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Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Tell Tale Heart



If you wrote a literary essay about "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe, post it as a comment here.  Read others' essays as well.  Comment on at least 2.

33 comments:

  1. The Tell-tale heart is written by Edgar allen Poe that takes place in a house.This story is about a man who goes insane from the old man’s eye.

    The claim of the story is that “If you can’t face your fear you take out your anger on the ionnnecent that means the man feels some hatred towrd the old man.

    The first of the story is the vulture eye of the old man”one of his eyes resembeked that of the vulture,a pale blue eye with a film over it”Henceforth this is the narrator describing the oldman’s eye and how it looked like it.

    The second subtopic of the story is the Narrator.The man in this story is living with the old man but every time the oldman look at him the man felt a chill down his spine.Then the man starts to plan the murder towards the old man
    The Figuaritive language in this story is Imagery and Repittion

    At the end of the story the narrator hears the heart beating louder and louder untill he shows the police the heart underneath the floor board.But at the beggeneing the narrator hears lots of things and sound’s like he’s crazy.

    But how he kills the old man was diabolical.First he suffocates the old man untill he can no longer breathe,second he ccuts up the body and hides it throughiut the house.

    Nearing the middle of this story he says he’s confident but as the story poregress he starts to panic untill he can’t bear the sound anymore.Finally he admidts that he killed the old man.Althiugh the arguemanet could be fear.


    All in All The conclusion is to make the arguement were specific enough to read the Tell-Tale Heart.

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    Replies
    1. I like the detail in this essay

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    2. You had a lot of good details and examples.

      Delete
  2. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The setting of the story is in the narrator’s house with the company of a old man. The old man has one flaw, his vulture's eye. The narrator loves the old man, but not the old man’s eye. The short story focuses on what that narrator does to get rid of the old man and his eye. What he does is selfish. The author uses the story to teach us that when you are selfish you may think that something is the best thing to do, but it might not be the best thing for something or someone.
    The author puts a lot of the narrator’s thoughts into the short story. He does this so we can get the message he is trying to give. The narrator hates the eye of the old man. In this story he says “I loved the old man. He had never wronged me...I think it was his eye! Yes, it was!... Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold… I made up my mind to take the life of the old man.” In fact, he thought he was so clever for what he had planned. “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me.” With this in mind he thinks he’s not mad. The thought of the narrator shows that being selfish can led to terrible things. This could be interpreted as hatred but it clearly means he was being selfish, because since he didn’t like the old man’s eye he thought that he should end his life because that's what he wanted, but not once did he think about what the old man wanted.
    The narrator’s actions also had a lot of impact on the lesson. Everynight exactly at midnight he would sneak into the old man’s room, and opened the lanturn enough to let one ray of light through. Then he would look for the old man’s vulture eye. One night he saw they eye and his selfishness ran through his body and he put a pillow over the old man’s face and held it there until he was dead.He did many other horrible things after that, just because he was only thinking about himself. After he had killed the old man he cut up his body and hid it. The neighbor heard a scream called the cops, the cops investigated. They were right above the hiding place and the narrator thought he could hear the heart, he started to fear they heard the beat of the heart. The selfishness led to fear, and after that anything could happen.
    In the short story the author used a lot of figurative language. One of the things he used was imagery. He uses it when the narrator says “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture - a pale blue eye with a film over it.” In other words he uses it to give us a image of what the old man’s eye looked like, and thats why he hated it so much because it resembled a vulture’s eye. He also used repetition to help us understand. The narrator said, “Was it possible they heard not? No,no! It grew louder and louder.” It's important to realize his fear and that he is reassuring us and himself when he repeats the word. He reassures himself letting him believe that he’s not the only one who heard the beating heart. Also he repeated louder to tell us that it was bothering him and that it was becoming louder.
    At the end of this short story the narrator confesses to his crime and it shows that being selfish can led to terrible things like fear and the chain of bad things go on and on and on.


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  3. “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story that is very suspenseful/creepy. The story takes place in a quiet neighborhood, and focuses on two people - a man with a weird, erie eye, and a mad man that hates the eye and wants to get rid of it. The mad man feels very scared and uneasy about the other man’s eye, and he thinks that the man must die because he has that eye. Because the ill man is frightened by the eye, and he is crazy, there’s no telling of what he will do to stop that nervous feeling he has.
    When the mad man says his feelings toward the strange eye, he said he felt like the eye was always watching him, and that he is so uneasy, that he sometimes can’t sleep at night. One of those nights, he decided that he was going to get rid of that eye.
    Now, how the crazy man prepares to get rid of his neighbor’s eye is pretty smart, actually. Yes, he’s still crazy, but his plan works with very little mistakes. The mad man waits until night, when it is very dark, and goes into the weird-eyed man’s house while he is sleeping. The mad man then enters his neighbor’s room very very carefully and quietly, and tries to hide and then wait for the right time to strike. When he feels the time is right, he then rushes toward the man with the scary eye, and kills him. He only heard the man shriek once - the crazy man was very quick and silent. Now, all his worries about the eye are over...for now.
    The author uses imagery quite a bit in this story. One of the times that he uses it is at the ending of the second page - “...his room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness”. The author uses imagery in this sentence to make us picture how dark the room was, and how hard it would be to spot the mad man hiding in the victim’s room. The author also uses imagery another time, toward the ending of the story, “...I removed the bed and examined him. He was stone, stone dead”. In that sentence from the story, the author used imagery to make us picture that the man with the strange eye was very obviously and indeed dead.
    At the ending of the story, the police show up at the house of the crime, saying that someone had called because they heard a scream from the victim’s house. At first, the killer plays it off like it’s nothing, and that it was his nightmare that had caused him to cry out. But, as the cops stay longer, the man starts to go even crazier, and a loud noise keeps rising in his head (maybe resembling his guilt?), and he finally confesses to where he hid the corpse. The text of this story clearly shows this claim - when people become scared, it becomes unpredictable of what they will do.

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  4. ‘The Tell-Tale Heart' is a dark story written by Edgar Allan Poe. The story starts with the Narrator in some sort of frenzy saying ‘It’s true… I have been very ill.’ He goes on, claiming he’s sane, and in control of his mind. But as the Narrator goes on, it’s apparent that despite all his claims to sanity, this character has some sort of mental illness. This becomes more obvious as he describes his obsession towards the Old Man’s ‘vulture eye’, that in turn leads to murder.

    Throughout the story, you hear the character’s thoughts, and they seem quite unhinged. He sounds insane, with thoughts like ‘...I had to kill the Old Man and close that eye.’ The eye referring to his friend, the Old Man, who’s eye he believe to be like a vulture’s eye. The Narrator is very excitable and paranoid towards the eye. He thinks in a way that makes it sound as if he doesn’t have a good grasp on reality, therefore proving the fact that he isn’t entirely in control of his mind.

