A Descent into the Maelström Essays

In his story, “Descent into the Maelstrom”, Edgar Allen Poe writes of an old fisherman who claims to have gone through the monstrous whirlpool, “Moskoe-strom,” lasting the duration of 6 hours. The fisherman acts as a guide to the narrator as he leads him up the mountain Helseggen, where the old fisherman tells him the story of how his hair turned grey in a day. It might be argued, though, that this story was nothing short of a tall tale. There are numerous points in this his story that indicate the

The Haunting Retribution of a Tortured Man The “Tell Tale Heart”, published in 1843, is a gothic short story written by the infamous author Edgar Allen Poe. Poe is known for many poems and short stories such as “The Raven” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” to name a few. “The Tell Tale Heart” is an eerie fiction of an unreliable narrator attempting to convince the reader of his sanity. In doing so, he reveals more about his insanity while he tells the tale of a dark deed. The narrator is psychotic

Sensory Imagery in A Gun for Sale If one thinks about the difference between music and books, they will come to a realization that they are infact very similar. A song just like a novel has a start, an ending and most importantly a climax. In between the climax comes the rising tension to reach the climax and falling action which brings us to the end of a song or a story. In Graham Greene’s novel, A Gun for Sale, we experience the buildup of tension. The author creates this by using cinematic aspects

In the short story, “The Black Cat,” written by the great Edgar Allan Poe, the setting being in a house full of wealth that burns down leaving one wall, really helps out and makes it a great piece of Gothic Literature. The first example is that of which explaining the first, high class house when it had began to burn down, as the narrator exclaims, “On the night of the day on which this cruel deed was done, I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire. The curtains of my bed were in flames. The whole

Edgar Allan Poe 's The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart are very similar in the way that they portray insanity. In The Black Cat the narrator was an introvert that becomes an alcoholic and becomes “insane” when he starts to not feel any emotions when he does anything, cruel or not. In The Black Cat the narrator did things that many would consider insane, such as taking a cats’ eye out or hanging the cat because you love it. The narrator, despite being an alcoholic, did things that even if you were

9 Stories About Black Cats That Made Them Halloween Icons The Icon Black Cat For centuries, Black cats have never come up with an illegal or false level of Halloween Icon. This days, these type of animals are maltreated, hated and rejected by others of what they seems to be representing because in the past years, many culture’s stigma that follows these animals is extremely uncalled for. Like the average tabby, Black Cats surfer prejudice and danger especially when the month of October approaches

In this passage way you see personification and mystery. The personification is when he says "A series of stern-looking portraits glared down at him from the walls" this shows personification due to the potrats having the human trait of glaring. personification also shows when he says "On of the volumes had struck him back. Like a cat" this shows personification due to it saying it struck at him when it is just a book. also by saying it was likea cat when it was truely not because it is a book. What

Suspense in “The Black Cat” Why do people choose to go into haunted houses? It is because they want to know what happens inside. Haunted houses maintain this mystery and intrigue in order to create an element of suspense. Edgar Allan Poe uses this same element in “The Black Cat” to keep the reader interested. Poe develops suspense through three events: the hanging of his black cat, Pluto; the finding of the second black cat; and the killing of his wife, Virginia. Next, Poe develops suspense in

What gives the reader that feeling of being on the edge of their seat? Why would he want the reader to anticipate what’s going to happen next? That is how the author expresses tension. The author does this by using literary devices. Edgar Allen Poe builds suspense in “The Black Cat” by using specific literary devices—foreshadowing, allusion, and slow pace. The author increases the feeling of anxiety in the story by using foreshadowing. For example, after the narrator obtains the second black cat

The Cat and the Hat by Doctor Seuss and Ishmael by Daniel Quinn both have the theme that man creates there own problem. In The Cat and the Hat, an anthropomorphic cat shows up at the house of two children, Sally and her unnamed brother, one rainy day when their mother is away. Ignoring repeated objections from the children's fish, who can also talk, the Cat shows the children a few of his tricks in an attempt to entertain them. In the process he and his companions, Thing One and Thing Two, wreck

