Little Ball of Fur: The Black Cat

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Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809. Many consider him to be the master of mystery and horror. He only lived until he was forty, and during that time he endured a lot of hardships. For one, every woman he ever cared for ended up dead, usually by the dreaded tuberculosis. That included his wife Virginia. The men in his life who were supposed to be there to guide him, well, they were not there. I think that helped him write a lot of his dark and macabre stories. His most famous work is The Raven, a narrative poem that was first published in January 1845. He also wrote other highly regarded short stories such as, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Tell- Tale Heart, and The Black Cat. I will be doing my review on the latter of the three.
The Black Cat is a short story written in the first person. The narrator, a man, who never gives his name is already in prison and awaiting death from the onset of the story. He tells us the story of how he went from being a gentlemen and a loving husband to a murderer. First, he tells us about his cat, Pluto, and how he gauged one of its eyes out in an alcohol fueled rage He eventually kills his cat simply because it had loved him. In a weird twist, the narrator finds another cat that looks very much like Pluto. At first he was smitten with the cat, but slowly began to feel an immense hatred for the creature. In a fit of rage he tries killing the cat with an axe. His wife intervenes, and in turn, she is the one who receives the death blow to the head. He tries hiding his deed, but the cat ends up giving him away when the police come calling.
Edgar Allan Poe depicts his narrator in the story as a man who is believed to be mad. The narrator assures that he is sane and that...

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...do not mess with black cats. Okay, not really. I did think that the cat being the one that gave away the narrator was the perfect ending. Man being outsmarted by feline.
I do believe this was well written story. I will readily admit, I am not the brightest when it comes to genres. Whether it be in literature or music, I just kind of go with what I like. So, I do apologize if the genre labels I use are incorrect. I feel like this story falls into the psychological thriller genre, and of course the horror genre. I would recommend this story to anybody who is not bothered by graphic imagery. Also, I do not think I would call it old English, but the story is definitely presented in a much more fancy style. If you like that, then this story if for you.

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Wordsworth Classics: London, 1995. Print.

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