Journal #25 - Fear

Fear is different for every person. To some, fear might come in the form of a really tall building or even a spider to others. Fear is an emotion that most people do not enjoy, and it is rightfully so. Fear can be associated with scary things, death or even uncertainty.

The Pit and the Pendulum Analysis

The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe has quite a fitting title. The short story begins in what is most likely somewhere in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition. Initiated by Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spanish Inquisition includes the torture of Jews and Muslims who would not convert to Catholicism (Ferdinand). The main character, and narrator who is not named through out the short story, begins describing his inevitable hearing in a court room, in front of "robed judges" (Pit 263). He comments on how he is so scared that he can barely understand what they are saying to him. While waiting for their ruling, he, for some reason, thinks about forms of torture that may be coming to him after the judge's decision (Pit 263). The decision is finally made, and the judges leave. When the narrator finally regains some form of consciousness after fainting from extreme emotion, he doesn't immediately recognize his state of being. The narrator cannot figure out if he is dead, or if he is still alive but consumed by darkness. This is creates a very scary situation that Poe uses to portray his Dark Romanticism writing style characteristics, which he does very often. The narrator has seemed to be mentally alive, but physically dead. The fact that he is aware of this is a very frightening concept, leading the style back to Dark Romanticism characteristics.

When the narrator finally realizes that he is not dead, he begins to feel around to figure out where he is. He describes that the floors are covered in slime, and he even falls to find his head suspended over a seemingly bottomless pit (Pit 267). The narrator realizes that he just escaped death by falling just a few inches from the pit, which he has decided is his impending doom. After he sleeps for a while longer, he awakes and sees a pitcher of water and a loaf of bread next to him. He can't help himself, and after drinking the pitcher of water, he passes out again. It must have been drugged (Pit 267). The narrator finds himself bound to wood with a blade suspended above his head. After imagining his death once more, this time in a different way, he notices that the blade has lowered towards him. He also notices that there are giant rats near him. When the blade reaches only 3 inches from his body, the narrator finally "thinks" for the first time in days. (Pit 271). Thinking that the blade will surely cut his bandages before his body, he creates a plan and escapes from his impending doom, once again. As soon as the narrator realized that he was free, he also realized that the figures on the walls were very pronounced (Pit 273). The temperature began to rise, and the narrator found himself in another death situation. The temperature became so hot, but finally the sound of trumpets burst in and the narrator was saved from death (Pit 273).

The Dark Romanticism side of this short story is a mental and psychological game. The narrator faces through out the story choices of death. He is basically forced to choose his own death, which is such a terrible and stressful thing to have to deal with. Not only is he going to die, but he has to decide how it is done. Through out the story, the narrator is faced with near death experiences, and immediately after he escapes one death, another is thrust into his life. The happy ending of the story seems to be happy, but it really just adds to the psychological distress put on the man. He was so prepared to die that he was going to thrust himself into a bottomless pit, but at the last second he is saved. The emotional toll put on the narrator wold have been so great, and he even though he wasn't killed, he still endured cruel and sick torture.

"Ferdinand V." American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE52&iPin=lbio0049&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 19, 2012).

Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 261-277.  Print

Journal #24 - Spooky Event

I don't get scared. That is a very false statement. I really get scared all of the time, and I'm not one of those types of people who say that they like being scared. Let's be honest, no one really likes to be scared. There is nothing fun about being scared. It is just uncomfortable and not appealing. Every time I watch a scary movie, I'm always scared when I go to bed that night. I have no idea why I continue to watch scary movies, but for whatever reason I continue to do so.

The Raven - Analysis

Edgar Allan Poe was a very well known Dark Romanticism writer, and one of his very famous poems is "The Raven." Poe used many different techniques to make the poem feel very scary, giving it characteristics of Dark Romanticism writing. There are many different broad themes throughout the poem that help contribute to the "scary" aspect of the poem. A very profound theme is madness. The main character in the poem talks to a bird. Just that fact alone makes him sound like a crazy person. Since the poem is supposed to be an eerie story, it makes the reader wonder, is the bird really talking? Is there really a bird at all? Just those few aspects make the poem seem scary to the reader, bringing it closer to Dark Romanticism. This poem, much like one of Poe's other poems, contains the mention of a lost love. "And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!' This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'" (Poe 28-29). Poe, while using what is usually a happy aspect of life, uses a very depressing look on love. The main character in the poem really wants to be back with the one woman he loved, but that is something that he simply cannot have. Poe used that same technique in his poem "Anabel Lee."