    As his actions progress to murder, this character is very detached towards everything he’s doing, and has no remorse, which is proven as he’s hiding the body, and states, ‘...I cut off the head, then the arms and the legs.’ He continues going into detail about hiding the body, stating it clearly with no regret and guilt. It demonstrates how everything he thinks are thoughts of a true madman.

    While the Narrator’s thoughts show how insane he is, his actions hardly reveal that. He always seems calm and collected. The Old Man suspects nothing wrong, as the Narrator’s behavior doesn’t change, no matter how much his thoughts differ.

    Even while suffocating the Old Man, he seems emotionless, save for a single smile. ‘...his heart was beating; but I still smiled…’ the text reads as the Narrator murders the Old Man. After the murder, he even manages to fool the police officers of his innocence, until his thoughts betray him when he hears the heartbeat of the Old Man and can’t stop himself from panicking. If it wasn’t for this character’s insanity, he would of gotten away with murder.

    In such a disturbing story as this, plenty of figurative languages is used to convey theme and mood. Imagery seems to be most present throughout the story, painting a descriptive picture of the Old Man, and his murder. Within the imagery, the author also really utilizes the five sense. You can hear the Old Man’s heartbeat, feel the blanket used to suffocate him, taste his fear, and even see him as he dies. The less used figurative language, but just as important, is similes. It conveys the main character’s thoughts and feelings toward the Old Man in incredible detail, so much so that you can see his insanity.

    Now, although some people might argue that the theme to ‘Tell-Tale heart’ is murder, and hate crime, it can be proven that it goes deeper than that. The Narrator does not kill the Old Man just to kill him. He doesn’t even hate the Old Man. It’s the character’s unhealthy fixation on the Old Man’s eye, and his paranoia that drives him to murder.

    It’s at the end of the story when police come, neighbors having called them after hearing cries. The Narrator convinces them entirely of his innocence, that is until he hears the heartbeat of the Old Man. Readers are left with, ‘“Yes, yes. I killed him… but why does his heart not stop beating?! Why does it not stop?”’ Unsure of as to what happens next to the Narrator, the only obvious fact is this character has a mental illness. A mental illness that clouds your judgement, detaches you from reality, and paves the way to murder.

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  5. “Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe that centers around a house in the far past. The setting of this story is only at due to the Narrator’s activity. The people in here are the Narrator, police, and victim. The story follows the life of the Narrator as he comes “this” house every night. Due to this man always stalking the people while thinking that it's normal can lead to his mental illness. Edgar uses this to show that people with mental illnesses may not always know their effects.
    Whenever the Narrator comes to his victim's house he loves to watch the fear in his victim’s eyes. However, the victim is actually dreaming about this happening. The victim doesn’t ever realize that this guy is stalking him in his room. As the story gives more background you can realize that the Narrator has been doing the for a very long time. Edgar even states,”every night about 12 o’clock I slowly open his door…”Therefore, the reader can that the Narrator is mentally ill.
    The Narrator’s activity eventually gets too loud after he opened the door in the victim’s room leading to his victim actually knowing that someone was in the room. His victim eventually gets sos scared that he covers himself with his blanket as tight as he can. Although his victim was hidden the Narrator still saw the victim’s “vulture” eyes. This ends in the death of his victim. While the victim is dying the Narrator is screaming,”Die,Die,Die!” The themes could be interpreted as death, however the text clearly shows crazy in its eyes with the fact of the Narrator screaming.

    PART 1

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  6. Later on in the story the killer knows that he has to hide the body. This leads to a very disturbing scene where the killer acts like chopping up this guy’s body is normal. Edgar even states, “So I am mad, you say? You should have seen how careful I was to put the body where no one could find it. First, I cut off the head, then the…” Therefore, the Narrator is becoming insanely ill and a serial killer. About three hours later the police end up coming over. The Narrator acts natural for a while until eventually he hears the heart beat of his victim come back. He then confesses the murder and says every detail to the cops due to how spooked he is. Therefore this proves that the insanity went even worse than ever before.
    Although the Narrator seems insane here he gets much worse with his actual thoughts. Due to the story being a frame style the beginning sentence even has evidence. The Narrator says,”It’s true!Yes I have been ill…… but why do you say I’m mad? Can you not see that I have full control of my mind?” Of course this shows that the Narrator was in denial of what he was doing wrong.
    Edgar also liked to use Figurative Language to show what was going on in the eyes of the Narrator. Right after the victim is killed the Narrator says that the victim was,”as dead as a stone”. This shows just by itself how brutal the murder was due to how a person being murdered usually isn’t all that still and the victim doesn’t just die right away.
    Even when the Narrator is talking to the police can show how bad it is. Edgar shows the the Narrator’s,”quiet, and easy manner” lead to the police thinking that nothing happened. However, when the heart beat kicks in it shows that his face,”became white in fear” before he cracked suggesting that the victim was not 100% having a heart beat and that the Narrator was going insane. And if you thought that was bad the Narrator himself later on says that it was getting,”louder and louder” and didn’t understand why the officers weren't moving and rather just,”talked and smiled”, states Edgar.
    At the end of the story once the Narrator realizes his victim’s heartbeat he doesn’t know what to do. The Narrator had spent the majority of his time stalking this man and definitely couldn’t see how he could say anything. However once the beat gets too loud the Narrator is forced to confess and screams while pointing to the floorboards where he had hid the body. This was the beginning of the Narrator realizing that he was,”just ill”. While the Narrator is pointing he was screaming the about how “ his heart won’t stop beating.” Once the Narrator finishes with,” why doesn't it not stop!?” The reader would be left to question if the Narrator will ever realize that he was insanely mental and if the progression of insanity will ever end.

    PART 2

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  7. “Tell Tale Heart,” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. It takes place in a old man’s house at midnight. The unique part of this story, is that it takes place at midnight which sets a creepy tone. The short story focuses on a butler who is convinced that the old man's eye is an evil eye. This butler is weird and crazy because he watches the old man sleep, and his thoughts about killing the old man are insane. Because this man is so crazy, he is not able to see what he is doing. The author uses this to show us lessons on this. When you are afraid of something, insanity takes over and you end up doing something you regret.
    When the butler started to work for the old man, he noticed something about his left eye. When the butler first see’s they eye he can’t get over the fact that it is an evil eye. However, the old man is harmless and has done nothing wrong to his butler. The actions the butler took to make sure he got what he wanted, were tremendously different than his thoughts on the matter. Every night the butler would open the door by a crack, not enough to notice, but enough to watch the old man sleep. He did this for a straight week. Ever since he first saw the evil eye you could tell that he was crazy. Obviously, this butler is insane because he watched the old man while he slept. Also, he plotted to kill him. Clearly this man does not see what he is doing because him and his reality are twisted and warped.
    As the story progresses we not only find out that this butler is insane, we also find out that he plans to kill this old man. The feelings the butler has for the evil eye get worse as time progresses. Eventually he starts to act on these feelings, and on the 8th day of watching the old man sleep he finally acts. During this time the old man cannot fall asleep because he has the feeling that he is being watched. The butler hears the old man’s heartbeat and he snaps, and just like a cat on a mouse, he pounces.
    During the story we see the butler think much differently, than his actions during the book. Throughout the book we know that he really wants to kill the old man, but he never acts on his thoughts, until the very end. Over time we see that the man's thoughts get darker and darker. Eventually we find out the real reason he wants to kill the old man, he is afraid of his eye and thinks that it needs to be destroyed. All of this makes him seem insane. Later towards the ending of the story he starts to hear the old man's heartbeat, which is his conscience telling him that he should feel guilty and bad. Consequently, after killing the old man he hears the heartbeat as a result of him feeling bad but not even knowing it. Obviously he could not have really heard the very heart he stopped himself. This really portrays how crazy and insane the butler is.

