intro to lit

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Why read literature? To many of us, that question seems as strange as asking “why breathe?” Literature has been part of our life, family, school, and community for as long as we can remember. Literature offers windows to worlds outside students’ experience as well as mirrors onto the world they already know. Literature also prepares students for the personal challenges and moral dilemmas they are likely to face (Barnet). When in literature, an author can go many ways in their writing, for example: romance, comedy, horror and gothic literature. One of the best well-known gothic author’s is Edgar Allen Poe. Gothic literature is described as a genre that combines both elements of horror and romance. The effects of Gothic literature feeds on compelling the idea of terror, an extension of Romantic literary. Biography Famous American author Edgar Allen Poe, was born on January 19th, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts to parents David and Elizabeth Poe. Poe’s father was born in Baltimore, and his mother came from England to the U.S. in 1796, where they met and soon became married in 1805. Besides Edgar, they had two other children, Henry and Rosalie. Growing up, Poe had a rough childhood. At a young age, his father fled from his family and his mother past away suddenly when Edgar was only 2 years old, leaving him to be separated from his siblings. Henry went away to live with his grandparents, Rosalie was taken in by another family, and Edgar himself was adopted by a tobacco merchant and his wife in Virginia. Living with his new wealthy family, Poe was put into a good home. Along with his good family, he went to many good schools. For five years at just the age of 6, he started schooling in England. There he learned Latin and French, and ... ... middle of paper ... ...prison. Although I don’t like how Poe writes because I cant understand the wording he uses, the images and details he used of the dungeon seemed really vivid. “It was a wall, seemingly of stone masonry- very smooth, slimy, and cold.” For the floor, although seemingly of solid material, was treacherous with slime.” I was especially moved by how intense the author made the scene of when the narrator was close to being killed by the pendulum, as it swung down close to his body. As in the story it says, “Down- steadily down it crept. Down- certainly, relentlessly down. Down- still unceasingly-still inevitably down.” I liked this story also because unlike all of Poe’s stories which question death and are just plain weird, in this one, the narrator remained to have hope. Hope is manifested in this story in the rescue and also in the narrators many strategies.

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