Poe sets the setting of the poem saying that it is late at night and he is falling asleep by the fire. He even says that the embers of the fire form a ghost on the floor as he nods off to sleep. He then says how he is woken by a tapping at the door, but he decides that it is only a late friend (Poe 1-8). The man calls out to the "visitor" at the door, asking who is at the door. "So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating `'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door" (Poe 15-16). Poe creates a scary mood by describing how the man's heart is beating. Poe wrote almost 2 stanzas just leading up to the man opening the door, and when he finally does, there is no one there (Poe 13-24). That also helped to create a scary mood over the poem.

A few stanzas later, the main character finally encounters the title of the poem, the raven. When he sees it, the raven is "Perched upon a bust of Pallas" (Poe 41) which is another name for the Greek Goddess Athena. Athena is mainly known as the goddess of wisdom, which signifies that the raven will be knowledgeable. The main character asks the raven a series of questions, but the raven answers each one with the word "nevermore." As the questions get more personal, the man slowly loses contact with reality, and breaks down. He finally tells the raven to leave and come back to where it came from, and the raven replied "nevermore" (Poe 101-102). The poem ends with the main character repeating that the raven is still sitting on his statue, and that it will never leave.

Poe, Edgar A. "Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven." Heise Online | IT-News, C't, IX, Technology Review, Telepolis. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html>.

Journal #23 - Scary Stuff

There are many different things that make a movie or story scary. Personally, I find movies to be more scary than scary stories, but there are a few stories that can scare me. The first, and probably most important, aspect of any scary story or movie is the ability of the reader/watcher to relate to the characters in the story. Many scary movies set the plot up with a person being home alone. There are many times that I am home alone, and it is hard not to think of those types of movies. A very detailed plot that has a lot of room for expansion is also a technique that scary movies use to scare the watcher. If a person watches a movie and later thinks about it, their mind may wonder and they could start thinking that the movie could be true. Another important factor to anything scary is the possibility that it may be real. Stories or movies that could be real are always scarier. An obvious characteristic that I forget to mention is suspense. Suspense is key, especially in poetry. It is much more difficult to create suspense in literature than it is in a movie, but Poe, as an example, was excellent at it. He used great detail to make the reader feel great suspense.

Journal #22 - Sledding Poem

Sledding is such an easy thing to do,

The only thing needed to go is you

Well, you might also need a sled that's thin,

And a cheerful, happy, smiling grin
The weather will have to be very cold,
Many will come, no matter young or old
The best place to go is a hill that's tall,
Make sure to be careful so you don't fall
Climbing to the top is the hardest part,
Kids wear good shoes, but only if they are smart
At the tip-top of the hill, looking down,
Some of the children might begin to frown
It might be very intimidating,
The feeling will be exhilarating
The wind will be rushing around their heads,
 It's possible their cheeks will become red
Falling off the sled is always a risk,
If it happens, you might slip a back disk
That simply won't happen because you're safe,
If you don't watch out, you'll end in a cafe
The moral of this poem is simple,
When on a red sled, sit in the middle
This poem was a waste of your good time,
Simply because of my super lame rhymes

Journal #21 - A Snowy Scene

Since I live in Illinois, I do not know what a snow covered field would look like. If I was to witness such a sight, I can imagine that it would be beautiful. The snow would caress the curves of the hilltop, like a sheep's wool covers its body. There would be silver sparkles, glistening in the sunlight over the fresh blanket of snow. A brown, crumpled leaf may blow across the field, and run along in the meadow, and a late bird would chase it across the glistening field. That same white snow would lay in a thin layer over all of the pine trees that still bear their needles. It would not find refuge on the dead deciduous trees that had lost their leaves many months before. A simple deer would walk across the scene, leaving simple hoof prints in the fresh blanket of snow. She would bounce across the meadow, scampering like a chipmunk up a tree.  But then, a deafening noise would fill the valley. The sound of running children fills the deer's heart with angst, and it runs off. The noise gets increasingly louder, until suddenly 3 children are in plain view. They are happily running and playing in the snow, just as any child would. They bound through the snow and leave wide tracks from where they push the snow aside, to form a fortress of solitude. As they laugh, they continue to pack snow into balls and throw them at each other, not knowing that they are disturbing such a beautiful winter scene. As night begins to fall, the children go running back to their homes, the sound of their worried mothers rings throughout the field. When the children finally leave, that same, lonely deer returns to the scene, to inspect the damage done by the kids. The snow is all packed together in walls, nothing like it was when it was freshly sprinkled across the field. It is no matter, because a few tiny flakes begin to fall from the sky, and it is obvious that the next morning that very same valley will be covered with a fresh layer of snow for the children to come and create their own version of a winter wonderland.