Blog # 4

Alrighty then, lets get started.

Symbolism, does Poe use it? I dont think he does use much of it. He compares feelings to things like an ocean. Or writes things like the eye looked like that of a vulture. He does a lot of comparasons and uses a lot of subtlety. Its not just that he is very subtle in how he says what he says, he uses a lot of it. And he also uses a lot of double negatives. So I don't think Poe uses symbolism, but instead uses comparisons.

I've read all of Poe's peoms, and about eight of his short stories. I'll post the actual pages at some other occasion.

Summaries:

The Unparalled Adventure of One Hans Pfall: a man writes home about his adventure in a hot air balloon to home (31 pages)

The Black Cat: a man kills his cat, then his wife, and then is caught under mysterious surcumstances. In a fit of rage, the narrorator cuts out his cats eye, then some days later, in another drunken rage, hangs his cat. He's house then burns down and he and his wife move out. They find another black cat which they adopt. The cat has is also missing an eye, and has white fur in a shape resembeling a noose around its neck. This eventually drives the man mad and while trying to kill the cat ends up killing his wife. He entombs her in one the the walls of his house, lives freely for a few days with the cat having disapeared. Then one day some cops come over to examine his house, he taps on the exact spot where his wife is buried, feeling confidant. Aftwards a shriek comes from the wall and the cops dismantle it. The cat is on his dead wifes head as the source of the shrieks. (8)

Ideas/style observations:

Poe writes in very descriptive sentences. A lot of, if not most, are written so that a narrorater describes a situation with very complicated language using comparisons and negatives very often.

Typical sentence: "After this I call to mind flatness and dampness; and then all is madness-the madness of a memory which busies itself among forbidden things.

As most know, Poe's writing pertains to the Gothic and dark romanticism genres. Often writing of death and suffering, Poe's stories are usually written from the perspective of some victim of a tragic nature recalling an event and writing it down.
As of now, I dont have to many paper ideas