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On Edgar Allan Poe


I reread Edgar Allan Poe’s story “Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Black Cat”. I also read the poem “Annabelle Lee”, which is a poem I’ve had to read several times in different English classes throughout my academic career. Edgar Allan Poe, from my observation, develops quite a reputation among secondary students. Some students hate him, others love him. I, for one, really admire and enjoy Poe’s works both on an intellectual level and on a pleasurable reading level. I can see how some students and English students don’t like him. It is very aggressive, suggestive work that can be on one hand hard to understand and also very uncomfortable. But the importance of his work is hard to ignore. Which is why I like “Rue Morgue” so much. Historically, it is one of, if not the first, existence of the “detective” story. Poe crafts stories that are able to hide information from the reader and also reveal much at the same time.

His poetry is just as suggestive and dark, providing images and ideas that resonate with everyone on some form. I think that’s what is so appealing to readers about Edgar Allan Poe. His ability to tap into the deepest secrets within all of us (the ‘perversity’ as he calls it) shines a mirror onto all of us – sometimes of images we’d rather not see. But it is important to allow students to grapple with darker material like this. We must allow students to encounter the complexities of the human mind. Because in their lives they will encounter situations, concepts, stories, and more that challenge them and force them to deal with such essential questions about the darkness of the mind. Reaching into such depths, however impossible to understand, gives students the skills and abilities to think reflectively on themselves and the capability of literature.

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