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  8. PART 2
    Poe also uses one big phrase of figurative language to show how crazy the butler is. While cleaning up and hiding the evidence of the murder the butler says, “The Tub had caught all”. He had said this to help describe the murder. What he meant by saying this, is that he had committed the perfect murder, and when he was cutting of the limbs of the body he had not spilled one drop of blood. This really shows how crazy this guy was and it leaves a picture in our brain that just makes the reader cringe.
    Towards the end when he had killed the old man and had hid the body, he started to hear some sort of beating. He didn’t know what it was but he was confused and tried to talk over it. Eventually he realizes that it is the heartbeat of the old man’s heart. He could not have really heard it because the old man was dead. This was guilt that he was hearing. He felt guilty but did not even know it. Although it could be argued that because he heard the old man’s heartbeat after he died, that the overall theme of the story is guilt. Though it could be interpreted as guilt the text actually says that the man is insane. It directly states the the butler could be insane. You could interpret it as guilt but clearly it is insanity because of the man's thoughts and actions throughout the story. It could be said that guilt is the theme, while this is a good point it fails to mention anything else about guilt throughout the story except at the end.
    At the end of the story while he was talking to the officers and hearing the heartbeat, he really seems crazy because the officers could not hear the sound, only he could. This shows how crazy the butler had been. He got so sick of the sound he ended up confessing to the deed. “Villains!” he shrieked “dissemble no more! I admit to the deed! Tear up the planks! Hear! Hear! It is the beating of his hideous heart!” When he had done this, he had relieved himself of the guilt on his conscience. This entire short story ends up leading back to the theme. When you are afraid, insanity takes over and you do something you regret.

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    1. Nice job explaining the theme

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  9. The Tell Tale Heart is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story takes place in an old, large house in a peaceful neighborhood and the main character of the story is the narrator. He works for a old man as a servant and later goes insane. The aged man happens to be the owner of the house. The servant eventually goes on to stalk, scare and murder the old man. Edgar Allan Poe uses his story to show that having a mental illness can lead to a altered perspective of reality.
    In the beginning, the narrator did really like the owner of the house, as told “I loved the old man. He never wronged me. He never gave me insult.” But after a while the old man’s raven like eye made the main character mad. He then had the feeling that killing the old man would be a good idea to get rid of the eye forever, therefore the reader could clearly see that the narrator was insane. After the narrator murdered the man he began to feel very worried when the police knocked on his door, but the servant could not keep his cool and told the police to search underneath the floorboards where the body was found. Certainly it could be said that the theme of the story could be murder. While this is a good idea, it fails to account for the theme of that the narrator does not have a thorough understanding of reality.
    The main character makes many actions both sneaky and horrifying over the span of eight nights. After the characters feelings in the story came the character’s actions. When the old man’s eye began to irritate the servant it drove him absolutely crazy and lead him to stalk the old man late at night. Over the timeline of eight days the servant snuck up on the old man at night, creeping in his room while he was sleeping watching the one eye that stood out from the other. Finally on the eighth day the narrator made up his mind to murder the man. He started out with his nightly routine but this time he accidently dropped the lantern, interrupting the old man’s rest. After that the servant waited and waited very patiently until the man feel back asleep. He then dragged the old man off of his mattress, and suffocated him with his pillow. Then, the mentally ill narrator gruesomely chopped up the helpless homeowners body into pieces. After, he hid the pieces under the floorboards- because of this it proves that the narrator does not have a firm grasp on life itself.
    Edgar Allen Poe used many forms of figurative language in his short story, which kept the reader engaged and tuned into the traumatizing piece of writing. Poe uses repetition to clearly state the main character of having a mental illness. The narrator asks throughout parts of the story that if the reader thinks that he is insane, “Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me…seen how wisely I proceeded.” The author also did use his fair share of similes, metaphors and some imagery; “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture.” The writer uses the figurative language to describe the setting and also the characters. “His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness.” Edgar combined both a simile and image to describe the dark setting. He also used a simile to describe the time of day. “It was four ‘o'clock still dark as midnight.”
    At the ending of the story the narrator eventually gives up the location of the corpse to the policemen as he could not hold in the truth any longer. The author Edgar Allen Poe used a clever combination of the character’s thoughts and actions along with figurative language to put together the story. Edgar’s claim is that having a mental illness can cause a altered perspective of reality.

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  10. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. In this story A mad man becomes very uneasy/scared of his new neighbors eye because he feels like it's always watching him and eventually he ends up killing him because of it. The mad man didn't plan on killing his neighbor though, he just wanted to get rid of his eye. When people are scared it’s unknown of what they will plan on doing next.
    When the mad man first meets his new neighbor he notices the eye right away. He feels scared and uneasy about it because the mad man feels like the eye is watching him. Eventually, the mad man decided that he needed to get rid of the eye so that it would stop watching him.
    After a while of planning the mad man figured out how he was going to take the eye. When his neighbor was sleeping he would slowly open the door to his room and peek is head in. However the mad man was trying to be so quiet that he would take hours at a time too “slowly, slowly” open the door and peek his head in. He did this every night for at least 4-5 days. On the last night he opened the door but his neighbor heard him. The neighbor then asked “Who’s there?” and the mad man froze. They both remained in their same positions for a while. When the mad man thought his neighbor went back to sleep he went too close the door too leave and he was called out on his spying. This caused the mad man too run at his neighbor out of panic and they started fighting. The mad man eventually threw the bed on his neighbor which ended up killing him. After he accidentally killed him, he chopped his limbs off and hid them under the floorboards of the neighbors room.
    In this short story Poe uses a lot of figurative language in this short story. On the second page, second paragraph Poe uses imagery. He has the mad man narrating what he’s seeing when he says “His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness.” Poe uses this imagery to make the reader feel/see what it’d be like to be in the dark room when the mad man is explaining it.
    Poe also uses repetition in his story. He has the mad man narrate what he's doing when he says “and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily.” The reader may assume that Poe used this repetition in this sentence too show exactly how careful the mad man is trying to be when sneaking into his neighbor's room.
    After a while, the cops showed up at the mad man’s house because of a supposed noise complaint from the other neighbors next door. The mad man let the cops come in and search his house. He even let them search the room where he hid his neighbors sliced up limbs in! The mad man stayed cool the whole time. However he started hearing a noise. The longer the cops were there, the louder the noise became. Over time the mad man realized that it was his dead neighbors heartbeat that he kept hearing. He was starting to panic and it was starting to drive him insane. After a while of hearing it he went crazy and tore up the boards, revealing what he has done, to the cops.
    At the end of the story the mad man was arrested and put in jail. Even though the mad man was already considered to be a little out of sorts, he got even worse in prison and kept hearing his old neighbors heartbeat, most likely out of guilt. When the cops were at his house, the mad man started feeling guilty/scared which lead him too hearing the heartbeat. This whole story just shows that when people do something they regret, guilt could cause them to come clean about it. Aslo when someone is scared, in this case the mad man was scared of his neighbor's eye, it is unpredictable of what they may do next, which in this case the mad man killed his neighbor.

