoid any plot holes. This task specifically relates to part 4 of the language and literature course, being; literature, as the stimulus text is a piece of literature, as is my piece of writing. “The Tell-Tale Heart” contains two characters, an old man, and the man’s servant. The story is written from a first person perspective, which gives insight into the servant’s ideas. In the story, it is implied

I suppose I should start from the beginning.

My servant is a kind man, in his mid 30’s, brown hair, rather tall, he’s a very skinny fellow, and he has the most piercing blue eyes. I need him though, I haven’t fared well with old age, my skin is cracked like a canyon, and my bones have become achy and frail, like an old machine covered in rust. Every morning he brings my clothes from my drawer to me, brings me breakfast, and then helps me make my way about the house. And yet, he is extremely strange. I call him odd, because of the way he just, is, I suppose, to be completely honest, the only reason I don 't get rid of him is because I feel sorry for the man. His fingernails are crooked and short from the many years of nail biting, he hears things that don 't exist, and his stare, his cold piercing stare, it seems to always be fixed on my blind, milky, film covered