“And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS.” Perverseness is persistently holding to what is wrong; wayward. Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Black Cat,” is a case study of the spirit of Perverseness. “The Black Cat is a fascinating story that gives us insights into the mind of an insane man. In the short story “The Black Cat,” Edgar Allen Poe uses the point of view of first person unreliable to challenge the trust between the reader and the narrator. In the opening

Despite never graduating high school and living through the Great Depression and the suffering that came as a result, William Faulkner established his own literary fantasy and a new approach to the style of writing while addressing social issues as portrayed throughout The Sound and the Fury. William Faulkner faced a multitude of challenges and hardships throughout his life that influenced his literary works. Faulkner was involved in a complicated love affair with an engaged Estelle Oldham. Following

“The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them.” ~Lois McMaster Bujold. The deceased cannot tell someone to provide justice, only law enforcement can. This short story is one of many of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous stories. This story is about the narrator that takes care of an old man on a day-to-day basis. One day, he realized he was deeply disturbed by the old man’s eye, which has a vulture-like cataract on it. He became so bothered that he slowly decided to

In many stories and poems; such as the Tell Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, The Raven, Annabel Lee, The House of Usher, and so many more timeless works, Edgar Allan Poe has been captivating his audiences with spine tingling thrillers through the words and style of his own twisted ways. The only way to describe where Poe’s writing belongs in history, would be classified as gothic genre. From the start of the 1800’s to present day and the future of literature, through irony, repetition, imagery

“The black Cat” and “The Telltale Heart” both effectively use the same point of view to convey different concentrated emotional impacts. A concentrated emotional impact is the intense feeling the reader gets from a piece of literature. While the point of view of a story is the method a narrator uses to tell the story in their chosen perspective. For “The Telltale Heart” is about a character that attacks and murders the person they work for because they felt threatened by the catalytic eye they had

The Black Cat and Alcoholism Written in August 19,1843, The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe is the account of a drunkard who kills not only his cat, but his wife for no logical reasons, other than rage and paranoia brought from the evils of alcohol. This narrative is quite conducive with Poe’s personal views, as he was strongly against the recreational use of alcohol, contrary to popular belief. The Narrator of The Black Cat details his upbringing, describing himself, possibly falsely, as a kind

An author has the freedom to create their own worlds. Some are realistic worlds with a dark twist, others are just complete nonsense. What if the world of an author came to life? Specifically, how would the World of Edgar Allen Poe be? Most of Edgar Allen Poe’s stories have a similar theme. This essay will be focusing on the world where his story “The Black Cat” takes place. This world of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat” is unnatural, with heavy themes of violence. Characters in this world

Cat and Rodent Compare and Contrast Do you ever wonder why the only thing cats care about is to catch as many rodents as they can? In on legend the rat betrays the cat which makes it mad, and in the other the mouse lies and risks the cat’s life. The legends “The Cat and the Rat”, and “How Cats and Mice Became Enemies” are both about how cats and rodents became enemies. In this essay I will compare and contrast the legends “The Cat and the Rat”, and “How Cats and Mice Became Enemies”. First, I

Have you ever heard about the stories of how cats and rats became bitter enemies? I am going to be comparing two of the stories that tell about that. The two stories are “Cat and Rat: Legend of the Chinese Zodiac and “How Cats and Mice Became Enemies”. There are many things that are the same in these stories. One similarity of the two stories is the cat and the rat both helped each other to go somewhere and ended up hating each other by the end of it. Another similarity is they both cross a wide

Before the narrator commits one of his frightening crimes, he writes, “I fancied that the cat avoided my presence.” In this short sentence, the term “fancied” is vague. The word can have more than two meanings, either the narrator has a desire to kill the cat, imagined to kill the cat, or both. With so many possibilities it is hard to tell what were the contributing factors to his actions, but it is clear to say that alcohol did play a major role in this rampage. The term “fancied” can be understood