Humanity In The Black Cat

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“Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action, for no other reason than because we understand it to be such” (Poe 1594)? This last words are the simplification of human tendency to be human. What it is to be human? Is it kindness, love and affection for others? Well, to be human is to be evil according, in my opinion, to one great author. This talented author could effortlessly distinguish from ethical and unethical just by observing. Additionally, this author “has been called a drunk, a drug-addict, a hack, a sex pervert, and an exploiter” (May 3). Despite all, this author, “metaphysically mysterious stories, helped create a literature that made America a cultural force not to be ignored” (May 3), and this…show more content…
Accordingly in the short story “The Black Cat”, the narrator’s daily activities, at the begging of the story, computes of basically waking up, feeding his animals, and go to bed; it looks like excitement and change are not included in near future schedule. In fact, the narrator of the story emphasizes “with difficulty that [he] could prevent [Pluto] from following through the streets” (Poe 1593). In this last passage from the narrators’ point of view, Pluto, the cat, is a symbol of steadiness. Furthermore, steadiness is following the narrator in a way that its everyday routine capability to change is almost none. Since childhood, the narrator “spent most of his time… feeding and caressing” for others that he forgot to care for himself (Poe 1593); he attached his soul to an identical schedule day after day. In contrast, in a study made by J. Sommers in 2000, “it states that those with a great deal of boredom are more likely to die before those that are not bored” (Sommers). In the contrary, the shadows from the narrators’ daily routine “grew with [his] growth [to his] manhood” (Poe 1593); additionally, the routine never change in a big way consuming the narrator in a state of full boredom. Yet as humanity is used to, the narrator opts to change his routine in a way that is the most accessible to obtain; the narrator “day by day… experienced a radical alteration for the…show more content…
Indeed, “drinking alcohol extends back before recorded history. Besides its use as a beverage for "recreational purposes," alcohol has been an important part of religious ceremonies, a source of vitamins and other nutrients, and has also had medicinal uses” (Henningfield). In this time era, alcohol was like the beverage send from the heavens by the holy god to protect and save the villagers from diseases and death as if they were the chosen ones. However in “The black Cat,” refreshing alcohol is far from reaching god in any sense. According to the narrator, “disease is like alcohol… [coming from the] most terrible god” (Poe 1594); accordingly, the narrator makes use of this metaphor and simile in the same sentence to emphasize that alcohol is an infectious viral disease that consumes him day after day. Yet, alcoholism affected the narrators’ temper dramatically to “offer personal violence” moreover that “the fury of a demon possessed” him (Poe 1594). Alcohol is a symbol of evil spirit, and when this soft malevolent drink enters the narrators’ digestive system transforms him into a demoniacal specimen that it’s unable to tell good from bad. Indeed, the narrators’ vision became blurred when he “cut one of [Pluto’s (first cat)] eyes from the socket” (Poe 1594); the eye out of the socket, it is a symbol that alcohol and perverseness itself made the narrator acquire an extra
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