It's all about heart

        Ah yes so we've reached the crucial juncture in any American literature class where we delve into the violent lunacy that is the brilliant works of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is the author who may be most commonly associated with being a possible sociopath. I cannot speak for how he was as a person, but seriously this guy writes some pretty dark, gruesome,and other wise disturbing things. It is very well written, but disturbing none the less. Slow painful murders, being buried alive, disembowelment, Poe covers all forms of violence in spectacular literary fashion. Usually overly violent stories would be thrown out as garbage, but Poe's brilliance as a writer refuses to let that happen in any of his works.

For example, one of Poe's most famous pieces is the short-story A Tell-Tale Heart. The story takes the place from the view of the narrator plotting to kill the old man he lives with. The odd part being the narrator admits that the old man has never wronged or insulted him in anyway. Not that if he had the consequent murder would then be acceptable, but at least there would be something relating to understanding from the reader. But no the only reason the narrator presents is the old man's "evil eye". This poor old soul has cataracts and this freaks the narrator out. This narrator claims that he still has his sanity and just suffers from something resembling nervousness, a big red flag. If you have to try and convince yourself that you are sane there's a good chance that you may not be all there in the head. So for seven days this guy opens the old man's door at night looking for this evil eye. He watches the old man while he sleeps, but remember he's not crazy. On the eight night the old man awakens and the narrator smothers him with the old man's bed. In classic Poe style the narrator dismembers him, and hides the body beneath the floor boards. Of course the old man screamed and so the police are called, and they come to investigate. Here is what makes this story a great piece of literature. Shortly before he kills the man the narrator claims to hear his heart beat. This of course is not entirely possible, but Poe uses this to illustrate the narrator's conscience. Usually a conscience is just the voice in your head that tells you right from wrong, but due to this characters lack of sanity he hallucinates and hears the beating of the old man's heart even after killing and storing the body. The more guilty the narrator feels the louder the sound gets until he finally rips up the floor and admits to the murder. The irony here is that the narrator convinces himself that the police present could also hear the noise and knew he was guilty. They could not in fact he was well on his way to getting away with this crime. This is how Poe makes this story great. Poe uses the narrator's possible insanity to show guilt in a way that most people would never exhibit. It is also different in that Poe tells the story from the view of the antagonist. This is a common tactic Poe uses and it works very well. In most stories the reader doesn't get this sort of detailed look inside the head of the bad guy. Poe does not always present his stories with a clear cut protagonist, but often uses an antagonist vs victim type display. This results in stories that are both intriguing and entertaining, and is not something most could. It is for this reason Poe has stood the test of time and why his overall violent style of writing is accepted as great works of literature. Many other writers, even in the modern day, have used this approach and it all began with Poe and his own style of brilliant darkness. I am still wondering where he would come up with stuff like this, but I digress. After all HIS beating heart was most likely in the right place.

This is Trevor Mashburn

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