4/26/2017 The Black Cat -----Edgar Allan Poe

My Reading Experiences Edgar Allan Poe The Black Cat Discussion

“” Literary style and themes: Gothic Questions of death 4/26/2017 Literary style and themes: Gothic Questions of death physical signs; the effects of decomposition; concerns of premature burial; the reanimation of the dead; mourning “” Poe suffered from the deleterious effects of alcohol consumption throughout his life.  

The Black Cat "The Black Cat" is first printed on August 19, 1843, The story is presented as a first-person narrative using an unreliable narrator  it's a story about domestic violence and brutal murder  It's the death-row confession of nameless man who destroys himself, his wife, and his pets. The Black Cat

Summary

#1 Mellow & Kind Cut out one of the cat’s eye

#2 House burns down Looks just like Pluto 4/26/2017 House burns down Looks just like Pluto Hangs Pluto from a tree, killing him France Telecom Group confidential

#3 When the cat follows the man and his wife down to the cellar of the old house they have to live in, he tries to kill it with an axe. “” His wife stops him and he kills her instead walling up her body in the cellar  

“” #4 He hits the wall behind which the dead body is hidden. The voice of the cat responds, and the police tear down the wall and find the body, with the black cat sitting on its head.

Genre / tone / writing / style Symbolism / Imagery / Allegory / Narrator point of view Genre / tone / writing / style Characters Scene Setting http://www.shmoop.com/

Murdered Slave in America France Telecom Group confidential

Why The Man Went Out of Control ?

4/26/2017 “The fantastic explores the indefinite boundary between the real and the supernatural. The fantastic is a literary category that contains elements of both the rational and the irrational .”

Why The Man Went Out of Control ? The Spirit of Perverseness

The spirit of PERVERSENESS” what makes people do things they know will be bad for themselves and others

4/26/2017 Who has not , a hundred times， found himself committing a vile or a silly action， for no other reason than because he knows he should not？ Have we not a perpetual inclination， in the teeth of our best judgment， to violate that which is Law ， merely because we understand it to be such？ This spirit of perverseness， I say， came to my final overthrow. -------The Black Cat

4/26/2017 “” Why Do We Do Things We Know Will Be Bad for Us ?

4/26/2017 Insane Taking normal human behavior to extremes

4/26/2017   What evil is ? Where does it come from ?

Evil Local, small-time, even ordinary. 4/26/2017 Evil Local, small-time, even ordinary. Mass murderers, serial killers, the totalitarian bureaucracy of Orwell's 1984, the Nazis All humans have a shred of this kind of evil inside them.  

4/26/2017 “” Will We Always Be So Lucky ?