Meadows,+Dani

Characters
(None of my characters were described very in-depth because they were all in short stories.)

Unnamed character (//Tell-Tale Heart//): I believe the unnamed character was the protagonist of this story. As opposed to being a hero (which is typically what a protagonist is), he was more of a villain. He feared an old man's eye, and became nervous and anxious whenever he would see the eye. He was most likely mentally unstable and paranoid because of the old man/his eye, so he made the rash decision to murder him and bury his remains under the floorboards and suffered consequences due to his anxiousness and the police.

Old man (//Tell-Tale Heart//): I believe the old man was the antagonist of this story, which means he was the opposition to the protagonist in a way. He caused the unnamed character to have extreme anxiety by solely looking at his eye. Because of the unnamed character's fears, the old man was murdered and cut into a multitude of pieces. His body parts were then stuffed under the floorboards, and the unnamed character believed he could still hear the old man's heart beating.

Narrator (//Premature Burial//): The narrator of this short story was very insightful about his opinions on life and death. The narrator found that premature burial was a very strange and rarely spoken about topic that did happen regularly in his time. I think the narrator was trying to make a point by talking about life vs. death in this story because the title of this story itself could be a metaphor for life and death. For instance, if you don't live life to the fullest it's like you have already died prematurely.

Narrator (//The Elk//): The narrator of this short story seemed like a very free spirit. He described traveling as a beautiful thing and how tourists rarely explore the less popular areas because they're afraid of going "off track" and discovering new, potentially exciting things. He claimed that the less explored areas tended to be more beautiful than the regularly explored areas because they were more naturally beautiful and simplistic, which I believe was a good point.

Summary
This collection of short stories was a good combination of morbid/slightly gory with beautiful and bright. Poe describes his stories in a very descriptive and intelligent manner, that can be slightly difficult to read, but that's what makes his works entertaining in my opinion. Poe has a great sense of imagination and I often ponder how he even comes up with these ideas to write about. The context of the stories make you think in ways you never have before and every story is drastically different from the next. There are twists and turns in the plot of every story, even though they're usually very short. The stories are exciting enough to keep you entertained throughout all of the book.

Rating
I give this book a 4. Poe is excellent at describing things in a beautiful and intelligent way and he made thought-provoking points in nearly every story he wrote. It was difficult to read and comprehend at times, which I believe is a given because of the time period this was written in. There was a good mixture of happy and not so happy stories which kept me entertained.

Wiki Reflections
====I believe wikispaces is a good tool for any class. It is much more convenient than having to write a paper every week, and the fact that we are utilizing technology in the classroom much more just makes class easier and more fun for me, and probably most of the students also. I think this is an excellent place to discuss our independent reading because we can share ideas and opinions on the books other students are reading and reply to them, and go deeper in our own writings because we're not constricted to the layout of a typical high school paper.====

Entry four: September 17th, 2011

I have read another short story by Poe called //The Elk//. It is 14 pages long. I couldn't make predictions earlier about the story as a whole because this is a book of short stories. I did predict, though, that all of the stories would be sort of morbid and weird because Poe is kind of famous for that, but this short story proved me otherwise. In this story, Poe describes his traveling on the Wissahiccon. He uses very descriptive, beautiful words to explain the scenery around him. There was nothing scary about this story, which kind of changed my perspective on Poe in a good way. He explained that he thought America had truly beautiful areas, but tourists/people in general rarely "went off the track" and explored less popular areas that had the potential of beauty.

I am definitely happy with my choice of book. Even though I've only read a few of Poe's works, he is becoming one of my favorite writers.

Entry three: September 10th, 2011

I read another short story by Poe called //The Premature Burial//. It is fifteen pages long. My favorite quote is: "To be buried while alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality. That it has frequently, very frequently, so fallen will scarcely be denied by those who think. The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?"

It is said by the narrator of the story. It is said after the narrator describes the fact that premature burial is a very touchy and frightening topic, that is often talked about in disgust (which is understandable). Although it is frightening, the narrator describes premature burial as a "pleasurable pain" to people and it is thrilling and exciting. I agree in a way. If I'm watching a horror film, and premature burial is happening, I find it to be interesting and exciting because I know it's fake and I'm curious about the outcome. But, if I were to witness a premature burial in real life I would be ridiculously scared and attempt to get the buried person out right away... if that makes any sense at all.

This is my favorite quote because Poe described the boundaries between life and death as shadowy and vague. I think this means that if you don't live your life to the fullest and try to be as happy as possible even when it's difficult, it's almost like you're already dead because you're not "living" in a way. I think a premature burial could be a metaphor about living life in this short story, which is why it is significant.

Entry two: September 2nd, 2011

I have read one short story by Poe so far called //The Tell-Tale Heart//. In orchestra last year, we had to play a song based off of that story, which made me interested in reading this. I remember that the measures in the song had their own titles sometimes, and the titles were morbid and weird for a piece of music, which I kind of liked. My orchestra teacher shared with us what Poe's short story was actually about, and it kind of freaked me out, but at the same time intrigued me.

In this story, an unnamed character is nervous but not mad, which I think means he was scared, but not insane. This character feared an old man's blue eye - he called it hideous. He would observe the old man in his slumber each night, and the character decides to kill the old man. He sneaks into his room late at night and the old man cries out in fear, and the character just remains still. Soon, the character hears a loud, thumping noise which he believes is the old man's heart. He attacks and kills the old man and dismembers his body, hiding the parts underneath his floorboards. He is careful not to leave blood anywhere. But, the neighbor heard the old man shriek, so they called the police. The police arrived and the main character believed he was being mocked by the police. He felt paranoid and anxious, and essentially went insane after hearing the old man's heartbeat under the floorboards. The story ends with him yelling to the police to tear up the boards.

I think the main character was paranoid and mentally unstable throughout the entire story. I guess that's kind of obvious, though, because mentally stable people don't murder people because their eyes are frightening. Poe uses really descriptive words in this story, and the whole thing developed in an interesting way.

This story was relatively short, and I don't remember how many pages it was. I promise I'll read much more over my 3-day weekend, though. (:

Entry one: August 26th, 2011

The author I will be studying is Edgar Allan Poe. I will be reading //Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery and Imagination//

My prediction: Since this is a book of short stories and poems, I can't exactly predict what will happen in this book as a whole. I've read a few of Poe's poems, and I think he's pretty famous for describing things in a morbid and eerie way, so I assume that these short stories/poems in this book will be morbid and eerie, also. I think the short stories may be related to each other in some way, too.