Respond to the two students’ posts

Student One:

Edgar Allen Poe is undoubtfully one of the best poets. He can use language to set a theme and tone. In The Tell-Tale Heart Poe’s dialog is what makes the story even more intriguing. The narrator is obviously going psychotic and is franticly talking and describing the situation he is in. “It’s true! Yes, I have been Ill…” As you can tell he is going crazy if you were to word it differently it could make it seem like he is just talking. As the story progress his dialog gets more paranoid and finally he gives in and confesses. “No! They heard! I was certain of it. They knew! Now it was they who were playing a game with me.” This is how Poe gets his audience engaged in the story as well as setting the tone for his stories.
In the Yellow Wallpaper, there are many symbolic references that can be interpreted. One interpretation can be that women in early America rarely left the house. “I’ve got out at last…despite you and Jane.” Another symbol can be that women were tired of being dominated by males and wanted to have more freedom. With these symbols in mind it can affect the way you read the story. After the birth of her child and the lack of outside contact, the main character starts to go insane. At the end of the story she believes she has become “one of the woman behind the walls” as refuses to leave the room walking in circles. She even walks over her husbands fainted body. These symbols really affect the way one can read the story.
Student Two:

(Question Set One) Discuss point of view in “A Rose for Emily”: What kind of narrator do we have? How can you tell? Is the narrator directly involved with the action? Is the narrator the protagonist? Is the narrator a man or a woman? Is the narrator reliable? Why or why not?
The narrator in “A Rose for Emily” is multi-faceted. The narrator in this story is sometimes the men of Jefferson, sometimes the women, and sometimes both. The use of the word “we” when talking to the reader helps the reader to understand that the narrator is a group of people instead of just a single person. For example, when the narrator says “Already we knew that there was one room…, which shows the multifaceted narrator. The narrator does not play an active part in the story but instead acts as the collective voice of the townspeople. Later on in the story, the narrator begins to use the pronoun “they” instead of using the word “we,” as the narrator distances himself from the action in this part of the story. In this way, the reader cannot rely on what the narrator says because he obviously feels a sense of guilt at this point, which takes away from his credibility of the story.
(Question Set Three) Poe was a master manipulator of the English language; he used dialog, in particular, to achieve a particular effect. How is this evident in “The Tale-Tell Heart”? What tone does it set for the story? How does it affect how the story is read?
In “The Tell-Tale Heart” Edgar Allan Poe uses the dialogue spoken by the narrator to create suspense within the story. While the narrator is in the old man’s room, the narrator is thinking, “But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst”. The narrator feels that the heart must soon explode and this cause the reader to feel the tension. The reader then wonders what will happen once the tension bursts, which builds anticipation as the reader waits to see what will happen next. Another way Poe uses dialogue to build suspense is after the narrator killed the old man and the police are in the house. The narrator states that “It grew louder-louder-louder! And still, the man chatted pleasantly and smiled”. The repetition of the dialogue builds suspense and tells us that something is about to happen. The anticipation of what is to come leaves the reader on the edge and causes the reader to wonder what the narrator will do next as the suspension reaches a climax.The narrator’s tone is arrogant. He is excitable because he is mentally unstable.