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  11. The Tell-Tale Heart Literary Essay

    “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is about a person who is mentally ill, and thinks he has to kill an old man’s eye that he thinks is evil. The author shows that mental illness can cause you to detach from reality, make you do rash things, and emotionally overload you.
    Because of the Narrator's mental illness his thoughts are different from a sane person’s. For example, he is convinced that a fake eye that the Old Man has is evil. It makes him want to kill it. Someone who isn’t mentally ill wouldn’t think that.
    Although it could be argued that murder and crime is the theme, the text has more evidence for mental illness being the theme. The reason the Narrator killed the Old Man was because of his mental illness. His illness caused him to hate an eye.
    In another part in the short story the police come to the Old Man’s house and talk to the Narrator. During that talk the Narrator mentally breaks down and admits to killing the Old Man. “I killed him, but why does his heart not stop beating?”
    The Narrator’s mental illness causes him to have different actions than a mentally stable person would have. One example of this is when he kills the Old Man because of an eye. “Only that eye, that hard blue eye.” He is fixed on killing that eye he thinks is evil.
    Figurative language is used to show lots of things in the short story. Imagery is used to show emotion. “ I could hear a quick, low, soft sound, as the sound grew my anger became more powerful.” A simile is used to show the Narrator’s thoughts. “The blood in my body became like ice.” Repetition is used to show the Narrator’s actions and the way he is doing things. “Carefully so carefully.”
    At the end of the story, the Narrator detaches from reality. He confesses to his crime and thinks the Old Man’s heart is still beating. The story ends there. It leaves the reader wondering what happens next and what will happen to the Narrator.



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    1. I like how you used a lot of examples when talking about the figurative language.

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    2. explain well

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  12. The Tell Tale Heart Literary Essay
    The “Tell Tale Heart” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe that takes place in the room of an Old Man. The aspect of the setting that makes this story so interesting is the fact that the Old Man actually gets brutally murdered within his own room by the Narrator. The story is laid out as the Narrator’s explanation for killing the Old Man. The Narrator mentions that he is ill, but it doesn’t affect his mind. From this, we can infer that the Narrator has a type of mental illness. The author uses this to teach us about some of the negative effects of having a mental illness. Mental illness can overload your emotions and your mind as well.
    When the Narrator is explaining his actions, he repeatedly states that he is in fact not made, but that his senses merely became stronger. However, when he said these things, he pointed out a very important trait that the Old Man possessed. The Narrator pointed out that he couldn’t stand the Old Man’s eye. He described it as, “...the eye of a vulture…” In other words, the Narrator’s sense of sight became stronger because he was able to study the Old Man’s eye so well, he could label it as something he hated. Because of this, he thought that the only way to get rid of the Old Man’s eye, was to kill the eye.
    The Narrator decided to kill the Old Man because he seemed to just want the eye to be shut for good. So, he actually says, “...I had to kill the Old Man and close that eye forever!” The Narrator then decides to start planning his attack. The Narrator was so intent on killing the Old Man, that he would watch the Old Man while he was sleeping to help him plan the time when he would finally kill the Old Man. Every night, the Narrator would sneak into the room of the Old Man at exactly twelve in the morning and just watch him.
    Interestingly, the Narrator had enjoyed the fact that the Old Man was dying. He even said, “I smiled as I felt that success was near.” This statement sheds light on the fact the Narrator didn’t really register the act he had committed as a murder, but more like winning a game. At this point, the Old Man’s life was going fast.
    By now, the Narrator had already murdered the Old Man. He had literally squeezed the life out of him. The Narrator exclaimed, “Yes. He was dead!... His eye would trouble me no more!” By then, the Old Man was gone. The vulture eye was officially closed forever. These exclamations show us that the Narrator seemed to be okay and proud of the fact that the man and his eye are dead and will no longer bother him. Even though he just killed a man simply to get rid of his eye.
    After the Narrator murdered the Old Man, he immediately tried to find a way to cover up his tracks. So, he decided to hide the body. The Narrator explained his method of hiding the body by saying, “First, I cut of the head, then the arms and the legs… I pulled up three of the boards that formed the floor, and put the pieces of the body there.” By now, the evidence had been hidden and he still hadn’t been discovered yet. However, before he hid the Old Man’s body, he described how precise he was at hiding the pieces by saying, “You should have seen how careful I was to put the body where no one could find it.” A key point to realize is that this seemed to be sort of a way to build interest for the people who were listening to how he hid the body. The Narrator says these things very straightforward, as if they are okay, without realizing how bad they actually are.

