Edgar Allen Poe

            Many authors in the vast history of our literature have used many different ways to make us realize things about ourselves. Many different types of stories teach us many different things. Authors like Edgar Allen Poe have shown us how dark our thoughts actually go. Also authors like Shirley Jackson make us believe that there is a form of craziness to some extent in all of us. Through many stories authors like them have opened our eyes up to how human kind has their own fears and repressed thoughts that would sound crazy if heard by anyone else. This is shown very well in a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe called "The Tell-Tale Heart". We see inner madness brought to the surface because of repressed fears the narrator has. In the same aspect when we read the short story "The Lottery", written by Shirley Jackson, we see this inner madness brought out because antics of a group along with this group's need for ritual. Authors like Poe and Jackson show us great realism when they write about how dark and deep our thoughts really go. These deep dark thoughts also coincide with our similar thoughts in present day. In these two strange tales of terror and tragedy, there are four main aspects that lead to why these events are caused. The first aspect that leads to this is repressed fear. Repressed fear also relates to and cuases the second aspect of the four which is inner madness. This inner madness is brought the the surface because of the antics of a group. The last of the four is simply rituals. .
             First I will talk about the repressed fear that each and every one of us have today. The thought of repressed fear closely relates to the fear human kind had back when Poe wrote "The Tell-Tale Heart". The repressed fear the narrator has is caused by the watchful eye of the old man. Poe shows us how repulsed the narrator is by the old man's eye. He thinks the "evil eye", as he refers to it, will see the real person he has become.