Reading Poe

I love Edgar Allen Poe, and reading his stories came at the perfect time! Now, growing up and learning about him in elementary and middle school a lot of my teachers would say the Poe was just crazy and dark, and that is why his stories are so horrific. I however, disagree. I think that the reason his poems and tales are so suspenseful is because of horror, yes, but also because of Poe's understanding of the human mind and the internal struggles characters have in his tales.

Everyone can relate to the issues his characters have in some small way. We all obviously are not tortured and thrown in pits and held in captivity; however everyone has experienced getting over an enormous amount of homework and tests, finally finishing, only to be assigned more homework and tests. Readers can also relate to character's feelings of fear, guilt, or doom like how the characters feel in "The Fall of the House of Usher."

I don't think Poe was crazy or satanic at all. I believe he knew exactly how to extract emotions from readers and did so perfectly. I love how Poe describes people's mental state in his stories and just love his writing in general!

That's all for now; back to studying for the honors test!

-Susan

I commented on Tori's post, "At least, for a moment, I was free!"