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  13. 2nd Part: After the Narrator hid the body, the police came and gave him an interrogation. While the police were there interrogating the Narrator, he started to hear a sound. It was a sound that grew louder and louder every minute the police were there. The Narrator realized the sound he heard was a heartbeat. It wasn’t just any heartbeat though. The Narrator heard the heartbeat of the Old Man that he had just murdered, cut into pieces, and stuck in the floorboards of the Old Man’s own home. The sound grew so loud, it completely took over the Narrator’s mind until he exclaimed, “Yes! Yes, I killed him… But why does his heart not stop beating!? Why does it not stop!?” To clarify, even though the Old Man is dead, to the Narrator, his heart still continued to beat. The guilt the Narrator was feeling along with the illness he said he had, had overloaded his mind and emotions so much, he actually confessed without being badgered by the police in any way.
    If the Narrator had tried to find the help for his illness, the Old Man could have possibly lived another day and the Narrator would have had a clean record. Edgar Allan Poe used figurative language and imagery as a way to show the theme of this short story. One of major elements he used was similes. The Narrator said that whenever he saw the Old Man’s eye, “...the blood in my body became like ice.” In other words, every time the Narrator looked the Old Man’s eye it made him so angry, he actually got chills. This describes the Narrator’s rage towards the eye of the Old Man. This could be interpreted as anger can make you do bad things, but it clearly means that mental illness can overload your mind and emotions because if the Narrator had ever been able to deal with his illness, there could have been a chance for him to deal with the Old Man’s eye without overreacting so dramatically as to kill the Old Man. The Narrator didn’t even think of a way to deal with the Old Man’s eye, just because it bothered him.
    Another important figurative language element that Edgar Allan Poe used was repetition. When the Narrator was hiding the body pieces in the floorboards, he said, “...I put the boards down again, carefully, so carefully…” With this in mind, Edgar Allan Poe tried us that the Narrator had a lot of care for the way he hid the Old Man’s body. It also helps us imagine the steadiness of his hands and movements as he hid the body. As result, the Old Man’s body was hidden and his life was gone forever.
    Poe also used imagery to show us how much this illness was overloading not only his mind, but his emotions as well. The strongest imagery came from the phrase, “...as the sound grew louder, my anger became greater and more painful.” In fact, the Narrator said this the moment he decided the time to kill the Old Man. This statement showed us the rising emotions of the Narrator. It also showed us how easily the Narrator got angry at something so simple. Which in this case, was the sound of the Old Man’s heart beating while he was still alive.
    At the end of the story, the police show up and just their presence seemed to have set the Narrator into a sort of guilt spiral. He accumulated so much guilt, that he was convinced that he could hear the heart of the Old Man still beating even after the Old Man was dead. All of this led up to the Narrator’s immediate confession of his crime. The ending is very sudden. Therefore, it isn’t very easy to imagine what could happen if the story were to continue because it just ends. Will the Narrator ever be able to recognize is actions for what they really were and find a way to deal with his illness, so nothing like this will happen again?

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  14. Tell Tale Heart is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, that’s about a man who is presumably, mentally insane. He begins by explaining that he’s not mad. Then, the Author tells the story of how he killed an Old Man because of his, “Vulture Eye,” and then confesses to his murder, after almost getting away with it. The Author uses this to teach us that being mentally ill can cause you to do things you wouldn’t normally do.
        The reasons that the Main Character gives for killing the Man are a few of the ways to show that he is mentally ill. The Author states, “There was no reason for what I did. I did not hate the Old Man. I even loved him… I think it was his eye.” His reason for killing him was not out of hate, or jealousy, but because the Man had a creepy eye. The fact that he was going to kill the Old Man because of that also shows that he was not in the right state of mind, and was not well enough to make decisions clearly.
        Edgar Allan Poe also states, “And so, I finally decided I had to kill the Old Man and close that eye forever!” When he says this, he almost sounds proud, like he did something to help others, or for the greater good. That makes sense because mental illness can affect decision making and emotions. Poe also says, “For it was not the Old Man I felt I had to kill; it was the eye, his Evil Eye.” You can not kill an eye, and he was clearly out of his mind at this point.
    Later on, he says, “Yes. He was dead. Dead as a stone. His eye would trouble me no more!” Although, it could be argued that this shows a theme of murder causes guilt, the evidence clearly shows that the theme is mental illness can cause you to do things others wouldn’t. It was the mental illness that was “troubling” him and taking control of his mind. Therefore, he would continue to be bothered and consumed by the mental illness. It even consumed his mind so he could only focus on that one thing. The text says, “ I could not see the Old Man’s face. Only that eye…” The Main Character had become unaware of any emotion, or any thing but that eye and his mission to close it.
    Near the end, after almost getting away with murdering him, he confesses to the crime. Poe states, “My easy, quiet manner made the policeman believe my story.” He had the body hidden, and could have not been found out, except he confesses. The Main Character confesses because he claims he can still hear the Old Man’s heart beating. Hearing noises that aren’t really there is another symptom of a type of mental illness. Since the Old Man was clearly dead at that point, his heart was no longer beating, and he was just imagining the sound.
        Figurative language helps contribute to the theme. There are a few parts where the Author uses repetition. “Die! Die!” and “Louder, Louder, Louder” both help show that he is going crazy. The “Louder, Louder, Louder” part also shows how much the sound is bothering him. The similes help add a bit a hauntedness, and shows that his mind isn’t thinking the same as others. Some similes are “His eye was like the eye of a vulture,” “...body became like ice..,” “...Dead as a stone..,” and “..like the sound of a clock heard through the wall.” All these similes help show that he’s not thinking clearly, and has a mental illness.
    In conclusion, the man clearly has a mental illness. He does and says things that people without being mentally ill, would not do or say. Many parts help show that, especially the ending. The Main Character confesses to the crime after almost getting away with it. This helps prove that mental illness can cause people to do things they wouldn’t normally do.

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  15. “The Tell Tale Heart” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. The story focuses on the life of the narrator who has such severe mental illness that it could be described as insanity. The story explains the thoughts and actions of this person leading up to them killing an Old Man. The author uses this story to show how insanity can make you do things you wouldn’t normally do.
    His actions are very important to the story, for example, the Narrator watches the Old Man sleep every night. On the eighth and final night, he said the Man’s heart was beating so hard that the neighbors would be able to heat it. So, he had to kill the Old Man. Even thought in this part of the story, it looks like the theme could be death, it isn't. It isn’t because even though, yes he did kill the man, he was so scared of him that he thought he had to. This obviously would make the theme, insanity can make you do things you wouldn’t normally do.
    Another example would be what he did with the body after he killed the Old Man. He chopped him up, “limb by limb” and carefully put his the body parts underneath the floorboards, careful to not spill a drop of blood I don't think that anybody in their right mind would be so meticulous and specific after just killing somebody.
    Mental Illness this severe would also affect the way you think. The Narrator thinks that, “The eye of the vulture,” is watching him. They think that the eye is inside of the Old Man, watching and judging. This is why the Narrator thought that he must kill the Old Man. “ For it was not the old man I felt I had to kill; it was the eye, his Evil Eye.
    The thoughts only get worse throughout the story. He says that he can hear the man’s heartbeat through the walls. As the Narrator gets scareder, the beating gets louder. He believed that the neighbors would be able to hear the pounding and the only way to stop the beating was to kill the Old Man.
    Poe used a lot of figurative language to convey that paranoia can make you do things you wouldn’t normally do. Imagery is one of the main types that he uses to convey the theme. There is one part of the story when he is watching the Old Man that the narrator says, “Only that eye, that hard blue eye, and the blood in my body became like ice.” This sentence was very descriptive and the author used this to describe what the man was feeling.
    Poe also used similes to show the theme. He used the most similes when describing the Old Man. For example, “He was dead as a stone”, and,” His eye was like the eye of the vulture.” The author also used the simile, “ A soft sound like a clock through the wall”, when describing the Man’s heartbeat.
    The story finishes with the police coming over to the house to question the Narrator. He gets so nervous that he actually confesses to the murder! Overall, this person was obviously very mentally ill. They probably wouldn’t have done any of these things if they weren’t insane.

