The Black Cat - Leah, Paige, Tammy, Maddy, Alyssa, Nicole
The Black Cat - Leah, Paige, Tammy, Maddy, Alyssa, Nicole
The Black Cat - Leah, Paige, Tammy, Maddy, Alyssa, Nicole
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By: <strong>Paige</strong> McCray, <strong>Nicole</strong> Lobkov, <strong>Leah</strong> Aspinwall, <strong>Tammy</strong> Chan,<br />
<strong>Alyssa</strong> Henderson, and <strong>Maddy</strong> Montivino<br />
Y<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Black</strong> <strong>Cat</strong>
Summary<br />
In Edgar Allen Poe's <strong>The</strong> <strong>Black</strong> <strong>Cat</strong>, the main character is a man leading a<br />
happy life with his wife and many household pets. His favorite of his pets is a black<br />
cat, Pluto. <strong>The</strong> main character, however, becomes overwhelmed with alcohol and<br />
in turn, becomes more irritable. He also becomes paranoid that the cat is avoiding<br />
him for some reason. <strong>The</strong> main character begins to hate his former friend. One<br />
night, after coming home intoxicated with alcohol, Pluto scratches the man’s hand<br />
and in turn has his right eye cut out. <strong>The</strong> cat fears the man now, hiding from him at<br />
every turn. <strong>The</strong> man becomes enraged, and out of anger and sorrow at his lost<br />
friend, hangs the cat by the neck from a tree branch. Almost as suddenly, a new<br />
cat appears; a black one with only a splash of white on his chest can tell him apart<br />
from Pluto. Eventually the man grows to loathe this cat as well and attempts to<br />
murder him with an axe. His wife stops him and is rewarded with an axe in her<br />
head. Attempting to hide the corpse, the main character buries his dead wife in the<br />
cellar wall. He raps on the wall in front of some policemen cockily showing he has<br />
nothing to hide but then the cat is heard screeching from inside. He had<br />
accidentally walled the cat up in the tomb. <strong>The</strong> police reveal what the man has<br />
done and his punishment is to be hung.
Literary Devices<br />
Element and Quote Impact on Mood<br />
Metaphor-<br />
“I took from my waistcoatpocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor<br />
beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the<br />
socket! (Page 2)”<br />
Alliteration-<br />
“In their consequences, these events have terrified —have tortured<br />
—have destroyed me. (Page 2)”<br />
Internal Rhyme-<br />
“<strong>The</strong> monster, in terror, had fled the premises forever! (Page 7)”<br />
Repetition-<br />
“I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of<br />
the feelings of others. (Page 3)”<br />
Grim Humor-<br />
“Again, I deliberated about…packing it in a box, as if<br />
merchandize…(Page 6)”<br />
Subjects of Horror and Supernatural-<br />
“…a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have<br />
arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the damned in their<br />
agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation.(Page 9)”<br />
This metaphor impacts the mood of the story by creating a grim<br />
feeling around the black cat, Pluto. Pluto is a main character<br />
throughout the entire story so when you better understand how the<br />
man feels about him, your mood on the book changes. <strong>The</strong> grim<br />
feeling also continues since the “poor beast” is missing an eye<br />
and whenever the cat comes up you think of that.<br />
<strong>The</strong> alliteration used in this sentence gives you a bigger impact by<br />
being used more often. This makes the mood more chilling and<br />
frightening for Poe emphasizes how miserable the consequences<br />
were for what he is going to tell you have happened. You feel the<br />
thrill from the emphasis.<br />
This exclamation gives the reader a relieved feeling knowing the<br />
problem has left the story which had been causing the major<br />
tension. <strong>The</strong> internal rhyming just adds a flare of Poe’s taste.<br />
A horrific and tense mood is formed by this phrase. <strong>The</strong> repetition<br />
that is used makes you fear for the future because you hear the<br />
building up of irritability which may lead to a deadly snap.<br />
Poe uses grim humor in a dark and evil way to make you intrigued<br />
but against the main character for his rude and cruel joking.<br />
This moment in the story makes the mood bloodcurdling and horrendous.<br />
Poe gives you the idea of shrieks from demons and not many things would<br />
scare a person more. You are truly transported into the story for this one<br />
instance because of the deadly connection.
Mood and Tone Continued<br />
• Atrocity: state of something being brutal or cruel <br />
• Unfathomable: cannot be understood <br />
• Pestilence: epidemic disease <br />
• Perverseness: turned away or rejecting what is right, proper, or good; wicked<br />
or corrupt. <br />
• Phantasm: a creation of the imagination or fancy; fantasy <br />
• Words such as atrocity, perverseness, or phantasm create the mood and<br />
tone in a story. In the short story: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Black</strong> <strong>Cat</strong>, Edgar Allen Poe presents<br />
his writing to be mysterious and weary. Many of his pieces of writing reflect<br />
off of his life, which included much sorrow and loss of loved ones.<br />
• Both the tone and mood creates the “feel” for the reader of what the author<br />
is trying to say. Poe’s characteristic can be seen from the short story: <strong>The</strong><br />
Back <strong>Cat</strong>, through the tones and moods.<br />
• Literary devices also help create the mood and tone in a work of literature.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y help make stories powerful and meaningful to the audience. Literary<br />
devices also help transform the moods to have a larger "effect" on the reader.
<strong>The</strong><br />
Open<br />
Mind
Authors<br />
• Summary: Written by <strong>Alyssa</strong> Henderson,<br />
edited by <strong>Paige</strong> McCray<br />
• Literary Devices: Written by <strong>Nicole</strong> Lobkov<br />
and <strong>Paige</strong> McCray<br />
• Mood and Tone: Written by <strong>Tammy</strong> Chan<br />
• Power Point: Created by <strong>Leah</strong> Aspinwall<br />
• Poster Coloring, and Head Image: Created<br />
by <strong>Maddy</strong> Montivino