Solemio

INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE.

The objective of this unit is that you write about plot, climax, narrative point of view, characters, setting, mood, irony and theme.
It is also important that when you write essays, you support your interpretations with references and citations(quotes)

UNDERSTANDING THE PLOT:
The plot is the series of events in a story. These events traditionally take placeaccording to this pattern:
1. Introduction of the conflict: the presentation of the conflict. The conflict can be characters struggling with themselves, others, or an outside force like nature.
2. Rising action: the events that occur before the climax. During the rising action, the conflict becomes worse and leads to a climax.
3. Climax: the turning point, or emotional high point for thecharacter(s) in the story. The climax is the most intense moment of the story-where action reaches its peak.
4. Falling action: the events that occur after the climax. During the falling action, the events show how the conflict will be resolved.
5. Resolution: the consequences or results of the conflict.

Biography:

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is one of the world’s greatest shortstory writers. He is considered the inventor of the detective story, for example “The Purloined letter” and ”The Murders of the Rue Morgue”. He also wrote tales of suspense and terror such as this story. Poe had a tragic life. His parents died when he was two years old. He was raised, but never officially adopted, by a wealthy merchant named John Allan, who never understood him. Poe’s beloved wife,Virginia Clemm, died very young. Poe himself died at 40, a victim of poverty, alcoholism, and some say a brain tumor.

|“The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe |
|“True! - nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my ||senses - not destroyed - not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth.|
|I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily - how calmly I can tell you the whole story.” |


1. Predicting and free writing
This is the first paragraph of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Whatis the narrator(storyteller) saying to the reader in this first paragraph? What do you think the story is going to be about?
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|It is impossible to say how first the idea enteredmy brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. |
|Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I |
|think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture - a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, |
|my blood ran cold; and so by degrees- very gradually - I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the |
|eye forever. |
|Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded|
|- with what caution -with what foresight - with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the |
|whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the lock of his door and opened it - oh so gently! And then,|
|when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out, and then I|
|thrust...