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  16. I liked your examples.

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  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  18. “Tell-Tale Heart”
    “A Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe about a mentally ill man who doesn’t know he is insane. He has an elderly friend whose eye bothers him. He describes it as “vulture” like. In the end he makes up his mind to murder the Old Man, just to get rid of the eye. He claims he never wanted to murder the man, just the eye, but it kind of was a packaged deal. The author is trying to show us that people who are mentally ill aren’t always aware that they are.
    From the very start of the story the author makes it clear that the main character has such severe mental illness that he has come to the point of insanity. The man goes to agree that he is ill, yet he says, “....But why do you say that I have lost control of my mind, why do say that I am mad?... Indeed, the illness only made my mind… more powerful…. I heard sounds from heaven; and I heard sounds from hell!” The Narrator is confused and doesn’t realize that the sounds are really just in his head. Therefore, he knows he is sick, but not mentally. He possibly knows he is different, but not how or why.
    The author uses the Narrator’s actions throughout the story to contribute to the theme. One night the Old Man woke up while he crept in to watch him (which was part of his plan to murder the Old Man), and when the Narrator saw the eye his anger became aggression. He murdered the old man, feeling happiness and accomplishment as he did so. He said, “...I smiled as I felt that success was near.” It is difficult to believe that a man with control over his mind could ever feel happy when somebody that they claimed to love was murdered, especially not if they are the one who killed them. Then the Narrator said, to convince you think that he was not mentally ill, “...You should have seen how careful I was to put the body where no one could find it…” and went on to describe how he cut off the head, arms, and legs, then hiding them beneath the floorboards. Now, he used how he hid the body to show that he had a “healthy mind”, but the author used it to show the readers how unhealthy it was. This could be perceived as evidence to the theme, being aggression, but it is not because it has a deeper meaning, being that he was indeed aggressive, but it was more than just plain aggression. It was aggression due as a result of his mental illness.
    First part

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  19. In addition to his actions, his thoughts show how the main character is mad without realizing it. He thought that his mental illness made his mind stronger. He said, “I could hear sounds I had never heard before. I heard sound from heaven; and I heard sounds from hell!” He also thought, as he watched the Old Man when he slept, that he could hear his heartbeat when the Old Man noticed he was at his door and became afraid. Then, when the police came to investigate, he thought he could still hear the man’s heartbeat, even though it was obviously not beating. This was actually what led him to confess. He became so terrified that the heart was still beating that he said “Yes! Yes, I killed him… But why does his heart not stop beating?! Why does it not stop!?” He didn’t realize that his mind was actually so far gone that it was making him believe that the heart continued to beat. He thought that the heart really was beating, and that the police were just pretending not to hear it. He thought the police were playing a trick on him. This reinforces the idea that he is mentally ill but doesn’t notice it.
    In addition, the author used plenty of imagery to communicate the theme. He really lead you paint the gruesome picture in your mind of the Narrator suffocating the Old Man, cutting up the body, and being so inhumanely cruel to him. It really planted the theme of how he didn’t have a functioning mind anymore, and he was blind to it.
    After the Old Man was dead and the Narrator confessed, the story was over, with a suspenseful ending. All because of his mental illness and the eye, the main character murders an innocent human being. The Narrator just couldn’t see, couldn’t accept that he wasn’t sane anymore, and it made him unable to cope with his anger and his hate toward the eye, leading to murder.
    Second part

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  20. Lauren Hein
    Hour: 6

    The Tell Tale Heart

    “The Tell Tale Heart” By Edgar Allan Poe is about the Narrator who takes care of an older man. The Narrator ends up killing the older man because of his eye. The author teaches us from this story that when you are not being yourself/care a lot about what other people think you can become insecure and paranoid. Both leading to bad things.

    How the narrator acts is bizarre, to the Old Man he acts friendly and caring. He is like a caregiver. He acts, and to a certain point loves the Old Man. “I even loved him.” But, how he acts is contrary to how he thinks most of the time. When it is day he asks how the man is doing and if he needs anything. He looks past the eye for the most part and just sees the man for who he is. It seems as though the man has no problems. At night,he creeps around and watches the eye all night long. Then, he waits and tortures the man until he is murdered.

    Then, the Narrator explains what he is thinking. He is paranoid about the eye. He feels as though it can see through him and is judging/can see his flaws. Because of his constant insecurity he gets a strong impulse to destroy the eye. His insecurity that turned into paranoia made him cross over into insanity. “And so I decided I had to ….close that eye forever.” He makes his final decision. Though the theme can be interpreted as mental illness but, it is clearly paranoia and insecurity. Paranoia causes you to create illusions in your head (stems from insecurity) and you end up lashing out at a person. In this case it was the Narrator killing the Old Man.

    Theme is shown throughout the short story through similes, repetition, and imagery. When the simile “like the eye of a vulture” is used it shows his insecurity about the eye. For example, when a vulture is looking at you you feel watched, creeped out, and they see death/see through you. It was the same for the eye and the narrator. The simile “ The blood in my body became like ice.” shows he feels like he is constantly judged by the eye. These little insecurities built up into paranoia in the man. Repetition is another big component of showing the theme. The narrator keeps on repeating about how he feels about the eye. Over, over, and over again. It shows those constant little insecurities turning into paranoia, driving him over the edge. Imagery is the main source of showing theme. It gives distinct detail to the story. These details make the short story more interesting and shows in more depth the actions, reactions, and thoughts of the narrator.

    Driven over the edge he kills the man and confesses to the police. The body under the floorboards. The thumping heart only he hears. The guilt for only killing for the eye. When you are not being yourself/care a lot about what other people think you can become insecure and paranoid. Both leading to bad things.

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  21. “The Tell Tale Heart” is told from the perspective of the author and he is scared of the Old Man’s eye. He starts to become friends with the Old Man and treats him very well. Then at night he will peak into the old man’s room to see if he can see his eye. When morning arrives he asks him how he slept. The author uses this to show us that the guilt of a secret can cause you to only see the truth and hurt others.

    During this story the man is so paranoid that the old man’s eye can see his secret, so this causes him to think of the old man very badly. Although it could be argued that the theme is mental illness it clearly is about a secret. I think this because of the statement “I did not hate the old man; I even loved him…..I think it was his eye.” Surprisingly, it is the eye that is representing his secret, is clouding his judgement. Even though he loved the old man when he would look at him all he would see was the eye and it would make him feel cold. This really shows how a secret can only cause you to see the truth.

