Blog #5: Literary Analysis: The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

The Tell-Tale Heart written by Edgar Allen Poe is considered by many to be a classic example of poetry from the late and great poet. In the next few paragraphs, I will demonstrate knowledge of the short story by analyzing its literary aspects.

To begin we shall start with that of the theme. The story takes place with that of an old man and his servant, the servant is talking in the first-person attempting to proclaim his sanity as he killed his master because of his “evil eye.” With this in mind, the theme is that of despite how cunning and deceitful one thinks they can be, guilt can eat away at someone until they give in to a moral wrongdoing. A continual symbol to go with the theme is that of the watch.

Next, we shall discuss setting. While the time of this piece is not explicitly stated, it can be inferred that around the same time as Poe’s time due to the use an oil lantern by the killer. The story takes place inside a house with the killer in question talking to the reader about a tale, presumably to cell mates, police or perhaps a courtroom with the killer proclaiming over and over again that his actions were not one of evil, the eye forced murder out of him and that by his actions to rid of the eye were sane. This invokes a sense of mystery or fear in the reader as they hear a story by what seems to be a man who has lost his mind.

Following setting, comes plot. The story begins with the storytelling, action rises as the killer turns to discussion of his master’s evil eye, and the hatred he has for it and the need to rid of it. The story then involves two minor conflicts in that the killer’s ability to wriggle his body into his master's room just enough to shine a beam of light on the eye and the other in that he awakes him unexpectedly due to a creak. The major conflict of this story is one of internal as the killer thinks of what to do in this moment of being found out, next, it explodes into climax with the killer quickly and efficiently ending the life of his master. After doing this, the action slows down, the killer disposes of the body beneath the floorboards and a neighbor that a yelp sent for the police who came to question the noise. All would have went well as the police trusted the killer’s demeanor and alibi, the story is resolved when the guilt overtakes the killer and he confesses his crime.

As stated prior, this story takes place in the first person. Plenty of examples show the killer pleading his case to the reader to acknowledge his own sanity, “observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story,” and in his confession, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!”

We shall next go into the characterization of the main character, the killer. He is Flat while also dynamic. At the start of the story, he prefaces it in saying that he is “nervous,” but not “mad.” Something that he continues to go back to the entire story, never truly learning from his own errors that he could in fact be mad. He is dynamic for some of the same reasons, in the beginning, the reader has no idea what this person has done or why they have to explain why they are not mad, however as the story progresses, we see that of a man who is delusional. A calm storyteller slowing devolving into a shouting, scared belter of sounds about only of he could hear. This indirect characterization of the killer’s speech to the reader shows that he is not as clear of mind and body as he thinks. In addition, no real reason are given as to motive for the killing, it is in the killer’s thoughts that we hear that the eye is evil, but it is unclear why, it is only a fixation of the man, “it was open --wide, wide open --and I grew furious as I gazed upon it.” The actions of his master seem to also explain how he is not as calm as he seems, on the eighth day of stalking him, the killer awoke him unexpectedly, but in the way that he awoke seemed that he was in fear of his life even before knowing what the situation was, alluding to the possibility that the master did not trust the killer as much in the coming days before his death, “presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror.”

This story is very ironic in its presentation. The killer of this story claims his sanity while also laughing at his dismemberment of his victim’s body, “no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all --ha! Ha!” Another example of irony, while not verbal but situational comes in where the killer becomes overconfident in his crimes and instead of taking his good fortune of their lack of suspicion, he invites them stay longer, “I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues.” He could have pulled off the crime without being arrested but allowed his guilt to fester when in presence of the police thus allowing his capture.

One of the biggest symbols in this book is the watch. Of course, one of the basic functions of a watch is showing the time,but what it also represents is the life of the old man coming to a close and the killer’s guilt and keeping of a calm head. Much like the beating of the heart that made the killer lose it, the ticking of the watch is akin to the killer’s sanity slowly dwindling. This symbol supports the theme because even if the killer had kept his head when the police were questioning him, it was only a matter of time where he would give himself up out of guilt knowing that he did wrong. He was against the eye and the eye alone, not the old man.

