The task of this assignment was to analyze a piece of writing of our choosing. I chose the short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen poe. The words in bold are vocabulary terms that we had to identify within the piece.

In the short story, “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, readers are placed within the narrative of a man seeking to tell his story with the intent of proving his innocence. Despite being held guilty for the murder of his wife, he cannot point the blame to any other than a black cat. For this short story, the author is Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote with the purpose to entertain. He provides an engaging story with a dark theme and vivid detail, “My immediate purpose is to place before the world plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events. In their consequences, these events have terrified—have tortured—have destroyed me.”(paragraph 1). The narrator sees himself as a victim of his surroundings. His audience is composed of readers who follow his work. 

Poe’s stance is that the narrator is mentally unwell. He draws attention to this in the first paragraph” Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the commonplace… which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects.” It is evident that the narrator has a problem distinguishing his thoughts from reality. The tone throughout the short story is solemn. “For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence.” (paragraph 1). The seldom tone Poe uses helps carry through the serious position that the narrator is in. The language used in this short story is civil.“I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause and effect between the disaster and the atrocity. But I am detailing a chain of facts, and wish not to leave even a possible link imperfect.”(paragraph 11). Poe makes sure he is clear in his portrayal of events as well as the thought process being had by the narrator. The genre of this short story is horror. The suspense built by the author and the setting in which the audience is placed. Readers are taken into the mind of a criminal convicted for the murder of his wife.“Goaded by the interference into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the ax in her brain. ”(paragraph 22), the acts are told vividly without any sign of remorse. The story definitely provides a fright as you never know what’s going to happen next. The medium used for this short story is print, the story was typed then published.