    His actions also show how his secret is causing him to bad things. At first he acts all nice to the old man but at night he watches the old man in his sleep. “Every night at about 12 o’clock, I would slowly open his door….. until a small light fell across the eye,” states Poe. Then he would go into his room in the morning to ask him how he slept. This represents the man testing the old man to see if he knows his secret. Then one of the nights the old man wakes up because the man is in his room “.....wide,wide open, my anger increased as it looked straight at me. I could not see the old man’s face only the eye…….hard blue eye and the blood in my body became like ice.” By doing this this is the old man showing him he knows his secret and is showing him only the truth. When the old man shows him the truth it causes the man to only think about the truth and not the old man that he loves.

    Figurative Language in this passage is a huge part of the story. To really show us what the man thinks of the old man's eye, the author uses many similes. For example” His eye was like the eye of a vulture…..that watches and waits while an animal dies,” states Poe. This is the author showing us how much he hates the eye of the old man, and that the eye is not loving or kind like the old man. Another thing the author uses in this story is imagery to describe the man’s emotions. For example”.... a quick low soft sound, like the sound of a clock heard through a wall.” Says Poe. This really explains to the reader what the sound was like and feel as if they were there experiencing it themselves.

    At the end of the story the old man is killed by the man telling the story. Then the man cuts up the old man’s body and hides it under the floorboards. Then the police come because the neighbors heard the old man's screams. The man invites the police in and they talk. Then after talking for some time the man starts to hear the old man’s heart beats and then admits that he killed the old man. The beating of the old man’s heart symbolizes his guilt. This is why the guilt of a secret can only show you the truth and make you do bad things.

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  22. “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe; is a story about mental illness. It starts with a man who is clearly not sain, he makes a life changing decision and decides to kill an old innocent man. This all started because he did not like this old mans eye. One lesson from this story is that mental illness can affect not only the person who has it but most of the people around them as well.
    From the very beginning of this short story you could tell something was not right with the main character his thoughts were blurry and his patience was abnormal. In the short story, while planning the old man's death, the main character spent many hours waiting and watching the old man. In the story it states “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded with caution… It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far so I could see him lay upon his bed.”
    Throughout the week the main character did this many times acting very kind and respectful during the day an slowly getting closer to killing the old man each night, the old man has a suspicion that something was wrong. One dark night the old man awoke to a noise, that is when he was attacked and killed, he was suffocated and stored under the floorboards of his bedroom.
    Later on in the story the police show up claiming neighbors heard a noise and insisted to come in, the main character was once again patience and let them in. Next he took them to the room where the old man was killed and stored, he was confident nothing would go wrong. A couple of minutes pass and the main character starts hearing the beats of the dead man's heart, obviously he has a mental illness if he suffocated him and saw him die. The main character gets very anxious and begins to freak out.
    This concludes in him telling the cops everything he did to the old man, because he could not hold it in any longer.
    Although this story was crazy and all over the place it shows that telling lies usually results in guilt and fear of what will happen. Mental illnesses hurt many people around the world and much like the men in this fiction story, this proves that mental illness doesn't just hurt the person who has it but almost all the peoples lives that they are in.

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    1. You did a fantastic job on explain the story and then how it connects to the theme

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  23. Some people are nice, calm, and collected. However, some people are not nice, calm, and collected like a psycho path. My book that I’m writing about is called Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. This book is about an old man’s butler who does some really crazy and disturbing things in this book. In this book it seems like the old nan’s butler is suffering from a mental illness that is driving him to madness.
    First of all, in this story the old man’s butler does some really crazy and disturbing things. Some of these things are how the butler puts on a hardy tone to his voice when he’s speaking to his master. Also how the butler sneaks into his master’s room late at night every night. The butler has a plan to kill the old man just because of his evil eye it seems. The butler has a lantern that shoots out a light that seems to kill the old man, but that doesn’t make any sense at all maybe the light is a gun or some sort of firing device. I think this because in this story it seems to be in modern time because there are police officers, and neighbors who can call the police with some sort of phone device.
    Second of all, I found some figurative language in this story. Some of this figurative language is when the butler says “the old man is stone, stone dead”. Another thing that the butler said that I caught was that he said that the old man’s room was as dark as pitch within thick darkness. That’s all I could see for figurative language in this story that I caught on to.
    Third of all, in this book some of the butler’s thoughts were very creepy. Some of his thoughts were how he could hear things from earth, heaven, and even from hell. Also how he said that the disease doesn’t destroy or dull his senses just made his senses superior.
    Last of all, in the ending of this story the old man’s butler kills the old man. The butler puts the corpse of his master underneath the floor boards of the house. The butler after he kills his master seems very calm, collected, and nice. Until he starts to hear a loud ringing noise that just keeps getting louder and louder over time. The butler just walks around trying to find where the noise is coming from, but he can’t tell where it is coming from yet. He starts to have a mental breakdown and sees the cops talking about something and not seeming to be paying any attention to him at all. The butler finally has enough of this loud noise and rips up all the floor boards where he hid the old man’s corpse and the butler said “here, here I can still hear his hideous heart still beating. Like I said before some people are nice, calm, and collected, but some people aren’t’ not nice, calm, and collected like a psycho path.

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  24. Some people are nice, calm, and collected. However, some people are not nice, calm, and collected like a psycho path. My book that I’m writing about is called Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. This book is about an old man’s butler who does some really crazy and disturbing things in this book. In this book it seems like the old nan’s butler is suffering from a mental illness that is driving him to madness.
    First of all, in this story the old man’s butler does some really crazy and disturbing things. Some of these things are how the butler puts on a hardy tone to his voice when he’s speaking to his master. Also how the butler sneaks into his master’s room late at night every night. The butler has a plan to kill the old man just because of his evil eye it seems. The butler has a lantern that shoots out a light that seems to kill the old man, but that doesn’t make any sense at all maybe the light is a gun or some sort of firing device. I think this because in this story it seems to be in modern time because there are police officers, and neighbors who can call the police with some sort of phone device.
    Second of all, I found some figurative language in this story. Some of this figurative language is when the butler says “the old man is stone, stone dead”. Another thing that the butler said that I caught was that he said that the old man’s room was as dark as pitch within thick darkness. That’s all I could see for figurative language in this story that I caught on to.
    Third of all, in this book some of the butler’s thoughts were very creepy. Some of his thoughts were how he could hear things from earth, heaven, and even from hell. Also how he said that the disease doesn’t destroy or dull his senses just made his senses superior.
    Last of all, in the ending of this story the old man’s butler kills the old man. The butler puts the corpse of his master underneath the floor boards of the house. The butler after he kills his master seems very calm, collected, and nice. Until he starts to hear a loud ringing noise that just keeps getting louder and louder over time. The butler just walks around trying to find where the noise is coming from, but he can’t tell where it is coming from yet. He starts to have a mental breakdown and sees the cops talking about something and not seeming to be paying any attention to him at all. The butler finally has enough of this loud noise and rips up all the floor boards where he hid the old man’s corpse and the butler said “here, here I can still hear his hideous heart still beating. Like I said before some people are nice, calm, and collected, but some people aren’t’ not nice, calm, and collected like a psycho path.

