I have to write an essay about Poe and the symbolism of animals in POe's work... my thesis is "Poe uses dark, evil-related animals in his work ti convay a snese of terror and darkness." PLEASE HELP! I would also like to know a bit more about a poem called the Condor and/or the Paroquete. HEEEEEEELP!!

-- Anonymous, March 13, 2002

Answers

Yes, animals create an unsettling mood for Poe. Apes(Rue Morgue of course, Hop Frog(people dressed as apes), Tale of the Ragged Mountains etc. The Black Cat(Poe had pet cats not as ominous as this of course). The condor(huge carrion eater)appears in Conqueror Worm(poem) and in another place. The Raven was chosen because owls and yes The Parrot had already been done by other poets.

To see a wider selection sea the South Sea adventures of A. Gordon Pym in his only novel. The cry of the gulls, the whiteness of the strange beast predate Melville's symbolism of the white whale. Both black and white are used in an unsettling fashion.

-- Anonymous, March 14, 2002

Duh dood he liked animal sex...especially apes.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Hy im 13 years old and not long ago i read the Tell-Tale Heart. In this book Edgard uses the vulture like a symbolical trait for his characters. Because he compares the old man eye to a vulture eye. I think that he uses animals for describe the dark and wild side of his characters.Extract of the story::"the vulture eye: it was wide open. For that moment, the narrator heard the beating of the old man’s heart, “such as a watch make when it’s enveloped with coton". Personnaly, I think that Poe writes from the idea of animals because as we see them, animals are considered wild, vilains and have in mind only the instinct of kiling when they are in danger. But in reality, they are such as humans, whe can't prove it because they are not us and we are not what they are. So poes uses animals, maybe because he understand them more then we do, and maybe because as we can remark at the end of the Tell-Tale heart, there is always a moral to retain; so the animal that he uses brings us to a kind of moral of the life. So maybe, he wants to show that there is an other side in each animal, that we represent by there look. But not by there moral. And as we see it, we think that Poe writes horror stories because he is evil, but he uses animals (that he consider good and that we consider in horror stories like evil)to show us that they have a reason to exist and that they are with a mind and they think as we do. "sorry i cant continue I have to go eat!, my mom is calling me" bye!!! And good luck! Zena

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

ÇäÓÇäíÉ ÍíËíÉ symbolism barbarians

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2003

ÇäÓÇäíÉ ÍíËíÉ symbolism barbarians

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2003

the Condom is a huge carrion eater

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2003

. The vulture eye is something that is representative of death, and of scavengers that feed off dead or decaying animals. In the story it relates to how it was eating in to the schizo’s mind.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2003

The eye represents John Allens eye it says its blue and when he killed him he didnt take his gold just like with johns he also lived with the old man. and poe wrote that he didnt like john so i belive that the old man represents John Allen and the heart was his contious. Please reply for your opinion.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2003

i think the "vulture eye" is used by the killer as she is a female and i beleive that the eye has looked at her wrongly...or she loves the man but he no longer loves her and just straes at her blankly but still expects her to care for him...or that the eye because it is a vultures one has been watching her constanly making her feel uneasy.

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2005