In ending, this story would be enjoyed by many who enjoy mysteries or suspense. It is well written from the beginning when it begs the question as to why this person is telling this story, it evokes a sense of wonder and fear as someone has to prove to you why they are not mad, when it should be clear from the get go. However, it is a short story and it does suffer from wrapping up the conclusion rather quickly, those who enjoy a long-drawn out story will not find that here. The week of time that was explained in the story during the stalking of the old man is summed up in a paragraph or two rather than day to day, delving into the loss of sanity of the killer over time rather than in one swift motion.

Blog #3- Influential People

My little brother Nicholas, he is only little in the sense of the word of his age to my own. He has left a major impact on me as to my growth as a person that will be forever lasting. While it might be a good argument on who has learned more from the other, I would say that I’ve learned more from being in his presence (however I wouldn’t tell him that of course).

While this is not my brother and I
these two look similar in age to what we are

A great deal of tasks are subjected to the eldest child of the family, you become a nurse, handyman, counselor and (unpaid) tutor. With all of these many jobs, I have learned to control my temper, and how to talk to those around me in a way to solve a problem and not perpetuate it. He has been some of the problems, bickering with our little(er) sister, Jazmine and stressing out over a procrastinated assignment or project. From his pure responses to things that have bothered him, it has given me the gift of learning, learning how to destabilize a nuclear situation into as little fallout as absolutely.

Being the eldest also gives breeds a large ego. From your age and range of experience with life, it is no possibility that the eldest could be wrong on a certain subject. Impossible! Nick has been there to be the person to call out my mistakes and fallacies out in the open so I can fix them. Understanding that a problem exists is the first step in solving that said problem after all.

The ego of mine was much like a balloon which popped
and got a lot smaller as a result of being around my brother.

Treating my brother as a friend and as someone whom I would want to be treated if I were in his shoes rather than the ‘Hollywood’ version of what a big brother usually is has prepared me for college in the ways that I am very respectful to complete strangers and try to help out anyone in anyway that I can.

We have a better relationship than the
brothers in this movie

Another individual who has made an impact upon me would be that of Leah Russell. She is an unsung hero of the RHA e-board here on the EMU campus. While my own experiences with her I have only been that of a professional sense in that from community council as she is my advisor for program coordinators. I know that her impact on the greater community is larger than just giving myself and the other coordinators pointers on how to program for the residents we represent. I know from what she has told me in the past that she held the same position in her freshman year as I do now. Despite her less than helpful council, she was able to push through and still create events that her residents could attend from which to learn and have fun.

Starting from the left, Leah Russel, Brianna Moore,
Laura Livernois, Justin McCarty

Currently she works as an RA in the Munson Apartments and is the Program Coordinator for the e-board of RHA. She has had a hand in setting up many events such as Bingo nights, Snack and Study and other socials from which the residents can meet others whom they may never have the chance to do if it weren’t for the programs, students are more or less ‘forced’ to go and socialize. Her also being an RA brings experience which I have drawn from as I will be joining her in the ranks of student staff this next academic year. Although she is what I would consider a friend, she is not someone who I have spent time with outside of our interaction with RHA. Despite this, I have gained a great deal of respect for her and hope to be able to contact her in the future if an issue arises with that of the RA position and its challenges.