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  25. “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story by Edgar Allen Poe. It’s about someone who is angry at the eye of an old man, and they think the eye is judging them. The anger overtakes their life and they think that they have to kill the old man to get rid of the eye and how it makes them feel. The narrator then kills the old man and hides his body, but they still can’t escape the guilt and anger so they confess everything to the police. The author uses this storyline to show us a much deeper meaning of how the guilt of a secret can lead you to do things that you wouldn’t think of doing otherwise.

    The story starts out with the narrator trying to convince the reader that they aren’t mad. Certainly it could be said that they really are mad, seeing the way the narrator thinks and the things they say. While that does show a good point, it fails to show that really the narrator is just paranoid about keeping a secret, and who might know or figure it out. The narrator’s need for proving they aren’t mad, makes the reader believe that they really are. This shows how they are trying to keep anyone from finding out what they are hiding, and to make sure no one ever does.
    The eye is what the narrator continues to be paranoid about, and they think that in order to get rid of it they need to kill the old man. When really the eye is their paranoia from the thought that other people might know their secret, and in order to prevent anyone from finding out they think that they need to try to hide it better. By hiding the secret the narrator ensures it is gone forever.

    The narrator went into the old man’s room every night for a week to plan out how they would kill him. Which shows how carefully and strategically they planned out how they would hide what they are keeping a secret. Killing the old man was the narrator's way of getting rid of their guilt and paranoia from hiding a secret for so long. Also, hiding the old man’s body was the narrator covering up that there was a secret in the first place.
    The narrator continuing to hear the old man’s heartbeat even after he was dead was just an extension of their paranoia that they had initially felt with the old man’s ‘vulture eye’. The narrator could hear the old man’s heartbeat before killing him, but the heartbeat wasn’t the old man’s, it was the the narrator’s guilt and paranoia. Therefore, confessing to the police was a result of them not being able to handle their guilt from killing the old man and hiding their secret.

    The author uses figurative language to show the theme as well. He used the simile, “his eye is like the eye of a vulture” to show how the paranoia and guilt make the narrator feel. Since vultures are birds that scavenge over dead carcasses the narrator seems to feel very intimidated by the eye. Which represents how their paranoia and guilt is making them feel. The author also uses the phrase, “and the blood in my body became like ice” to show how the narrator felt when the eye looked at them and how uncomfortable it made them.
    Along with figurative language the author also uses imagery, “tightly over his head” is used to describe what the narrator is doing in order to kill the old man. It helps you to envision what is going on, and how he actually dies. When really, killing the old man was them trying to get rid of their guilt and paranoia. The narrator tells the police officers to, “search it all, to search it well” explaining to the police that they should search the old man’s entire home because the old man wasn’t there and nothing had happened. This showed the narrator’s confidence in how well they were hiding the body/secret.

    At the end of the story the narrator can no longer handle their guilt and paranoia from trying to keep and hide a secret. They end up confessing it to the police or in another case to the people that know/figured it out. The details of this short story represent and show the deeper meaning how the narrator isn’t able to handle the secret that they’re trying to hide.

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  26. MadMan

    “The Tell-Tale heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is about an insane Man who has a problem. This story takes place over a several of weeks. He can hear noises from heaven and hell. The way he talk and the way he thinks are some thing out of this world. His problem is the Old Man has a vulture. He freaks out meeting the cops. Being mentally ill can make you do thing you wouldn’t normally do.

    Meeting the Old Man the Mad Man freaked out because of the eye of the Old Man. Then Mad Man started to plan the murder of the Old Man. So he could destroy the eye so it never looked at him again. The creepy part is that he said “I did not hate the Old Man; I even loved him.” One part of the Mad Man's plan is to befriend the Old Man and get close to him. The Mad Man was as nice as he could be leading up to the murder. Man acted with the old man was crazy he was so different tried to be nice, but he was plotting to kill the old man.

    The way the mentally ill man interacted with the cops was very nice and cheerful. His cover up story worked and the cops believed him. Then he asked then all to talk. They all started friendly talking. Next the Mad Man started to hear the heartbeat of the dead Old Man. Now the Mad Man really wanted the cops to leave. He was so desperate that he yelled pointing at the place he hid the Old Man”Yes Yes, I killed him. Pull the boards and you will see! I killed him. But why does his heart not stop beating?! Why does it not stop!?” He confessed just like that, and he was so desperate to make the heart stop beating. Interactions and actions with the characters are important to the theme because they show that mentally ill people do things normal people do. They could nice they could acted mean they could act normal they could act weird but they could still be mentally ill and dangerous.

    Poe also used repetition to show how crazy the man was. This is apparent the whole story. This Mad Man keeps making claims that he is not crazy. It is important to realize that He is trying to convince himself that he is not crazy by asking questions. For example he says “I have lost control of my mind, why do you say that I am mad? Can you not see that I have full control of my mind? Is it not clear that I am not mad.” Just before he said that he said ”It’s TRUE! YES, I have been ill, very ill. This repetition happens throughout the story. The repetition shows the lengths that insane people will go to convince themself that are not insane.

    In the end the Man Man confesses to murder because he hears the heart of the old man. The interactions between both of the cops and the Old Man with the Mad Man were different. Being mentally ill can make you do things you wouldn’t normally do.

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  27. The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe is a short story about a man with a mental illness who murders an old man after stalking him for 8 days. It takes place in an old house in the old mans bedroom. The main character goes insane and murders the old man because of his mental illness. The old man in this story hadn’t done anything but sleep. The author tells this story because it teaches people that having a mental illness can cause someone to have an altered vision of reality.
    In the beginning, the narrator liked the old man. He talked about his eyes, “ One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture...Whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold.. I made up my mind to take the life of this man and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” So every night for 7 nights he would sneak into the mans room and watch him sleep. “ It was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye.” On the 8th night the narrator went into the mans room and stood above him to see the eye. Then, he thought he could hear the heartbeat of the old man and got angry. He drug him to the floor, suffocated him with a mattress, and cut his body up into pieces and hid him underneath the floorboards. “He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more.”
    One of the neighbors heard the old man scream and called the cops. He showed them around the house. They asked questions and were both smiling at him. Well, the narrator thought they were mocking him and that they knew he had killed the old man. His vision went blurry, his ears were ringing, he was pale as he started pacing back and forth around the room. He was screaming for them to leave. “Villains!..dissemble no more, I admit the deed!- tear up the planks for it is the beating of his hideous heart!” This could be interpreted as murder, but it clearly means that he has a mental illness because of all his thoughts and the reasoning for the murder of the old man.
    Now this story is about a man murdering another man. The killer stalks him for days and nights in his house planning the kill. But, the moral of the story is a mental illness can cause someone to have an altered vision of reality and can make you do things you shouldn’t.

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