about his works

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what made Poe want to write the way that he did?

what was Poe's style of writing?

who influenced Poe to start writing?

what are Poe's objectives on his writings?

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2003

Answers

Edgar Allen Poe is one of my favorite writers of curious works. His unique style is very intriguing and very different from other great writers of his time. His works have a trend that included death and loneliness. The best reason I can sense of this is that he was exposed at an early age to trauma and loneliness, that carried on throughout his life. At three years old faced with the death of his parents, later his wife Virginia, and the struggles he embarked in his upbringing by a careless foster father structured his thoughts. This shaped his writings that paralleled some sort of death or horrid events usually entrapped in his stories. Poe’s life is an interesting one, but I don’t want to get into a biography of his life. Poe had many different types of works such as poetry, short stories, and/or tales. I would like to discuss some of his works, and dissect some of the elements he chose to put into his work and why. Three works I would like to briefly discuss are the short stories: “The Pit and The Pendulum”, “The Tell Tale Heart”, and “The Fall of The House of Usher.” Many people have there own interpretation of Poe’s work and here I offer some of my own opinions. Poe wrote “The Tell Tale Heart” in 1843. The short story is warped with finite detail of a schizophrenic that kills an old man and buries him under the floor of a house. The only influence I can think of that inspired Poe to write this story was that he enjoyed writing grotesque stories. There is no single event of his time period or in his personal life that would have inspired this work. Poe had a track record of being an alcoholic, drug abuser, and a depressant. These are all probably attributes to why his work has the warped spin that it does. I love this story; it has great descriptive detail and contains many symbolic elements. 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. That is merely a piece of his symbolic descriptive writing. Interesting enough throughout this particular story Poe uses a narrator that refers to himself/herself as “I”. My trying to interpret his work will not do it any justice. I appreciate his ability to be so imaginative and descriptive in his writing. His meaning comes out and leaves quite a lasting impression the reader after deciphering his work. There is another descriptive writer from Poe’s time period that I would just briefly like to recognize as being the most descriptive in his detail, and that is the works of Mark Twain. Twain may be better at the descriptive nature of his stories, but they are incomparable as far as style. Twain as is Poe were both very creative and talented writers. Poe however wins the race as far as bizarre goes. “The Pit and The Pendulum” is another work of Poe that is exotically bizarre. This short story is symbolic to time running out. We see time running out as the pendulum blade slowly gets closer and closer as it sways back and forth. There are many opinions based on Poe’s work, but I truly believe he writes about his life. This short story is kind of the icing on the cake for Poe’s stereotype. What was the light or salvation that occurs in this tale represent? Is it hope? Is it the fact that his time has not yet come? Does it even relate to his life? Poe uses chronological order consistently found in his work, which is different than most writers of his time. Perhaps he writes the way he does because he wants to blow peoples minds. He explains the events the way they are happening; in this way it keeps you turning the pages. I know when I read his work; I could never seem to find a good place to stop. His objective in my perception was to think outside of the box or out of ordinary, and did this for a reason. He obviously had many critics, but I believe this may have just fueled him, because he knew where it was all going, or maybe he just didn’t care.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2003

I dunno but keep givin more answeres

-- Anonymous, November 29, 2003

Cool man. I dunno answers but questions cool Besides- who wold care bout poe

-- Anonymous, November 29, 2003

kool but I dont care bout him. @$$

-- Anonymous, November 29, 2003

kool. I don't likle him he must be a total loser & freak

-- Anonymous, November 29, 2003


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