While this is too small of a room from which RHA would use for an event, these college
students do appear to have the same level of happiness and laughter that happens at a RHA event

A great leader and speaker, one that we still look back upon to today, is that of Martin Luther King Jr., his many speeches and organized marches put a dent in the Jim Crow Era and its race dividing rules of segregation. I believe as to why I hold him in such regard is due to an epiphany from which I had in the second grade, or was it the third, the true year escapes me now, but regardless, the class watched an animated movie that depicted a young boy and his friend going back in time and preventing MLK Jr.’s death by bringing his 12-year-old self to the present, witnessing the aftereffects of such an event. The epiphany that I had stemmed from this alternate reality, knowing one of the other major civil rights leaders was Malcolm X who was considerable more belligerent and divided people rather than brought everyone together in the ways that King did, the present, my present day would most likely be much similar to that of the 12-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. Furthermore, I, wouldn’t be myself, My mother and father met by sheer coincidence because my mother visited her cousin Tracey at MSU, the university my father attended. Due to the segregation of the times of civil rights, it was difficult for a person of color to attend a school with a majority of white people, with this is mind, my Aunt Tracey (while she is my mother’s cousin, she still gets the aunt prefix, always been that way with my mom’s relatives, they are like her sisters and brothers), would have never been at MSU for my mother to visit her, for my father and her to cross paths, and their first date at an ice cream parlor to happen. To add, if King was not around, much of the same racist and cruel identities would still be present as stereotypes among people of color. Although learning of my grandparents and their open arms acceptance of my mother, it is not impossible to state that my parents would have never gotten together King did not set the groundwork for people to be judged by the content of their character and not their skin tone.

While this is the reverse of what I have
of my parents, I still adore seeing
interracial couples.

Blog #2- Bucket List

            Our time in this life is so ever short, it would make complete sense as to why someone would want to catalog events that they would want to one day accomplishments, a “bucket list.” I have always hated bucket lists my entire life, the notion that you make a list of “must-do’s” before you croak has always seemed a very morbid way of thinking about one’s own life. Rather than living for the here and now, bucket lists can have goals that could be forever unattainable. Another problem I have with these lists is that they are never really in a coherent order, while I suppose there lies the fun of it, marking off objectives in more of willy-nilly fashion than having to do one before the other, but I just find odd how in some cases, a list might say, “Spend three month in China,” followed by “Learn Chinese.” Considering the amount of time spent in a foreign land, I would certainly attempt to get to a point with its language that I would not have to camp outside the US Embassy the entire time. So with all of this in mind, I have created a “Life List,” a set of events as close to order as inherently possible to complete in my lifetime.

            The first (1) on my “Life List” would be that of graduating college. As at the time of writing, this being about a month and a quarter into the new semester of my freshman year, I still am very uncertain as to how I want to spend my life in the future. So many thoughts on careers boggle about in my head, trying to balance each one’s individual pay, hours, creativity, and areas of furthering my career as time progresses weighs very heavily on that of my soul day-in day-out. I know that my future journey in college will be much of the same issues I have been struggling with so once the last few credits grind to a close and I walk across the stage to receive my diploma (this time hopefully not as sweaty and sick to the core as with high school), I can smile, happy that the decision will not come back to bite me, but my career will bring me joy and a pay that I can support a family with.

            The second (2) item on this list would be to find love, absolute, everlasting love. This item may be irregularly placed, I may be lucky enough to find that before the four years are up, but in the words of my father, “You never can know if you love someone before you move in with them, like it or not, you hide a lot from a person if you can have moments away from them, always being there forces conflict, to test whether the love will last.” With these words of guidance taken into consideration, I think I would have to live with someone for quite some time before I could honestly say that this person was the other half of my being, pop the question (or have it asked to me), and be a married man. In this point in my life, I cannot really say I have truly loved another, besides that of my family, friends and my pets. I do not know if it is a matter of luck (which I am I not known for), my own person, a hopeless romantic, or that I have not kept my own eyes open for someone who has fondness for me. Regardless, I think this is something I need to have in life, as someone who has seen a happy marriage in that of my parents and the warm family environment that has persisted a warmness in myself and my siblings, I know that love is what I will need if I plan on starting a family of my own one day.

