Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Cat Human Beings are animals that make meaning, and literature is an artifact of the meanings. ... This tale of “The Black Cat” is no different. Edgar Allan Poe is a wonderful writer and poet. ... “The Black Cat” is one of the most powerful of Poe’s stories, because of the story’s shocking disgust. In the story, alcoholism and the main character’s black cat bring out the main character’s diabolism. Poe shows an encounter with the evil that lies in everyone using the main character, his poor unsuspecting animals, and wife. ... Poe writes this story, and many others, from the first person point of view, which invites the reader into the story. ... Poe wrote this story in a way that the tale remains somewhat unclear. ... The first mention of the black cat in the short story is when the main character’s wife noticed his love for animals and "lost no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind", which includes a black cat. In the beginning, the main character describes the cat as a "large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to a degree.” When he describes the cat in this way, the main character gives a picture of the cat as an everyday ordinary pet. Even though some people may have the superstitious belief that a black cat might be a witch, which his wife said when she "made frequent allusions to the ancient popular notion", the main character tries his best to show this is a normal cat like any other. He alone feeds and looks after the cat, who follows the main character wherever he goes. This cat is his favorite pet, and the cat loves him equally. ... The cat’s name, Pluto, is symbolic in two ways. ... By naming the cat Pluto, the main character connects the animal to something from the underworld. ... Guilt about his alcoholism seems to be the "perverseness" which causes him to kill the first cat.