A) Author
Edgar Allan Poe
-His parent died before he was three years old
-He married his thirteen year old cousin when he was 26.
-He was the first American writer to try to live by writing alone.
B) Plot
This short story is about a man who had an accute hearing. Out of the blue, he decided to kill a certain old man. He wanted him dead because he could not stand the sight of his eye. Every night, he would sneak into the old's man home to watch him. He was always very careful but one night, he made a sound. The old man screamed in fear and stayed up, because he knew someone had broke into his home. After an hour, the man decided he had enough. The beating of the old man's heart was driving him crazy. He killed him and put his body below the floor.
Later that night, the police came saying the neighbors heard a scream and were concerned. The man reassured them. He said the scream was his own; he had nightmare. The officers believed him but the man started hearing the old man's heart louder and louder. The sound drove him so insane he admitted to murdering the old man to the cops.
C) Analysis
1) Settings : The story probably takes place in the 1940's during 8 days. It's mostly happening in the old man's home.
2) Characters: The main character is unnamed. The story does not directly state if it's a man or a woman. The old man, the neighbors and the police officers.
3) Themes : a) A human being has a perverse wicked side -another self- that can provoke him to doing evil things without an apparent motive.
b) Fear of discovery can lead to being discovered.
c) The evil within is worse tan the evil without.
4) Point of view
1st person narrative
5) Sentence style
"Object, there was none. Passion, there was none. I loved the man."
6)Anaphora
"I heard things in heaven. I heard things in hell."
7) Personification
Death becomes a person¸
8)Simile (comparison using "like")
"A single ray of light like the thread of a spike"
9)Alliteration
"Harken. Observe how heartily, how charmly."
10) Irony
"I was never kinder to the man during the week before I killed him"
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This short story is about a man who had an accute hearing. Out of the blue, he decided to kill a certain old man. He wanted him dead because he could not stand the sight of his eye. Every night, he would sneak into the old's man home to watch him. He was always very careful but one night, he made a sound. The old man screamed in fear and stayed up,(could use richer vocab) because he knew someone had broke into his home. After an hour, the man decided had (grammar: missing pronoun) enough. The beating of the old man's heart was driving him crazy. He killed him (simple phrase: could use other than he/him etc) and put his body below the floor.
RépondreSupprimerLater that night, the police came saying the neighbors heard a scream (yelp, cry, screatch, holler) and were concerned. The man reassured them. He said the scream was his own; he had nightmare. The officers believed (pronoun missing) but the man (synonym needed) started hearing the old man's (synonym needed) heart louder and louder. The sound drove him so insane he admitted (his murder to the cops) to murdering the old man to the cops.