            Speaking of family, the third (3) thing on this list is, having a few kids. As someone who loves to be around kids and one who has had to look after my other two siblings, I really want the opportunity to share all of the wisdom I have gained in my years to a few children to call my own flesh and blood. The ideal, well the interesting coincidence would be if I could have 2 boys and then a girl in that order, not because I wouldn’t want a girl as a first child, I certainly have no preference, but my grandfather had two boys and a girl, the eldest of that bunch, my father had two boys and a girl, and I am the eldest of that bunch. So it would be very cool to continue this “tradition” of coincidences.

            The forth (4) thing on this list of sorts would be the zoo. The wondrous place that a lot of children remember the first time visiting, the curiosity that stems from seeing so many different animals that prior to that moment, hadn’t known existed unless previous told by your parents or seen in some other medium. Granted I have kids at this point, I would want to take each one to the zoo for the first time, watch complete childhood innocence and joy exist as wide eyes and even wider smiles branch out from the utter amazement in seeing so many exotic animals in one place.

            The fifth (5) thing on this list would be pets. I considered whether to put this before kids, but here is fine too. I absolutely adore pets, I love the lessons they teach children at a young age and how they transition in how you treat other people. As a pet owner myself, I have witnessed my two dogs make errors, as they accidentally knock things over, slobber or make a ‘mess’ on the kitchen floor for whatever reason. It is in these moments I have learned moments of calm when faced with a great deal of stress. I learned not to yell at an animal whom did not know better, but instead meet said mistakes with love and comfort, something that a lot of us around the world need to work towards. Watching my dogs Sam and Max grow from puppies into old dogs has also taught me the value of life and the time on earth, not to squander it. I would be sure to adopt dogs or kittens in my later life so my children could learn these same important lessons and also receive the same joy from seeing a pet every day when you return from school.

I just thought this was cute

The sixth (6) thing on my “life list,” would be that of raise good kids. One of my fears here at college in choosing a major is that I will not have enough time to spend at home to be there for my future family. I am worried that a job that I would have would have me at work too much, or too tired that I don’t do much when I get home anyways. My parents have always been there for me, even when my father was put on third shift, he still always had time for the lot of us. I never felt like one parent was not there nor did I ever feel less opportunity to go to one or the other for an issue I was having. I can say that they raised me well, I was prepared on to go off to college and succeed. I want to do the same for my future kids, after they graduate high school and move on, I can thumb through old pictures, most likely crying, saying to my wife, “We did good.”

The seventh (7) thing on my list would be that of writing a book. It is this far down the list because I know first had of how hard it is to write a book. While I do not have anything published, I have tried many times in the past attempting to get a story going, always quitting after the first few chapters, worried that the final product won’t be nearly close to the vision of the dream. I know that once I retire and the kids would be out the house, I would need to keep busy, and I think writing could do this for me. I want to write mysteries, ones that I read now, tied to real life enough that I can follow along the same clues the author leaves the protagonist, but still challenging enough that I don’t know who the perpetrator is until the final few pages. This may be one of the unattainable goals that I had stated that I disliked about bucket lists, however I know that I am capable of doing just this eventually.

The eighth (8) and final thing on this list to have a peaceful death. Again, doing the thing I said I never liked about these lists, being morbid. However, I find a lot of happiness in the idea that one can leave this earth, with loved ones surrounding them and pass on with the feeling of being a success for the people around you. While I cannot choose how I leave this earth, I want to do it gracefully, my final show of pizazz and leave a mark on those who saw me live my life.

I think I just typed in Google, "My future" by accident, my mistake

While I am not a fan of visualizing leaving this earth, I am a fan of living. And to live, I think, is to have some sort of plan, a set of guidelines that you would follow in order to make sure all your needs and the needs of others are met before your departure. This is why I made a “Life List” rather than the tired old bucket list, rather than ‘before you die,’ I see it as more of a ‘how much can you live’ list.

Blog #1: "Me By the Numbers"

            I have never held numbers to any real important significance to me outside of my various math classes. However, these are a few instances of numbers which have value to me as a person.

Numbers are cool, but what are the real uses of such?

            The first number that has impacted me would be the number 2. This number is important to me on two fronts. Firstly, on its relevance to my brother and I always being the pair to take on the world. We were the “2 Dailey boys,” just as willing to cause some mischief or be the extra help needed in everyday house chores and bigger jobs like mowing the 4 acres of land our grandparents owned. Whenever times were really up in the air, knowing that I had a brother to back me up, and me to him is one of the most comforting and closest-held thought to my whole being.

While this is not a picture as I do not have one on hand,
but this is similar to the type of pictures we would take as tots.

            This number gained more significance in 3^rd grade, where my younger sister came into the world, now not only did I have a younger brother a few years apart from my own age, but a small baby sister from which to share my wisdom and dumb puns with. I can remember being frightened by the new task of having to partially help raise this small girl, I did not really know what I was up against. My brother and I got along so well, (and not so well at times) as a result of being close enough in age, this in turn and also being guys, we liked the same things. I did not know how to be a big brother to a little sister, but I am eternally grateful to be that person for her. These 2 siblings are my best friends in the world and I would not trade them for anything. In fact, I can state hardheartedly that I would trade myself for them if it came down to it.

We aren't this close however.

            This number also has significance to me directly marked toward my own birth. I was born premature, the 2 being in that my weight was extremely small at 2 pounds 9 ounces. With the complications of my birth, it is a wonder as to my survival, as many others before me that would also be considered premature have had either medical disabilities or not at all, as t. As their small bodies were not developed enough to live outside the womb. The CDC even claims, “Preterm birth is the greatest contributor to infant death, with most preterm-related deaths occurring among babies who were born very preterm (before 32 weeks).” I was a lucky one. I would contribute my own life to that of my parents having the intuition to be around Grand Rapids during my expected arrival so that I would have the best chance at life. This best chance was given to me by the city, being the home of Spectrum Health, a hospital which specialized in ‘preemies,’ and to that of the various doctors and nurses who worked tirelessly to keep me breathing.

This is the the logo of the same hospital that I was born in.

            The next number I would mark significance to myself would be the number 67, this ties into my birth as 67 is a rather nice number in both my parent’s minds, it is after this day that I was given a good bill of health and was allowed to go home after spending the extra two months in and out of an incubator.

This child is not a picture of me at this age. Although this is a representation of
what I did look like at the time, granted my head was much bigger and bulbous.

Another number of note is that of the number 5, my birthday is September 5^th, specifically in the year 1997, this happened to be Labor day, it is a little ironic on the grounds that my mother was in “labor” during this day meant to recognize laborers themselves (but when you think about it, aren’t mothers some of the hardest-working, yet under-appreciated laborers out there?).

We should probably have more of these holidays

This number, well more specifically in terms of my birthday is important to me because it is always when school seemed to start up again. So I can recall in my youth, always being excited for my birthday coming up only to be reminded that around the corner was a new year of school, which in it of itself I suppose I was excited for, but I couldn’t let my parents know that after all, what sane kid likes school? 

I can remember when I was like this girl

just about every day when i returned from school.

This is not my graduation class, but these are the very same
class colors of my high school back home.

A final number that has impacted me would be that of the number 12, this number signifies the 12^th grade of school that I managed to survive and move on to college. Walking across the stage to receive my diploma was and still is one of the happiest moments I have been in my entire life. Knowing that I am one that has had so many others behind me in my corner and lifting me up to that point is really, really nice. I am never alone in this life, and that is beautiful.

Just like this number tree.

 To end, I understand in which ways numbers can be interpreted as important things to remember. While I am one to think of moments before numbers, I now realize that at the same time, you must think of dates, times, etc. Numbers are all around us and will continue to be forever, it is just put onto us to have to intuition to know when to count!

 

test is success

test.